Authorities in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang have confirmed that they are holding two Protestant preachers under residential surveillance on suspicion of espionage, relatives and lawyers told RFA.
The wife of Pingyang county pastor Zhang Chongzhu received notification from police on Friday that her husband is being held at an unknown location on suspicion of "gathering, stealing, buying and illegally providing state secrets" as well as "espionage."
"They are saying it’s for gathering and leaking state secrets or some such thing," Zhang's wife, who sent a copy of the police notification to RFA, said.
"Of course I haven't been allowed [to visit him]," she added. "If someone is held under residential surveillance, it seems that even their lawyer doesn't get to meet with them."
She slammed the allegations against Zhang as "ridiculous."
"I think this is too ridiculous for words," she said. "But we are powerless to do anything; we can't sue the government."
"All we can do is pray," she said.
The notification from police comes after three weeks of uncertainty after Zhang Chongzhu “disappeared” en route home from Shanghai amid an ongoing crackdown on Christians opposed to the provincial government's demolition program targeting visible crosses on places of worship.
Zhang Zhi, a preacher from Pingyang county's Xianqiao Church, is also being held under residential surveillance on the same charges after being detained on Sept. 7, local sources told RFA.
Disobedience campaigns
Churches in and around Zhejiang's Wenzhou city have waged widespread civil disobedience campaigns in the face of the demolition campaign, which is part of a three-year urbanization and beautification campaign requiring local governments to demolish illegal structures by the end of 2015.
Zhejiang authorities have said they are merely “relocating” the crosses from the roofs of churches to the interior, while analysts say the sheer profusion of Christian worship in a region known as "China's Jerusalem" has rattled the ruling Chinese Communist Party.
Churchgoers have written open letters, sung hymns to armed security officers, staged sit-ins in churches and on rooftops, and displayed small red-painted wooden crosses on buildings and on T-shirts in protest at the move.
Churches are also being subjected to audits and financial reviews, with some pastors detained on suspicion of "embezzlement" after they resisted the demolition of crosses.
A Wenzhou Protestant church member told RFA on Friday that a total of 18 people have now been detained in the crackdown, including rights lawyer Zhang Kai, who was advising local Christians in their bid to resist the demolition of crosses.
According to an Aug. 27 notice sent by the Wenzhou municipal police department to his family, Zhang is being held on suspicion of "gathering a crowd to disrupt public order," "spying" and illegally gathering, buying and supplying state secrets overseas."
Zhang Kai had offered pro bono advice to more than 100 Protestant churches facing the removal of their crosses and the detention of pastors, lay preachers, and church members.
He was taken away by state security police alongside two legal assistants on Aug. 25.
"[Zhang] hasn't come back yet," the church member said. "There are a lot of people whose whereabouts we don't know."
"In all, there are 18 people [gone], and three of them were lawyers ... They are doing this to put pressure on the churches, but we won't cave in."
Also among those detained is pastor Huang Yizi from Pingyang county's Fengwotang church, who also heads a group known as the China Christian Evangelic Mission, local residents told RFA.
Huang, who was released from prison after a year-long sentence on Aug. 1, was detained again on Sept. 12 and is now being held in criminal detention for "endangering national security," his lawyer Li Jinglin said.
Li said the authorities hadn't issued a formal notification to his wife.
"Pastor Huang's wife asked them ... and they said they didn't need to inform her," he said. "She asked them which detention center he is being held in, but they said it was 'inconvenient' to tell her that."
Reported by Yang Fan for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by Hai Nan for the Cantonese Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.