Tuesday, October 11, 2005
By BosNewsLife News Center
BEIJING, CHINA (BosNewsLife)-- 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.
US-based religious rights group China Aid Association (CAA) said Christian activist Hua Huiqi was facing arrest "at any moment" Monday, September 10 as up to 8 men claiming to be from Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau "rushed into his home with a summon note."
Hua was reportedly accused of providing aid to a Christian women, identified as Sun Xiaodi, who was allegedly kidnapped by Chinese secret service agents on April 28, this year because of her activities for a house church in Gansu province.
WHEREABOUTS UNKNOWN
Her whereabouts are unknown. News of the latest raid came shortly after a well-known Christian businessman was expelled from a hospital where he was treated for a broken chest after being "tortured" by security forces, CAA claimed.
The expulsion over the weekend by security agents in the town of Kashgar in Xinjiang province came after he and his wife briefly went to both the office of the State Security and Public Security of asking them to investigate "the abuse of power and torture by his interrogators on September 28 for his house church activities," said CAA in a statement to BosNewsLife.
"The Xinjiang higher authority certainly needs to hold the torturers accountable if it is serious on its commitment of the rule of law, said CAA President Bob Fu, who fled to the United States after reportedly being persecuted for his church activities.
MIXED PICTURE
CAA said that elsewhere in China, the picture of Christian persecution is mixes with reports that under "intense international pressure the September-26-arrested pastor Ma Yinzhou of Sanmenxia city" was released on October 6, "while his son Mr. Ma Shulei is still being detained."
Another Christian, "Mr. Zhuo Tao received a three year re-education through labor with three-year probation recently," CAA reported. Zhuo was arrested on August 15 along with four American church leaders while they were having "a Christian fellowship with about 40 other house church believers," said CAA which has close contacts in the region.
CAA said all the arrested Americans were released the same day but "chose to be silent due to Chinese police’s warning." Zhuo Tao is a nephew of Peter Xu, the founder of Christian House church group known as the Born Again Movement. At least over 60 million over China's up to 80 million Christians are believed to attend the unofficial house churches, according to estimates. Human rights watchers say many of them are persecuted because they refuse to worship only in the Communist state-run official churches. China's government has denied human rights abuses, and says it only prosecutes "sects" deemed dangerous for society. (With BosNewsLife research and reports from China).
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