Officials Arrest Third House Church Pastor for Giving Away Bibles

Officials in Anhui province questioned, detained, and eventually arrested house church pastor Wang Zaiqing on charges of "illegal operation of a business" in printing Bibles and other Christian literature, according to a June 14 report of the China Aid Association (CAA), a U.S. NGO that monitors religious freedom in China. According to the CAA, Wang printed Bibles and other religious literature and gave them away without government authorization. Anhui public security officials questioned Pastor Wang and Zhang Hongyan, his wife, on April 25, and then searched their house and confiscated religious literature and other items. On April 28, public security officials detained Wang, and on May 26 Zhang received notice of her husband’s formal arrest for "illegal operation of a business." Li Baiguang, a prominent legal rights advocate who is also a house church member, has volunteered to represent Wang.

Wang Zaiqing is the third house church pastor since 2004 accused of "illegal operation of a business" for printing and giving away Bibles and other Christian literature. A court convicted Cai Zhuohua, a Beijing house church pastor, in November 2005 of the same offense and sentenced him to three years' imprisonment. Officials also detained and accused Liu Yuhua, a Shandong pastor, of the same offense in April 2006. Jiang Sunian (also known as Jiang Shurang), an unregistered Catholic priest in Zhejiang province, served four years of a six-year sentence after an April 2000 conviction for illegal publishing of Bibles and hymnals.

The Chinese government has imposed a set of prior restraints on religious publishing. For more information on Cai Zhuohua and Jiang Sunian, see the CECC Political Prisoner Database. For more information on Protestants in China, see the CECC 2005 Annual Report, Section III(d).