GUANGXI PROVINCE, China — Families of three men taken
prisoner for owning Bibles in the Guangxi Province of China were allowed to
visit them Oct. 21, nearly six months after their arrest. WorldNet Daily reported
that the Bible-owners were taken away by Chinese authorities April 27 after
a raid conducted by over 40 policeman looking for Bibles and other religious
material. The families of the men did not learn that they had been sentenced
and taken to a labor camp until Sept. 26. The men were identified as Li Hualiang,
Wu Zhengxin and Wu Xinhua, according to Agence France-Presse. The Chinese
government considers all Protestant churches outside the official government-endorsed
church to be subversive. Christians in these underground congregations are
subject to random searches and often imprisoned for their faith. According
to the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy,
authorities in Jiangsu in east China have shut down 125 places of worship
since July.