Were You Arrested for going to Church This Morning?

. Were You Arrested for going to Church This Morning?
Posted by: "Robert" rybarkley
Sun Apr 10, 2011 7:30 am (PDT)



Beijing police halt unapproved church service

BEIJING – Beijing police on Sunday detained dozens of worshippers
from an unapproved Christian church who were trying to hold services in
a public space after they were evicted from their usual place of
worship, a parishioner said.

Leaders of the unregistered Shouwang church had told members to gather
at an open-air venue in Beijing for Sunday morning services, but police,
apparently alerted to their plans, taped off the area and took away
people who showed up to take part.

China's Communist government allows worship only in state-approved
churches, but many Christians belong to unregistered congregations. Such
"house churches" are subjected to varying degrees of harassment by
authorities.

More than 60 million Christians are believed to worship in China's
independent churches, compared with about 20 million who worship in the
state church, according to scholars and church activists.

A church member who went to the gathering spot for services and managed
to evade police told The Associated Press that about 200 people were
taken away and were being held at a local school. Their cellphones were
confiscated, said the man, who would give only his English name, Kane,
for fear of police reprisals.

An AP videographer saw about a dozen people escorted by police onto an
empty city bus and driven away.

Shouwang pastor Yuan Ling said by telephone that he was unable to go to
the venue because police had put him under house arrest Saturday night.
Yuan said he knew of at least six other church members who were also
under house arrest.

Yuan said fellow parishioners also told him that many worshippers were
being held at a school in Beijing's Haidian district, though he wasn't
sure of the exact number.

Shouwang had been holding services at a Beijing restaurant until last
week, when they were evicted.

Chinese authorities have been on high alert for large public gatherings
in the wake of anonymous online calls for anti-government protests
modeled on demonstrations in the Middle East and North Africa.

No major protests have occurred in China following the calls, but the
security crackdown they sparked has resulted in the arrest or detention
of dozens of public interest lawyers, writers, intellectuals and
activists.

Ai Weiwei, an internationally known avant-garde artist who is also an
outspoken government critic, became the highest-profile person targeted
in the sweep when he was apparently detained at a Beijing airport a week
ago. The Foreign Ministry says he is being investigated for alleged
economic crimes,

though Beijing police have yet to confirm he is in custody.

Ai was last seen being led away by police at the airport after being
barred from boarding a flight to Hong Kong.

About 50 pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong on Sunday demanded Ai's
release, peacefully chanting "No to political persecution" outside the
central Chinese government's liaison office. Opposition legislator Lee
Cheuk-yan tossed a picture of Ai into the grounds of the compound.

Former British colony Hong Kong enjoys Western-style civil liberties as
part of its special semiautonomous status under Chinese rule.

On Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called for
Ai's release and criticized China for what she said was a deteriorating
human rights situation in the first part of 2011.

Clinton made the remarks while announcing the release of the U.S. State
Department's annual assessment of human rights around the world. It said
China stepped up restrictions on critics and tightened control of civil
society in 2010 by limiting freedom of speech and Internet access.

China blasted back at Washington on Saturday with a statement on the
Foreign Ministry's website saying the U.S. should reflect more on its
own domestic rights abuses.

"The U.S. should stop interfering in other country's internal affairs
with this human rights report," ministry spokesman Hong Lei was quoted
as saying.___

Associated Press videographer David Wivell in Beijing and AP writer Min
Lee in Hong Kong contributed to this report.