Pastor of China’s Largest Mega Church Arrested

Church in China
Human rights activists argue that the crackdown on Christians and churches has become more severe. |

A pastor of China's largest officially-approved Protestant church with over 10,000 members has been arrested and sent to a "black jail," which falls outside of the nation's penal system, according to media reports.

Pastor Gu Yuese of Chongyi Church from Hangzhou city had opposed the Chinese government's campaign to remove crosses across Zhejiang province since 2014. He was held in good repute by the Communist party before he vocally protested the removal of crosses. Gu was removed from his position as the leader of the church 10 days before he was detained.

The charges brought against the pastor are embezzlement of church funds, but Bob Fu of China Aid, a Christian human rights group, told the BBC that it was a "political revenge."

"In the past two weeks 18 crosses were removed and destroyed... Overall at least 1,800 crosses of churches were demolished since the campaign started," he said.

Fu said in a statement that "His arrest marks a major escalation in the crackdown against those who oppose the forced demolition of crosses. He will be the highest-ranking national church leader arrested since the Cultural Revolution."

Some 40 Christians from Hong Kong also published an open letter saying that Gu's arrest was related to his protests against government crackdown on churches in the area.

The southeastern province of Zhejiang is the land of many churches, and has witnessed a systematic crackdown on crosses since 2014, which escalated a few months ago with many new regulations.

According to a Reuters report, under President Xi Jinping, China is conducting the worst domestic crackdown on human rights in two decades, much of which has been against Christians. Nearly 1,000 human rights activists were detained last year alone -- almost as many as in the previous two years combined.

Gu's wife Zhou Lian Mei has also been arrested along with him and released a statement addressed to their congregation, asking for prayers and spiritual encouragement.

"Chongyi Church is also experiencing unprecedented, chilling trials," Mei wrote. "Everyone must equally rely on the Lord's grace to confront [this hardship] and triumph over it... Increasingly, we feel God's good intentions in this storm. It will refine every impurity in our ministry team to the greatest extent and compel us to love the Lord and people more purely."

Last year in August, police arrested Pastor Bao Guohua and his wife, along with other church employees, on charges of embezzlement and disturbing law and order. They were also involved in opposing the removal of crosses from buildings.

Zhang Kai, a Christian lawyer in China, and his intern Liu Peng were also arrested last year for giving legal counseling to Christian churches protesting the cross removal campaign. They were detained a day before David Saperstein, US ambassador-at-large for international freedom, was scheduled to meet them.