By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife
BEIJING, CHINA (BosNewsLife)– An evangelical church in China says it has received back a cross and other items that were confiscated by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
In published remarks, the Chengdu Early Rain Covenant Church in Sichuan Province said unidentified individuals “mysteriously returned” them on April 9.
Advocacy group ChinaAid, which is in close contact with the church, told BosNewsLife that a road-sweeping Christian obtained the items.
“Sister Zhang performed her duty sweeping the road in Pidu District when a yellow car stopped a few yards away from her. She paused to watch two people remove several items from the car and leave them on the side of the road,” the group said.
RFA
Authorities in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan have made another raid on the Early Rain Covenant Church in the provincial capital, Chengdu, RFA has learned.
Seven church members and 12 children were taken away by police following a raid on a study session run by the church at around 10.30 a.m. local time on Wednesday.
All 19 were taken to the local police station for questioning, church member Joseph Pan told RFA in an interview on Thursday. Police from the Yongningjie police station in Wenjiang district took a group of children of church members to the police station, where they held them in the absence of their parents, Pan said.
A Chinese Catholic woman prays at the government-sanctioned Xishiku Catholic Church on August 14, 2014, in Beijing, China. | Getty Images/Kevin Frayer
Christians in at least one province of China are being held in secretive, mobile brainwashing camps to pressure them to renounce their faith which appears to be part of a planned clampdown on illegal social organizations, including house churches, according to reports.
A Christian in the southwestern province of Sichuan, who was held captive for 10 months “in some basement somewhere” in a windowless camp run by the ruling Chinese Communist Party, shared his experience.
“It was a mobile facility that could just set up in some basement somewhere,” the Christian, indemnified with a pseudonym, Li Yuese, told Radio Free Asia.
China detaining Christians in mobile brainwashing camps: report christianpost.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from christianpost.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.