China Deports 10 Foreign Church Leaders, Detains 140 Chinese Church Leaders
At least 10 foreign evangelical church leaders were detained and later deported by the Chinese authorities on Friday, Feb. 25
At least 10 foreign evangelical church leaders including 8 Americans, one Taiwanese and an unknown number of South Koreans were detained and later deported by the Chinese authorities on Feb. 25, according to field investigators for a Texas-based persecution watchdog group.
The China Aid Association (CAA), which monitors religious freedom in China, reported today that at around 11 a.m. on Feb. 24, over 100 Chinese security officers from five different government agencies raided an office building used as a temporary house church leadership training site in the suburb of Harbin city—the capital of Heilongjiang province and one of the major cities in northeastern China.
One Chinese pastor who was at the scene when the incident happened told the CAA that about 140 Chinese house church leaders from 7-8 provinces were attending church fellowship training with these "brothers and sisters in Christ from other countries."
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CAA reports that the director of the Public Security Bureau of Heilongjiang province directly orchestrated the raid and carried it out jointly by the officers from the provincial public security, national security, foreign affairs office, religious affairs bureau and military police office.
After the raid, all foreigners were reportedly interrogated separately in the office building and a nearby transportation police station with interpreters of their respective languages. Following 13 hours of detention and marathon interrogation, at about 1 a.m. on Feb. 25, all the foreigners were ordered to leave in 3-5 days. Among the deported were well-known American church leaders Rev. Dr. Brad Long and Rev. John Chang. Long, a minister with the Presbyterian Church (USA), is the executive Director of Presbyterian Reformed Ministries International—a North Carolina-based Christian training ministry. Chang, who recently retired as president of the general assembly of Reformed Church in America (RCA), is the senior pastor of the Grace Christian Church in Flushing, NY City. Also expelled at the same time were well-known Taiwanese church leader Rev. Lin Yuyuan and two other Chinese-speaking Korean Americans. It is believed that all of the deported Americans have returned home by Mar. 1, 2005.
As for the 140 Chinese house church pastors that were detained and interrogated, CAA reports that they were released at about 2 a.m., after they gave their home addresses and House Church affiliations with finger prints. According to a reliable source, the PSB confiscated about 20,000 RMB (US $2500) cash along with the cell phones owned by the Chinese pastors.
News of the raid comes only one day after China implemented new regulations that the government says will protect freedom of faith. While the guidelines, which took effect yesterday, are meant to give a legal framework for China’s constitutional promise of freedom of religion, critics contend that the broad guidelines could instead be used to persecute religious groups deemed troublesome by authorities.
"To disrupt a normal Christian fellowship meeting and to detain and deport the participants of the same faith from other countries is certainly contrary to the government's claim to guarantee religious freedom in China", said Bob Fu, CAA's president.
Sources say the China Government tries to control and regulate religious groups to prevent the rise of groups that could constitute sources of authority outside of the control of the Government and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
