Beijing in post-Christmas crackdown

Intercessors Network, an e-mail news service, reported that the Chinese government has cracked down on house churches in Beijing since Christmas, according to a monitor of the Chinese church, China Aid Association. Among the churches targeted was a well-known congregation in Beijing raided by Public Security Bureau agents the past two Sundays. Several eyewitness said two uniformed policemen and two plainclothes agents rushed into the rented apartment where the Beijing Ark House Church was meeting, declaring the church was disturbing the neighbors. Another officer, identified as Gao Xijun, told the congregation they were at an “illegal religious gathering place” because it’s not registered according to State Council Regulations on Religious Affairs.

 

The witnesses said a plainclothes officer, after noticing that the raid had been videotaped, beat a member of the church. A founder of the church, Yu Jie – a best-selling author and internationally known commentator – said many members are prominent writers and lawyers, including freelance writer Bei Cun, Professor. Jiao Guobiao of Beijing University and human rights defense lawyers Li Baiguang and Gao Zhisheng. Yu said he can't let the church continue to worship at the apartment because the “pressure [from authorities] is already very heavy.”

 

China Aid reported several other house churches have been raided in Beijing recently. Just after Christmas, Jin Tianming, pastor of at least nine house churches in Haidian District, was detained and questioned at a police station overnight. Dozens of other leaders in his church also were questioned. According to a reliable source, Jin’s church had been negotiating with the government to register with the government. But the Public Security Bureau denied the request because Jin insisted his congregations must not be part of the government-controlled Three-Self Patriotic Movement, or TSPM. All Protestant churches in the communist nation are required to be under the TSPM, which has put restrictions on the theology and practice of congregations to varying degrees throughout the country.

 

China Aid said a house church of 40 worshippers in Dayinjia Village in Jilin Province was raided Jan. 4. Five officials from the PSB and Religious Affairs office posted a government seal and declared the gathering “illegal.” The officials ordered the congregation to move to a TSPM church. The pastor, Cui Guojun, 40, was released after a three-hour interrogation at a local PSB bureau.

China Aid also learned the mother of jailed pastor Cai Zhuohua was denied the right to meet him Jan. 9. The director of Qinghe Detention Center told Cai’s mother the PSB made that decision because her son's case was posted on the Internet and his defense lawyers are all “counter revolutionaries.”
 

China Aid also said five detained church leaders in Ma Na Si County, Xinjiang Autonomous Region were released Jan. 8 under intensive international pressure.