Chinese pastor's wife attacked by local Chinese government

by Vanessa Garcia Rodriguez, |
A pigeon flies past a metal cross at a Catholic church in Beijing in 2005. Recently there has been widespread persecution of Christians reported with churches being destroyed and crosses being torn down throughout China. | REUTERS/Jason Lee/FILE PHOTO

SHENYANG, Liaoning (Christian Examiner) -- Bound with packing tape and repeatedly beaten, a Chinese pastor's wife suffered an unwarranted attack by local law officers inside her home May 28.

China Aid reported that police in China's northeastern Liaoning province forcibly entered Pastor Wang Zhongliang's home while he was away. Li, Wang's wife, who was home alone, said although she initially refused to open the door, the officers persisted.

"Once I opened the door, two people barged into my home," Li stated. "I asked them if they had a warrant to search my home. I had only asked once when one of the officers started to beat me."

Pastor Wang Zhongliang's wife, Li, shows the abuse she suffered on her face when she was unjustly attacked by Shenyang police at her home on May 27, 2015. | China Aid

Li said her attempts to cry for help and to free herself intensified the beating.

"I called for help, and he beat me even more," China aid reported Li said. "They pushed me on the bed and covered my mouth and bound my hands and feet with packing tape. When I tried to get free, they beat me again."

When Li threatened to video the attack, the officers confiscated her phone and instead recorded the beating with their own video device.

Eventually, a neighbor called the Shenyang Domestic Security Protection Squad who refused to stop the beating and instead questioned Li while she was being assaulted.

After some time, the officers escorted Li to the Shenyang Police Station where she was asked to sign a confession or face eviction from her home. The officers also threatened to keep her son from attending school.

"At the police station, I asked why I was attacked, but the police officer would not admit that he beat me. He asked me to sign a confession, and I refused," she said.

Christians in China are seeing the fiercest persecution in over a decade, according to a report by China Aid earlier this year.

In addition to unjust imprisonment, various news sources have reported lately that the Communist nation's government has sought to remove symbolic crosses affixed to church structures in the Zhejian province.

Some estimates indicate that since 2014 more than 100 churches have been destroyed and over 1,000 crosses have been forcibly removed.

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