Unofficial church leaders jailed for up to 7 years

(TibetanReview.net, Nov30, 2009)  The Linfen Intermediate People’s Court in northern China’s Shanxi Province had on Nov 25 sentenced five leaders of Linfen Fushan church, an unauthorized Protestant church, to jail terms of up to seven years, reported AP Nov 26, citing Boxun.com. Those sentenced included the church's pastor Wang Xiaoguang and his wife Yang Rongli, who both received the maximum sentence. They were convicted on two charges: "illegal land occupation" and "assembling a crowd to disrupt public order."

Those sentenced had been arrested after a Sep 13 raid by police and hired security guards on sunrise services held in a dormitory building by the 50,000-member church.

The sentences were reported to be the toughest against unofficial church leaders since Zhang Rongliang received 7.5 years in 2006.

China's communist government requires all Protestants to worship in the non-denominational Three-Self Patriotic Movement, while Catholics must meet in the Patriotic Association. Both are beholden to the Religious Affairs bureau. Those who worship outside this system face persecution.

Because of government restrictions on Christian worship, especially in the case of those who refuse to register and accept the authority of the government's Religious Affairs Bureau, there are no official figures on the number of Christians in the country. Estimates vary from about 50 million to 130 million.