Chinese House Church Leader Arrested

Zhao Wenquan, who is over 60 years old, was arrested in Hegou Town, Meng Cheng County, Anhui Province in east-central China earlier this month.

The Domestic Security Protection Division Team of the Meng Cheng County PSB suddenly raided a gathering of 4000 Christians in the village while they were having a special harvest celebration, sponsored by a six-year-old local house church.

Zhao, a well known House Church leader, was also arrested. He had been working in China's unregistered churches for more than 30 years. About a dozen other church leaders escaped and are still on the run. It was reported that the large gathering of 4,000 was particularly noticeable to officials since churches usually only gather 200-300 people.

Zhao has been charged with "disturbing the social order" and with organising an "illegal religious gathering." He is likely to face years in a re-education labour camp. This comes in the throes of a campaign by the nation's communist authorities against religious groups operating outside their control.

Over the past year, scores of church leaders have been detained and church meeting places demolished. Activists working to expose the crackdown have been put on trial for revealing state secrets.

Zhao's church is one of hundreds of evangelical Christian groups that face harassment for rejecting the authority of the Communist Party-controlled Protestant church. China claims to have more than 14 million Christians worshipping in its official churches, but monitoring groups say as many as twice that number belong to independent churches.