Chinese persecution
Bike Zhang, pastor and chairman of the Federation House Church, and his wife Xie Fenglan were forced from their home in Beijing on 6 July by Public Security Bureau officials. The couple found shelter at the home of a friend, but when Public Security Bureau (PSB) officials learned about it, they came to the friend’s house and again forced the couple to leave, reports Barnabas Fund.
Bike Zhang and his wife then moved to a hotel in Guo Xian. However, only a few days later, on 14 July, PSB officials again arrived on the premises and asked the hotel manager to evict the couple, threatening him with imprisonment if he did not comply. Pastor Zhang and his wife were taken for interrogation by the police. Xie Fenglan collapsed after hours of questioning without any food, drink or rest, but was not taken to hospital until several hours later.
Bike Zhang and his wife then went to stay with Xie Fenglan’s sister in Sanhe, Hebei, but on 16 July local police, who had followed Pastor Zhang as he went to get medicine for his wife, again forced the couple out of the house.
Unable to find shelter, Bike Zhang and his wife are now living on the streets. One source reports that, when asked why the couple was being expelled from Beijing, officials said: ‘Because Bike Zhang met the Americans, and destroyed the harmony of the Beijing Olympic Games’.
