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

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.

Bitter Winter

Bitter Winter plans to report 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 plan to 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).