Jeremy Reynalds: Coordinated crackdown on some of China’s house churches

Posted by Liu Yong | Jun 12, 2005

Reports are emerging that there has been a coordinated crackdown on Christian believers attending house churches in China’s Jilin Province.

According to a news release from the China Aid Association (CAA), the crackdown occurred at about 5 a.m. on May 22, while house church leader Zhao Dianru, 58, was praying at his home. About a dozen Chinese police and public security officials raided and searched his house without showing a search warrant…

Meanwhile, according to CAA, police and Public Security Bureau (PSB) officers simultaneously raided about 100 house churches in Changchun area, the capital city of Jilin Province in northeastern China.

Almost 600 house church believers and leaders were taken into custody, CAA reported. Most were released after 24 to 48 hours of interrogation, but about 100 of the leaders including professors from Changchun University are reportedly still being held in different detention centers.