Beijing police arrested dozens of Christian worshipers yesterday from a “house church” — one not formally recognized by the government — when they tried to pray outdoors, a rights group said. They sang hymns and said prayers as police loaded them onto waiting buses in Beijing’s western Hai-dian District, the US-based Christian rights group China Aid said in a statement, citing witnesses.
“The Beijing authorities have again demonstrated their total disregard of their citizens’ constitutionally guaranteed fundamental right to religious freedom,” China Aid founder and president Bob Fu (傅希秋) said in the statement.
Police declined to comment when contacted and requested written questions be faxed to them.
Photo: Reuters
The New York Times reported that one if its photographers was among those detained, but was later released.
China Aid said more than 100 were detained, but the newspaper said “dozens” of people were held.
The US and the UN have expressed serious concerns in the past week at a growing crackdown across China in which artists, lawyers, writers, activists and intellectuals have been detained.
The church incident comes a week after Ai Weiwei (艾未未), an outspoken artist who helped design the “Bird’s Nest” Olympic Stadium for the 2008 Beijing Games, was detained for unspecified “economic crimes.”
The church tried to hold services in the open air after it was evicted from a rented space because the landlord was pressured to not renew the lease, China Aid said.
Shouwang, one of Beijing’s largest house churches, invited its members to meet yesterday morning at an open air public platform linking the SinoSteel Building and the South China Poetic Restaurant building, China Aid said.
Some of the detainees were taken to a nearby elementary school where authorities took down their names and other details, the statement said.
Several church leaders were called to their local police stations on Saturday, with some spending the night in detention, while others were told they were not permitted to leave their homes yesterday, the statement said.
China only allows religious worship in state-approved churches.
Organizers of underground churches are routinely sent to labor camps without trial.
Meanwhile, the government has called on organizers of an annual series of inter-university debates on the meaning of the 1911 revolution to cancel the event amid fears of unrest in the country, a Hong Kong newspaper reported yesterday.
The ban, ordered by the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Youth League on Friday, was the first since the event was launched in 2002, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported. The debates were scheduled to commence on Saturday.
The move comes amid a nationwide crackdown on dissidents calling for a “Jasmine Revolution” and political liberalization in China.
Sixteen universities, including top institutions of learning like Peking University, Renmin University of China and Tianjin University, were to take part in the debates, the SCMP said. Beijing’s keen sensitivity to the political threat of mass mobilization is believed to have been the principal reason behind the decision to cancel the event.
Wen Yunchao (溫雲超), a -Guangzhou-based blogger better known as Beifeng (北風, or “North Wind”), told the paper that the timing of the event, the nature of its participants and the topics for debate were very sensitive in the eyes of the authorities.
“The competition was to take place on weekends and a group of university students were going to debate topics related to democracy and revolution,” Wen said.
Organizers said this year’s debates were meant to encourage students to review the 1911 revolution, also known as the Xinhai Revolution, and its effects on contemporary China and to focus on the Three Principles of the People expounded by Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙) — nationalism, democracy and livelihood.
The event’s Web site said: “Let us reassess this part of the history against the backdrop of its 100th anniversary,” adding that aside from looking at the “exciting victories” of the revolution, students should also look at “what is hidden beneath — the awakening of people’s awareness in this country and the spread of democracy.”
Zhang Ming (張明), a professor of politics at Renmin who was among the judges selected to oversee the competition, said Beijing had hoped to use the centenary of the revolution as a means to engage Taiwan, which will also be holding activities to celebrate the occasion.
While the authorities were unlikely to cancel all celebrations, they would avoid sensitive issues such as democracy and revolution while emphasizing patriotism, Zhang said, adding that to maintain social stability, Beijing was even willing to sacrifice engagement with Taiwan.
For the students, who were reportedly disappointed at the sudden turn of events, Beijing’s latest move comes in the wake of tightened control in university areas in Beijing to prevent students from heeding calls for political rallies. Part of those efforts include a program at Peking University to identity “radical students” and dispatch them to “meetings” with campus administrators, the SCMP said.
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Yilan at 11:05pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter was located at sea, about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km, CWA data showed There were no immediate reports of damage. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Yilan County area on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. It measured 4 in other parts of eastern, northern and central Taiwan as well as Tainan, and 3 in Kaohsiung and Pingtung County, and 2 in Lienchiang and Penghu counties and 1
FOREIGN INTERFERENCE: Beijing would likely intensify public opinion warfare in next year’s local elections to prevent Lai from getting re-elected, the ‘Yomiuri Shimbun’ said Internal documents from a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company indicated that China has been using the technology to intervene in foreign elections, including propaganda targeting Taiwan’s local elections next year and presidential elections in 2028, a Japanese newspaper reported yesterday. The Institute of National Security of Vanderbilt University obtained nearly 400 pages of documents from GoLaxy, a company with ties to the Chinese government, and found evidence that it had apparently deployed sophisticated, AI-driven propaganda campaigns in Hong Kong and Taiwan to shape public opinion, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. GoLaxy provides insights, situation analysis and public opinion-shaping technology by conducting network surveillance
Taiwan is gearing up to celebrate the New Year at events across the country, headlined by the annual countdown and Taipei 101 fireworks display at midnight. Many of the events are to be livesteamed online. See below for lineups and links: Taipei Taipei’s New Year’s Party 2026 is to begin at 7pm and run until 1am, with the theme “Sailing to the Future.” South Korean girl group KARA is headlining the concert at Taipei City Hall Plaza, with additional performances by Amber An (安心亞), Nick Chou (周湯豪), hip-hop trio Nine One One (玖壹壹), Bii (畢書盡), girl group Genblue (幻藍小熊) and more. The festivities are to
Auckland rang in 2026 with a downtown fireworks display launched from New Zealand’s tallest structure, Sky Tower, making it the first major city to greet the new year at a celebration dampened by rain, while crowds in Taipei braved the elements to watch Taipei 101’s display. South Pacific countries are the first to bid farewell to 2025. Clocks struck midnight in Auckland, with a population of 1.7 million, 18 hours before the famous ball was to drop in New York’s Times Square. The five-minute display involved 3,500 fireworks launched from the 240m Sky Tower. Smaller community events were canceled across New Zealand’s
RSS