Group: China Arrests 8 Protestant Church Leaders*

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN
The Associated Press
Wednesday, June 27, 2007; 4:11 AM

SHANGHAI, China -- Police have detained eight leaders in the country's
unauthorized Protestant church movement on charges of violating rules on
religious activity, a Texas-based monitoring group said Wednesday.

The detentions came earlier this month in the northern provinces of
Shaanxi and Shandong, the China Aid Association reported.

Pastors Zhou Jieming and Niu Wenbin were picked up on June 9 while
distributing religious literature in a market place in Shaanxi's
Jiaocheng County, along with 10 other church activists, said the
Midland, Texas-based group.

While the others were released, Zhou and Niu are being held on
"suspicion of using evil cult to obstruct of the enforcement of the law"
_ a charge authorities use to punish those worshipping outside official
Communist Party recognized religious groups.

It wasn't clear what their punishment could be, but the Aid Association
said they could face a three-year sentence in a labor camp without the
benefit of trial.

Six other church activists were detained in a police raid on a church
service being held in a private home in Shandong's Cao County, the group
said.

It said four were pastors in the local underground church, but the
identities of the other two weren't known. They too face possible labor
camp sentences, although police were offering to release them on payment
of a fine of about $1,300, the group said.

Officers reached at the Jiaocheng and Cao county police stations said
they had no information about the reported detentions. Neither would
give their names as is usual with Chinese bureaucrats. Phone numbers for
detention centers in the two counties were not listed.

Despite China's strict controls over all religious expression, millions
of Chinese risk harassment or arrest by worshipping in independent and
unauthorized Christian groups. Sometimes, that is merely a response to a
lack of churches and government-set quotas for baptisms, especially in
rural areas.