LOS ANGELES, CA – A Chinese Christian businesswoman from Canada who visited
China late last year was kidnapped and tortured by Chinese state security
agents after she visited two persecuted Chinese house churches during the
Christmas and New Year’s holiday season, ChinaAid has learned.
Jenny Chen, who is in her 50s, was held by state security agents and denied
food and water for nearly two days. About to go into shock, she was taken
to a police hospital, from where she managed to escape and get on a flight to
Los Angeles, arriving in the United States on Jan. 17.
Chen, who does business in Canada, the United States and
China, had learned of the severe persecution inflicted on Shouwang Church in
Beijing and the Linfen house church in Shanxi province from reports online.
Motivated by Christian concern for her fellow believers, Chen and her
daughter traveled to Beijing and Shanxi. On Christmas Day, she was an
eyewitness to police action in front of the Jindeng Church established by the
Linfen house church. She saw both regular and armed police and police
vehicles, including armored personnel carriers, surrounding the church to stop
church members from attending a Christmas worship service. Police blocked
streets leading to the church and closed nearby shops. Chen was followed
and threatened by plainclothes police officers.
In Beijing, Chen had paid a visit before Christmas to Rev. Jin Tianming,
senior pastor of Shouwang Church, who has been under house arrest since April
2011, and on New Year’s Day, she and her daughter attempted to attend
Shouwang’s outdoor worship service. (See her account here: http://www.chinaaid.org/2012/01/new-years-visit-to-shouwang-church.html.)
On both occasions, she was followed by Domestic Security Protection agents.
Aware that they were being followed more and more closely, Chen put her
daughter on a U.S.-bound on Jan. 10, then returned to her hometown in the city
of Tianjin. On the evening of Jan. 14, she was forcibly taken into
custody by two plain-clothed state security agents who refused to show their
IDs and taken to a secret place for questioning. She later realized that
she had been kidnapped by Tianjin state security agents. She was
interrogated in a cold, windowless cell with only one chair, and was asked what
organization she was affiliated with and what overseas mission she was
on. Chen said she had no organizational affiliation nor was she on any
overseas mission. She said she was simply an overseas Christian whose
conscience had propelled her to return to China to visit her fellow believers.
The agents appeared not to believe her and threatened to imprison her for more
than ten years for subverting state power and stealing state secrets if she did
not tell them the truth. The agents also beat her, pulling her hair and
slapping her hard.
Chen was detained for nearly two days without food and water, and almost
went into shock. Physically exhausted, she was sent to the Tianjin Public
Safety Hospital, where she was diagnosed with slight pneumonia and had to be
hospitalized. However, Chen had no money with her, and the state security
agents said they had no money either. The hospital refused to treat her,
giving her the excuse of returning home to get money. Instead, she took a
cab and rushed to Beijing Capital Airport, where she caught a flight in the
early morning of Jan. 16. She arrived in Los Angles on the following day
and is currently undergoing medical observation and treatment.
“It is appalling to hear what Ms Chen had experienced in the hands of the
brutal Chinese security forces for simply visiting and trying to worship with
the Chinese Christmas during the Christmas season,” said Eddie Romero, director
of ChinaAid’s Los Angeles office. “The unprecedented persecution against the
peaceful house churches like Shouwang and Linfen should be stopped. We urge the
Chinese government’s highest authorities to hold those abusers accountable for
the harm done to this businesswoman, Ms. Chen.”
Jenny Chen’s journal New Year’s Visit to Shouwang Church: http://www.chinaaid.org/2012/01/new-years-visit-to-shouwang-church.html
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