Chinese Pastor faces harsh sentence for supporting "house church" movement

FAITH UNDER FIRE
Prominent pastor faces harsh sentence
Chinese authorities find 200,000 copies of Bible, Christian books
Posted: November 13, 20041:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com
A prominent Beijing house-church leader, found in possession of a massive cache of Bibles and Christian literature, faces a harsh sentence if convicted in his upcoming trial, according to Chinese contacts of the U.S. activist group Voice of the Martyrs.
Cai Zhuohua, 32, the leading minister to six house churches in Beijing, will be tried formally in court in the Chinese capital any day now, the Oklahoma-based group said.
The pastor was seized Sept. 11 by three plain-clothes officers believed to be from the Department of State Security, VOM said. Eyewitnesses said he was waiting at a bus stop when three strong men approached and pushed him into a white van
Cai was on his way home from a Bible study session. His wife, Xiao Yunfei, was arrested Sept. 27 with her brother, Xiao Gaowen, and sister-in-law, Hu Jinyun, while hiding in Hunan province. All four are held at Qinghe Detention Center, Haidian District, Beijing.
Cai and his wife face a harsh sentence because of their prominent role in Beijing's house-church movement, which is banned by the communist government. The regime allows Protestant church activity only under the state-controlled Three-Self Patriotic Movement. Catholics also are restricted to a government church, which rejects ties to the Vatican.
The case is being handled directly by the Department of State Security. Qiang Wei, deputy general secretary of the Politics and Law Commission of Beijing, issued a two-word, handwritten directive, "Yan Ban!" -- meaning to deal with it harshly and severely, according to VOM sources.
The central government, the sources say, has labeled it the "most serious case on overseas religious infiltration since the founding of the People's Republic of China."
Authorities apparently were shocked to find about 200,000 copies of the Bible and other Christian literature in a storage room managed by Cai.
The government allows only a publisher affiliated with the Three-Self Patriotic Movement to print a strictly limited number of Bibles and Christian literature each year. The publications cannot be sold in public bookstores.
The rapidly growing house church -- with as many as 100 million adherents, according to some estimates -- has had to rely on Bibles smuggled into the country and officially sanctioned printers willing to print some extra Bibles for cash.
A VOM source said the confiscated literature was only for internal use and Cai made no profit from it.
The case, according to a prosecution source, is part of a broader national campaign against the underground church and its publications that began in June.
Authorities are upset especially with a house-church quarterly called "Love Feast," which has published articles on President Bush's faith and the death of Jonathan Chao, a Chinese scholar who monitored the house church from abroad.
But instead of charges related to religion, Cai, his wife and two relatives could be charged for tax evasion or illegal business management, VOM said, citing its prosecution sources.
"All of those who have known pastor Cai over the years can testify that he and his wife are wonderful Christians with loving hearts for both the church in China and their motherland," said Bob Fu, a VOM associate and president of China Aid Association.
Fu, a former co-worker of Cai, is urging "people of all faiths" to write or telephone the Chinese Embassy in Washington to demand release of the Christians.