Shi Enhao, deputy chairman of the Chinese House Church Alliance and an underground pastor, was sentenced this week to two years in a labor camp. He was charged with holding “illegal meetings and illegal organizing of venues for religious meetings”.

Enhao was sentenced by Chinese authorities without a trial or access to a lawyer. The government had been pressuring Shi to give up his ministry and leadership position in the house church movement since he was first arrested in May.

It all began when 19 house church leaders who are part of Shi’s organization petitioned the China’s National People’s Congress requesting an end to the persecution of Shouwang Church and an amendment to religious freedom legislation. Right after that Shi was arrested and his residence was subsequently subject to a search by police along with a seizure of all of his books and papers.

Response: China presents itself as a modern country with freedoms for its citizens. While  there are far more economic and business freedoms for the Chinese people, China still has a Communist government which wants to maintain control over its people. Although folks have far more freedom there than they use too it is events like this which bring us back to the reality that China still does not allow for basic civil rights and freedoms for its citizens. It is still obviously a ‘police state’ where human rights are arbitrarily handed out and controlled by government authorities.

When it comes to ‘freedom of religion’, Chinese citizens are only ‘freely’ allowed to join government sponsored religious institutions. The House church movement which probably claims more than 100 million members is sometimes ignored by government authorities but on far too many other occasions the church leaders and pastors are placed in custody and in prison camps without trials or legal representation.

China may be an economic powerhouse and a leader in international trade but has a long ways to go before it really becomes a modern country with all of the freedoms that most Western nations take for granted.            *Top

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