NANJING, China (BP)--Wide-ranging persecution of Chinese Christians has dashed hopes of greater religious freedom from the new law on religion that took effect March 1, according to a Compass Direct report recounting a wave of arrests in May, June and July.
The new Regulations on Religious Affairs encouraged Protestant and Catholic house churches to register with the relevant government body. Compass described younger house church leaders as being optimistic about the law, while an older generation of leaders -- those who survived the Cultural Revolution -- were suspicious of the government’s motives.
The arrests in recent months have cast further doubt on the government’s intent to improve religious liberty, Compass noted in its July 20 report.
Police surrounded an entire village in the Henan province in east-central China on June 24 during a leadership training program for house church pastors, and about 100 pastors from major cities in the province were arrested, according to the China Aid Association (CAA). Most were released the same day after questioning, but nine of them, including the leading pastor, Chen Dongming, were detained.
A month earlier, on May 24, police arrested three Christian women in another part of Henan province. Liu Lianying, Xue Haimiao and Zhang Xiulan were arrested while visiting a Christian leader, CAA reported; police held them for two days and brutally beat them, to the point where Lianying, 52, suffered a heart attack. ......
Police have also focused their attention on the unofficial Chinese Roman Catholic Church in recent months, Compass noted.
According to Asia News, members of an unregistered Catholic church in China’s Hebei province wrote a letter on June 8 exposing a wave of arrests ordered by their local religious affairs department.
The letter claimed that Bishop Jia Zhiguo, 70, was held in solitary confinement between the death of John Paul II on April 2 and the election of the new pope, Benedict XVI, on April 19 and that the bishop has since been arrested and taken to an unknown location.
Compass noted that the Chinese government refuses to accept the authority of the pope over the Chinese Catholic Church while, in turn, Bishop Jia Zhiguo and the majority of Hebei’s 1.5 million Catholics refuse to accept the state-controlled Catholic Patriotic Association.
The letter from Hebei Catholics also alleged that Wang Zhenguo, director of the local religious affairs department, threatened to blow up a planned new church, even though local villagers had a permit to build it.
Church members said provincial authorities had established a special “Catholic Church Unit” under the leadership of Deputy Provincial Governor Chen Xiyun for the sole purpose of crushing the Catholic Church in Hebei.
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