by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) - A Christian family from China has obtained political asylum in the US after the Chinese Communist Party raided their local church and subjected them to months of harassment and interrogation, International Christian Concern reports. The Ruiting family of six were helped to the US by the nonprofit ChinaAid and the Taiwan Association for China Human Rights.
The Ruiting family belonged to the Early Rain Covenant Church (ERCC) in China, ICC said. On December 9, 2018, Chinese government authorities raided the church and detained hundreds of Christians who attended there.
Following the raid, Ren Ruiting, her husband, her parents, and her two young brothers were among members of the church who experienced continued persecution by the government. The family was constantly monitored and taken for interrogation, and authorities threatened to remove Ms. Ren’s legally adopted five-year-old brother, Jiawan, from her parent's custody.
In order to protect Jiawan, the family managed to escape to Taiwan in 2019, ICC said. They lived here for two years and were cared for by the Presbyterian Church while Jiawan received extensive chemotherapy treatment for a fibroma on his arm. Finally, on June 28, and with the help of the rights groups, the family left Taiwan for San Francisco in the US. They were greeted by the president of ChinaAid, Rev. Bob Fu, and hope to settle in Orlando, Florida.
Notably, the Ren family has not forgotten their fellow Christians who continue to be harassed and detained by the Chinese government. Upon their arrival at the airport, the family held up signs which read “Free Wang-Yi.” Pastor Wang Yi is the leader of ERCC: he was arrested on December 14, 2018, and sentenced to nine years in prison on fictitious charges, ICC reports.