China Sentences Underground Church Pastor to 7.5 Years

The Associated Press | The Christian Post
12 July 2006

A prominent Chinese minister of an unofficial Protestant church has been jailed for seven and a half years, a U.S.-based Christian group said Sunday, a hefty punishment indicating the continued government crackdown on unsanctioned religious activity.

Zhang Rongliang was sentenced Tuesday in a court in Zhongmou county in Henan province after being held since December 2004 accused of obtaining a passport under false pretenses and illegally crossing the border, the China Aid Association said in an e-mailed news release.

According to the charges against him, Zhang traveled to the United States, Australia, Egypt and Singapore for world mission conferences on a passport obtained through fraudulent means, the group said.

A man who answered the telephone at the court on Sunday said he had no access to records because it was the weekend.

China's communist government allows worship only in state-supervised churches, which claim about 11 million members.

Worshippers and clergy in unofficial churches are regularly harassed and detained.

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