• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • HOME
  • ABOUT CHINA
    • NEWS
    • TESTIMONIES
    • OP-EDS
    • FEATURED
    • GLOSSARY
    • CHINA PERSECUTION MAP
  • FROM THE WORLD
    • NEWS
    • OP-EDS
    • FEATURED
    • TESTIMONIES
  • INTERVIEWS
  • DOCUMENTS AND TRANSLATIONS
    • DOCUMENTS
    • THE TAI JI MEN CASE
    • TRANSLATIONS
  • EVENTS
  • ABOUT
  • EDITORIAL BOARD
  • TOPICS

Bitter Winter

A magazine on religious liberty and human rights

three friends of winter
Home / China / News China

Police Keeps Believers in Fear of Persecution After Church Leader’s Arrest

06/18/2018Bitter Winter |

Source: Direct Reports from China
Date: June 18, 2018

The police arrested a house church leader in Kuandian Manchu Autonomous County in the city of Dandong, Liaoning Province, almost three years ago. During the arrest, in the house of the preacher, they found a list of members of house church who live in the area. Authorities keep all believers on the list in constant fear of persecution until now.

Zou Kangping (pseudonym, 60-years-old), is a mid-level leader in a house church. In November 2015, he was arrested by the local National Security Brigade. After being subjected to seven months of interrogations, he received a three-year sentence and is still imprisoned.

Around 3 a.m. one morning in mid-November of 2015, a joint force of five officers from the Kuandian County National Security Brigade and the local police station burst into Zou Kangping’s home, waking up his family. Before they could figure out what was going on, without showing any identification, the officers searched his entire house, turning everything upside down, the family in complete in shock. The police took photos of religious literature, evangelical materials, crosses, as well as a list of names of believers in the house church, confiscated all these things and took Zou Kangping away.

The Kuandian National Security Brigade secretly detained Zou Kangping for seven months constantly interrogating him. For all this time, his family was not allowed to see him. Knowing about brutal measures the Chinese Communist Party uses while persecuting religious believers, the family was extremely concerned for Zou Kangping’s safety. His wife did all she could to use her connections, but she spent over 20,000 RMB with no result and couldn’t even see her husband even once.

After seven months spent in constant worry and before ZouKangping’s case was heard in court, his family was finally allowed to see him. In June of 2016, the Kuandian County Court sentenced Zou Kangping to three years for believing in God and delivering sermons. He was sent to a Shenyang city prison, where is still kept.

According to an informed source, after Zou Kangping’s arrest, the police used the list of believers’ names they found in his home to carry out large-scale searches and arrests of local members of home churches. The entire population of Kuandian County is now living in fear of being persecuted.

Tagged With: House Churches

bw-profile
Bitter Winter

Bitter Winter reports on how religions are allowed, or not allowed, to operate in China and how some are severely persecuted after they are labeled as “xie jiao,” or heterodox teachings. We publish news difficult to find elsewhere, analyses, and debates.
Placed under the editorship of Massimo Introvigne, one of the most well-known scholars of religion internationally, “Bitter Winter” is a cooperative enterprise by scholars, human rights activists, and members of religious organizations persecuted in China (some of them have elected, for obvious reasons, to remain anonymous).

Related articles

  • House Church Under Attack in Guiyang

    House Church Under Attack in Guiyang

  • Henan Preacher Arrested for Purchasing Christian Books Online

    Henan Preacher Arrested for Purchasing Christian Books Online

  • Church of the Rock: Wife of Detained Pastor Speaks Out

    Church of the Rock: Wife of Detained Pastor Speaks Out

  • Beijing Lampstand Church: Families Demand Release of Arrested Pastor, Co-Worker

    Beijing Lampstand Church: Families Demand Release of Arrested Pastor, Co-Worker

Keep Reading

  • Taiyuan Reformed Church Under Police Attack
    Taiyuan Reformed Church Under Police Attack

    Brother Zhao Weikai has been arrested on May 17. The house church in Taiyuan (China) has been repeatedly harassed in the last few months.

  • House Churches Raided to Force Them into Official Church
    House Churches Raided to Force Them into Official Church

    To intimidate unregistered churches in Zhejiang Province, local officials order to remove crosses and other religious symbols, close down the venues.

  • House Churches Are Pushed to the Brink of Extinction
    House Churches Are Pushed to the Brink of Extinction

    Unregistered Protestant venues are monitored by plainclothes police officers and residential communities’ managers before their churches are raided and closed.

  • Zhao Weikai: Russian-Style Jail Sentence for “Extremism”
    Zhao Weikai: Russian-Style Jail Sentence for “Extremism”

    Inspired by Putin’s crackdown on “illegal” religion, Chinese authorities now claim that pastors they do not like are guilty of “extremism.”

Primary Sidebar

Support Bitter Winter

Learn More

Follow us

Newsletter

Most Read

  • Pro-Chinese Propaganda by The World Muslim Communities Council: Uyghurs Strike Back by Gulfiye Y
  • Zhanargul Zhumatai: “Help Me, I Just Want to Leave China” by Ruth Ingram
  • L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and the Visual Arts. 1. The Aesthetic Mind by Massimo Introvigne
  • Stricter Rules on Private Tutoring Protect Ideology Rather than Parents by Wang Zhipeng
  • Japan Religious Donations Law. 4. The Return of Brainwashing by Massimo Introvigne
  • Hong Kong: Christian Scholar Peng Manyuan Released but Not Rehabilitated by Gladys Kwok
  • The Weaponization of the CCP’s “Zero COVID” Against Tibet by Marco Respinti
  • L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and the Visual Arts. 3. Art as Communication by Massimo Introvigne
  • L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and the Visual Arts. 4. Art and Illustration by Massimo Introvigne
  • L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and the Visual Arts. 5. Professionals vs. Amateurs by Massimo Introvigne

CHINA PERSECUTION MAP -SEARCH NEWS BY REGION

clickable geographical map of china, with regions

Footer

Instant Exclusive News
Instant Exclusive News

EDITORIAL BOARD

Editor-in-Chief

MASSIMO INTROVIGNE

Director-in-Charge

MARCO RESPINTI

ADDRESS

CESNUR

Via Confienza 19,

10121 Turin, Italy,

Phone: 39-011-541950

E-MAIL

We welcome submission of unpublished contributions, news, and photographs. Each submission implies the authorization for us to edit and publish texts and photographs. We reserve the right to decide which submissions are suitable for publication. Please, write to INFO@BITTERWINTER.ORG Thank you.

Newsletter

Follow us

LINKS

orlir-logo hrwf-logo cesnur-logo

Copyright © 2023 · Bitter Winter · PRIVACY POLICY· COOKIE POLICY