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2.) Over 36 Arrested as Public Security Bureau Closes Christian School

    A house-church Bible school in Huaibei City, Anhui Province was stormed by China's Public Security Bureau, who arrested 36 members at 10:00 a.m. Beijing time on March 1, 2006. About 50 or 60 Chinese police in anti-riot squad uniforms, along with plain-clothes officers, showed up in more than ten police and anti-riot vehicles that surrounded the school, according to two eyewitness accounts given to The Voice of the Martyrs' ministry partner, China Aid Association. Armed with electric shock batons, police forces rounded up everyone from the trade and Bible school before illegally taking them into custody.

    Christian students receiving Bible training and learning sewing skills were taken from the premises with their teachers and house-church leaders. Four of the leaders managed to flee the raid. The 36 who were arrested are from different regions of China, including the provinces of Anhui, Shandong, Zhejiang, Hunan and Jiangsu, as well as from the city Beijing and the inner Mongolia area. Three of the arrested pastors were Liu Haiting, Liang Zhenjun and Joseph Wang.

    When the PSB attempted to videotape the school, its owner, Pastor Chu Huaiting, a renowned house-church leader and Vice President of the 300,000-strong Chinese House Church Alliance covering 21 provinces, insisted that proper search warrants and identification be presented, but they weren't. The PSB continued to seize some 10,000 copies of Christian literature including Bibles and 200 new blankets while they were being delivered to the pastor's house. During the raid, a school member called an emergency hotline, only to hear the officer receiving the call state that the police raid was a cooperative crackdown on illegal religious activities, orchestrated by China's provincial leaders.

    Three hours after the raid, at 1:00 p.m., PSB forces returned to Pastor Chu's house and arrested him. Just a few days before, on February 26, Pastor Chu was arrested while he was preaching at a house church in Jiangsu Province and detained for nine hours. Over the past several months, virtually all the Chinese House Church Alliance's leadership has been illegally interrogated or detained by the PSB.

    About this recent crackdown, Bob Fu, president of China Aid Association, stated, "These illegal mass arrests and detentions are a very disturbing indication of the deteriorating condition of religious freedom and civil liberties in China. We demand that the Chinese government honor their international obligations to respect and protect the religious freedoms and civil liberties of the Chinese citizens."

    Shortly after CAA called for the immediate release of the innocent Christian leaders and students, the 36 were released in the evening of the same day of the raid. However, the 10,000 copies of the unlawfully confiscated Christian literature were not returned. Instead, they were given to a political committee, which will rule whether or not they are "illegal literature."

Letters of protest and concern can be sent to the Chinese Embassy at:

Embassy of the People's Republic of China
2300 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20008
Tel: (202) 745-6743
Fax: (202) 588-0032 or (202) 745-7473
Director of Religious Affairs: (202) 328-2512

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