ChinaAid
January 9, 2010
HEBEI—On January 9, 2010, at around 10 am, officers from the local Bureau of Religious Affairs and Public Safety burst into a gathering of 40 Chinese Christians during a worship concert at the Handan Congtai Jinsiniao Club, robbing many of personal possessions. The worship concert was hosted by Lu Miaoyun, Xing Hongzhen, Liu Fengmei and Li Fengting, who are all local “Chinese House Church Alliance” leaders. The House Church leaders were detained and interrogated. Miaoyun was put into administrative detention for 5 days for “illegally gathering under the name of CHCA”.
While breaking up the worship concert, the director of the Hejin Bureau of Public Safety forced his way on the stage and said, “This is a place for entertainment; religious gathering is not allowed.” Police controlled the exits and commanded everybody to sign their names, addresses and phone numbers for identification. Some Christians were beaten by the police when caught taking pictures with their cell phones. The police took away the cell phones and deleted all the information. Police also confiscated sermon notes, cameras and a computer. The Congtai Bureau of Public Safety suspended some of the attendees driver licenses as punishment for coming to the worship concert. They threatened to punish more coworkers.In the aftermath of the police invasion, the Handan Congtai Jinsiniao Club suspended business.
View the Decision of Administrative Punishment and Note of Dissolution by the Chinese government HERE.
The break-up of the worship concert happened just one day after Handan officials disrupted a bible study and detained more than 30 CHCA leaders. (See the CAA press release)
CHCA and ChinaAid condemn the unjust Christian beatings by the Hejin Bureau of Religious Affairs and Congtai Bureau of Public Safety. We call on the international community to pray for the persecuted Christians, and urge the RAB officials to revoke the decision to detain sister Lu Miaoyun for five days. We further request that the officials issue a formal apology and return the church and members’ property as guaranteed by Chinese law.
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Rachel Ritchie, English Media Director
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Website: www.chinaaid.org
