Chinese church leader gets two years in labor camp

SUQIAN CITY, China — A key leader of the Chinese House Church Alliance has been sentenced to two years in a labor camp as part of a crackdown on illegal worship, ChinaAid reported July 25.

Pastor Shi Enhao, deputy chairman of CHCA, was sentenced to “re-education through labor” — an extrajudicial punishment that requires no conviction or trial — because of his position in an influential umbrella group of Chinese house churches.

ChinaAid, a group that monitors religious freedom in China, reported that Shi’s current charge is for “illegal meetings and illegal organizing of venues for religious meetings.”

According to ChinaAid, the labor camp sentence is not the first police action against Shi in Suqian City, which is 500 miles south of Beijing and home to more than 5 million people. The pastor was detained by police March 31 and held for 12 days.

Then, the Suqian Public Security Bureau detained the pastor June 21 for “suspicion of using superstition to undermine national law enforcement,” ChinaAid reported, noting that criminal detention is the first step in a legal process that usually ends in a criminal offense and a prison sentence.

Shi’s family has served the church in China for four generations, and since the investigation of illegal churches his three daughters and their husbands also have been threatened by police, ChinaAid reported.