China’s government is preventing Christian leaders in the country from attending a major international gathering of mission-minded leaders by stopping them as they reach the airport and confiscating their passports.
While it is unclear how many Chinese Christian leaders have been stopped so far, more than 230 were invited to go to the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelisation in Cape Town, South Africa.
On Sunday, five members of China’s "underground" church in Beijing were blocked from leaving the country from Beijing International Airport and at least one was detained.
Liu Guan, one of the five, told Hong Kong-based newspaper Ming Pao News that border inspectors refused to let them go through after seeing information about the Lausanne Congress on their passport visas. Shortly after, five or six government security officers arrived along with other authorities who seized their luggage and confiscated their passports.
Though Liu reported that the law enforcement officers were polite and that there were no conflicts between the two sides, he was not allowed to board the plane and was sent home about three hours later. Liu’s passport and those of his colleagues will not be returned to them until October 25 – the last day of the Lausanne Congress.
In another report, Texas-based ChinaAid Association said one house church Christian was blocked from flying out of Shanghai International Airport, though another was cleared and is en route to South Africa.
According to the Christian persecution watchdog group, which has been monitoring the situation closely, around 1,000 law enforcement officers have been assigned to restrain would-be Lausanne delegates from China and prevent them from boarding the planes.
According to ChinaAid sources, all of the 200 or so house church representatives who were invited to attend the Lausanne Congress – whether Uyghur Christians from Xinjiang or Han Christians from Beijing – have been contacted by authorities for questioning.
“Chinese house church Christians who have been invited to the Lausanne Congress are under much pressure from authorities who are using different means in order to prevent them from attending the congress,” reported the Shouwang Church in Beijing in a statement.
Shouwang, which planned to send eight formal representatives and four volunteers to Cape Town, also noted that one Congress invitee – Liu Jintao of Baotou, Inner Mongolia – was placed on a 15-day administration detention on October 9. By the time he is released, Liu Jintao will have missed the Congress.
When asked the reason behind the government effort, Ma Zhaoxu, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Congress organisers failed to formally invite the legal representatives of China’s Christians – leaders of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement and the China Christian Council, the network of state-registered Protestant churches in China.
Ma accused Lausanne leaders of having “secretly extended multiple invitations to Christians who privately set up meeting points”, namely members of China's underground churches, which refuse to register because of conflicting beliefs.
