CHINA PETITION – ‘REPEAL TOUGH NEW RESTRICTIONS’ – RELEASE INTERNATIONAL.
Release launches a petition calling for the repeal of tough new anti-religion laws in China that have led to a rise in persecution.
Release partners say persecution in China is on the rise. And it’s not just Christians and church leaders who face harassment from the authorities. They’ve been rounding up lawyers, too.
Three years have passed since the Chinese authorities arrested more than 700 lawyers, including Christians who defended the rights of the poor and needy in the courts.
Some have disappeared, some have been accused of spying, and it’s feared some may have been tortured into making televised ‘confessions’.
The authorities cracked down on hundreds of lawyers in 2015. They included Christian Zhang Kai who had been mounting a legal defence to prevent the authorities from tearing down a cross.
Officials are said to have removed some 1800 crosses from churches in the coastal Zhejiang Province alone.
