Category: China

Following a mob attack on a church in northeastern China and the demolition of their worship site last month, the government put officials on alert to use military force against churches to quell potential “unrest,” according to a leading advocacy group.

In the wee hours of Sept. 13 some 400 uniformed police and civilians bearing shovels, batons, bricks, iron hooks and other weapons beat members of the church who were sleeping at the nearly finished factory building used as a worship site.

China’s government has issued a secret directive to dismantle at least six major house churches in and outside the capital Beijing ahead of the upcoming 60th anniversary of Communist rule in the country, according to Christian right investigators.

China Aid Association President Bob Fu linked the events to the upcoming 60th anniversary of China’s Communist Party. However, “The upcoming 60th anniversary…is not cause for trampling on rights of peaceful citizens…” he added.

Cai had been detained about 14 months before he was convicted in November 2005. His pretrial detention appeared to have been counted toward his sentence.

Authorities in eastern China raided a vacation bible school organized by an unauthorized Protestant church group, detaining 10 people, an overseas monitoring group said Thursday.

Pop culture offerings in China these days run the gamut from Hollywood blockbusters to domestic versions of “American Idol,” but it is a book about the ancient sage Confucius that is causing all the buzz in the streets.

Police in China detained four US church leaders and a group of Chinese Christians after they held a religious gathering in the remote northwest region of Xinjiang, a rights group said Wednesday.

Chinese by the tens of millions shed decades of state-imposed atheism. The phenomenon has gained momentum so fast that it appears to have taken the government by surprise.