Four key leaders of China’s house church movement have been sentenced to two years “re-education through labor” in the central-western province of Sichuan, fellow believers confirmed Thursday, July 27.
There were fears Tuesday, July 25, that four key leaders of a house church movement in China’s central-western province of Sichuan were sent to a hard labor camp following their detention late last month.
Chinese police forces raided a house church in Hubei province Friday, July 21, and detained over 20 Christians, fellow believers said.
A prominent leader of a house church in China’s Jilin province was still in jail Saturday, July 15, after she was detained along with her husband and small child earlier this week, fellow believers said.
Three leaders of a controversial religious group were awaiting their execution Friday, July 7, and one house church pastor continued serving a seven and a half years prison term for his Christian activities, co-workers and a religious rights group said.
Chinese officials have expressed “strong dissatisfaction” with a resolution passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on June 12 condemning rising persecution of religious believers in China.
Chinese Security forces arrested at least almost 2000 Chinese Christians, including house church pastors, within a period of one year, and many were tortured, a report released Monday, June 26, shows.
A well-known disabled Chinese ‘house church’ leader has been detained on charges of “illegally printing and distributing Bibles and other Christian literature,” church sources confirmed Thursday, June 15.
Human rights officials in Europe and the United States expressed concern Wednesday, May 3, over the persecution of Christians in the former Soviet republic of Uzbekistan, nearly a year after hundreds of people died when security forces opened fire on pro-democracy demonstrators.
When Chinese house church historian Zhang Yinan applied for a passport in order to attend a prayer breakfast in Washington this month, police immediately surrounded his house and even followed his wife to the hospital where she works as a nurse.
A prominent Christian rights activist who was recently released last month after spending two years in jail, was under strict secret service surveillance Tuesday, February 14, as part of efforts by the authorities to monitor his activities, a watchdog said.
Prosecuted Chinese house churches on Saturday, January 21, were expecting more legal support after a group of top Chinese lawyers and legal scholars announced the establishment of an association dedicated to defending Chinese Christians.
As Christmas approaches, Chinese security forces have reportedly arrested dozens of leaders of the rapidly growing house churches, BosNewsLife learned Tuesday, December 13.
An influential house church leader who was reportedly kidnapped along with his son by Chinese security forces was released Monday, November 21, just hours after American President George W. Bush left China, a religious rights group said.
Beijing authorities on November 4 ordered a Chinese legal firm to suspend activities for a year, hours after top lawyer Gao Zhisheng filed court documents in defense of Pastor Cai Zhuohua.
Pastor Cai was abducted from a bus stop and dragged into a van by three plain-clothed State Security officers on September 11 2004. According to a former fellow inmate, Pastor Cai was repeatedly tortured with electric shocks and forced to give false confessions to serious charges.
China’s government has ordered a top law firm in Beijing to close for one year because of its involvement in defending Christians, including house church leaders, and other religious minorities, a religious rights watchdog said.
The leader of six house churches in China’s capital Beijing, who was detained by security officers last year, is held at a detention facility where he is forced to carry out hard labor, human rights investigators said Friday, October 28.
The China Aid Association learned that as of October 21, 2005 at 7:30am, following more than 25 hours of house arrest, all of the nearly 50 arrested house church leaders were released.
Chinese police raided the house of a prominent Christian activist in Beijing shortly after other security forces first tortured and than expelled a Christian businessman from the hospital where he was treated for his wounds, church sources said Monday, September 10.