A house-church pastor in China who was jailed by the government for failing to turn over church income to bureaucrats is going to court to have the “wrongly imposed” penalty rescinded. China Aid, which supports Christians in the communist nation, said Li Guozhi, who also is known as Yang Hua, was the pastor of Huoshi Church, the largest house church in Guiyang, Guizhou. He was targeted by government officials using a standard charge, “divulging state secrets,” and sentenced to 30 months in prison. Additionally,
the government fined him and another of the church’s pastors, Su Tianfu, 7 million yuan, or $1 million, an amount the officials claimed the church had received as ‘”illegal income.” “However, Su and Yang claim that church members donated their money voluntarily to the church and argued that it was the church’s income, not their own, so there is no ground for administrative action.” Yang now has sued the Nanming District Religious Affairs Bureau of the Chinese government, we well as the Guiyang Municipal Ethnic and Religious Committee, for abusing religious freedom. MORE
