Source: Direct Reports from China
Date: July 2, 2018
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) raided the home of a Christian couple in Beigucheng town, Yiliang County, Yunnan Province’s Kunming city, in October 2017. Without a warrant, the police confiscated large amounts of money and belongings and arrested the couple. One of them still remains in custody, and the family does not have any contact with her.
According to an informed source, the Public Security Bureau’s detective unit illegally searched the home of a house church co-worker, Li Xuan, and her husband Yang Lei (pseudonyms), and took 60,000 RMB in cash and a receipt of 110,000 RMB as well as 500 kilos of sesame oil, pilot biscuits, and other goods.
A person who witnessed the incident recounts, “When the police searched her home, Li Xuan’s daughter was crying and begged the police: ‘My mom and dad worked really hard for this money and they wanted to use it for my younger brother’s wedding. What are we supposed to do if you take all of our money?’ The police just ignored her.”
A witness who knew the couple said, “Those officers have no morals! Li Xuan and her husband are honest and hardworking people. They just believe in God – they didn’t commit any crimes, but the police arrested them and took everything they had. Who really broke the law here? It turns out that a saying is really true: The bandits used to hide in the hills, now they hide behind a badge.”
Li Xuan’s husband Yang Lei was locked up for his belief in the Yiliang County detention center for a month, after which he was sentenced to half a year and served his sentence outside the prison. It has been over six months since Li Xuan’s arrest, and her family still have not received any news about her.
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).