China detains two leaders of influential underground church
An influential Protestant church in China has said two of its leaders were detained after more than dozens of congregants, including children, were rounded up for interrogation. They were midway through Sunday service in the south-western city of Jiangyou, when armed police offi
An influential Protestant church in China has said two of its leaders were detained after more than dozens of congregants, including children, were rounded up for interrogation.
They were midway through Sunday service in the south-western city of Jiangyou, when armed police officers stormed the room they were in, Early Rain Covenant said in a statement on Monday.
Founded in 2008 in Chengdu city, the church has long been on the Chinese Communist Party's radar given how religion is tightly controlled in the region.
Founding pastor Wang Yi was detained in a raid in December 2018 and is serving a nine-year jail term for "inciting subversion of state power" and "illegal business operations".
The grounds for detaining two of its leaders, Yan Hong and Wu Wuqing, on Sunday are still unclear, the church said in its statement posted on Telegram. Chinese authorities have not responded to the statement, or made any comment so far.
The church also shared photographs and videos that show the congregants, seated in a hotel ballroom surrounded by a team of SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactical Unit) officers.
At least 50 police officers were present during the raid at 11:00 local time, according to some members' estimates.
More than 30 members and leaders were "forcibly taken away in several police vehicles" and questioned in the Jiangyou detention centre, the church said. Throughout the process, they "fellowshipped, sang hymns, and prayed until most of them were released," it added.
