Pastor detained, faces eviction

By June 30, 2008

China (MNN) — Last week, Public Security Bureau (PSB) officers detained
Pastor Zhang "Bike" Mingxuan, president of the Chinese House Church Alliance,
Voice of the Martyrs Canada reports. They released him from the Beijing PSB office after 31 hours, said China
Aid Association (CAA). 

Pastor Zhang has been arrested, beaten and incarcerated 12
times since his conversion to Christianity in 1986. Now his landlord, under pressure from the
PSB, has sent him and his family an eviction notice to move out by the end of
the week, CAA said.

Zhang and his interpreter, Ms. Ou Yang, were detained at a
bus station on June 18. They were on
their way to meet with Dr. Bastiaan Belder (MEP), Rapporteur of the EP 
Committee of Foreign Affairs for the relationship between the EU and China, at Yanshan Hotel in Haidian District. They were released on the evening of June 19 without having received
any physical harm from the police, said CAA. 

PSB and State officials recently forced Zhang and his two
sons to close the orphanage that they were running. The family and the orphans have been seeking
a place to live. Officials regularly
threaten landlords not to lease to them. This is part of an "overall strategy of eradicating the unstable and
dangerous ‘religious elements' before the start of the Olympic Games on August
8," CAA said.

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