Guangzhou Police Raid Underground Church, Seek

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 GUANGZHOU 000505

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 4/28/17
TAGS: KIRF PGOV SOCI PHUM CH
SUBJECT: Guangzhou Police Raid Underground Church, Seek
Connection to Eastern Lightning Sect's Growth in South
China


(U) CLASSIFIED BY CONSUL GENERAL ROBERT GOLDBERG FOR
REASONS: 1.4 (b) AND (d)


1. (C) SUMMARY: According to a leader of the local Li Jiang
Fellowship church, the Guangzhou Public Security Bureau
(PSB) raided her underground church on April 22. PSB
officials disrupted the gathering of 100 churchgoers
gathering in a local restaurant and warned church leaders
to cease holding "unregistered" meetings. According to the
church leader, Ms. Ruth Han (protect),Chinese authorities
were particularly interested in any ties the church might
have to the Heilongjiang and Henan province-based religious
group Eastern Lightning. Members of the Protestant
missionary and local church community in Guangzhou are
concerned that any connection with this aggressively-
proselytizing sect may result in heavier PSB and RAB
crackdowns on their activities. END SUMMARY.

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Background
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2. (C) Li Jiang Fellowship is an unregistered Protestant,
non-denominational fellowship of approximately 200 regular
attendees that meets near a large, modern housing complex
in Guangzhou. The church is led by an American, Pastor
Eugene, who told Congenoff in May 2006 that the fellowship
attracted a Mandarin-speaking congregation of professionals
working in the legal, marketing, multinational, and
education sectors of Guangzhou. The pastor's sermons are
in English; several Chinese teachers in the congregation
act as translators. The fellowship's leadership consists
of several American missionaries and Chinese professionals
who help manage day-to-day church activities. The
fellowship's ministries include relationship counseling;
English language instruction; supporting a local,
unregistered, Christian K-12 school (a responsibility
shared by several churches in the neighborhood); and
parenting. Since the raid in December 2006, Ms. Han says,
the church has been meeting in a local restaurant under the
guise of having dim sum breakfast.


3. (C) Services and group meetings held by the fellowship
are routinely shut down by Chinese authorities so much so
that Ms. Han says the church is "used to it." In 2006 the
fellowship was raided by authorities 3 separate times,
twice by the local PSB, and once by a joint PSB/RAB task
force. In each case, members were questioned and upbraided
for holding an unregistered meeting; the owner of the
meeting premises was warned that there would be
consequences. The December 2006 PSB/RAB raid was more
thorough, according to Ms. Han, and church members were
questioned for over an hour concerning their ties to
foreign missionaries and the Eastern Lightning sect. No
church members were ever formally arrested or charged, and
Ms. Han reported that church members suffered no physical
mistreatment by Chinese authorities. Typically, after each
raid, church members split off into smaller group meetings
in individual residences, "laying low" while leaders search
for a new location.

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Two Raids: December 2006 and April 22, 2007
--------------


4. (C) According to Ms. Han, during Sunday services on
April 22, approximately 10 uniformed PSB officers entered
the restaurant unannounced and, shouting from outside of
the dining room, ordered church members to cease their
activities. The congregants, guided by church leaders,
quietly continued their service, while church "spotters"
who were on guard outside the dining room were thoroughly
questioned. Ms. Han noted that the April raid was less
thorough going than the raid in December 2006, when
plainclothes RAB officials grilled church members on
whether they had any connection to Eastern Lightning
activities in Guangzhou. It appears that Guangzhou PSB and
RAB interest in Eastern Lightning and other aggressively
proselytizing groups has grown significantly over the last
two years, as Eastern Lightning's regional presence has
expanded.

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Eastern Lightning's Rapid Growth
--------------


5. (C) Alfred Leong (strictly protect),the Chairman of the
Guangzhou International Christian Fellowship (GICF),a
foreigners-only, registered organization, explained to
Congenoff that the Chinese authorities are not the only
ones concerned about Eastern Lightning. Missionaries and

GUANGZHOU 00000505 002 OF 002


local Chinese church leaders alike are concerned about the
sect's aggressive and oftentimes coercive recruitment
tactics. Mr. Leong noted that Eastern Lightning, despite
maintaining bases of power in Heilongjiang and Henan
provinces, had gradually spread southward, starting its
outreach in Guangzhou as early as five years ago.
According to Mr. Leong, Eastern Lightning's primary method
of recruitment is to send members, posing as new
churchgoers, to various fellowships; after a period of
profiling "newer" Christians, the recruiters befriend their
targets and eventually persuade or coerce them to leave
their existing church communities.


6. (C) Other Guangzhou Christians have expressed deep
concern about this dual danger, i.e., of continued PSB
harassment on the one hand, and the threat of their
fellowships being infiltrated by Eastern Lightning on the
other. In discussions on April 27, two of the Consulate's
churchgoing Locally Engaged Staff (LES) indicated that
Eastern Lightning's recruiters have even targeted
Guangzhou's officially sanctioned Three Self churches.
They noted that the Three Self church on Shamian Island,
located across the street from the Consulate's main
offices, had been unsuccessfully targeted by the sect's
recruiters in 2005. The LES suggested that an environment
of closer government scrutiny and supervision in Three Self
churches makes it harder for Eastern Lightning to operate;
thus, unregistered house churches (such as Samuel Lam's "De
Zheng Road" house church, one of the largest in Guangzhou)
are considered the best recruiting ground. According to
the LES, while RAB keeps a close watch on religious
activities, Guangzhou PSB officials still do not have a
clear understanding of the differences between the house
churches, denominations, and offshoot sects gaining ground
in Guangzhou. They are worried that their churches may be
linked to Eastern Lightning by association. Ms. Han said
that many of the "mainstream" underground Protestant
fellowships across Guangzhou have the same concerns,
resulting in a climate of increased fear and suspicion
towards new church members.


7. (C) COMMENT: Discussions with Ms. Han, Consulate LES,
the foreign missionary community, and Guangzhou church
members indicate that they do not regard routine PSB raids
as particularly threatening. They note that many PSB
officers are actually church members, and that the raids
appear to be more of a warning, reminding churches that
they are being watched. An informal poll of members of
four different churches indicates that, despite PSB raids,
no church members were actually detained in 2006. Rather,
infiltration and association with sects like Eastern
Lightning is the more pressing concern. Church members
have read press reports and heard extensive rumors about
death sentences handed out to sect members in Northeastern
China, and are deeply concerned about being associated with
"radical" sects. END COMMENT.


8. (U) NOTE: The New York Times published an article
concerning recruitment wars between Eastern Lightning and
another sect, Three Grades of Servants. The article,
"China Executes Leader of Christian Sect," was published on
11/29/2006 and contains additional information about the
two religious groups and a recent police campaign to crack
down on them.

GOLDBERG