A prominent Chinese
pastor and legal scholar is one of 100 Christians detained by authorities after
he was reportedly arrested on allegations of "inciting subversion of state
power."
Wang Yi and his wife,
Jiang Rong, were taken into police custody early last week in the city of
Chengdu, where they run the Early Rain Covenant Church, according to ChinaAid,
a US-based nonprofit that advocates on behalf of China's Christian communities.
A church parishioner,
who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed Wang's arrest in a phone call
with CNN.
Authorities with
China's National Religion Bureau did not respond to a request from CNN seeking
comment.
Western governments
and civil rights advocates outside China have condemned the mass arrest of the
Early Rain parish as the latest move in Beijing's stepped up crackdown on
independent religious practice.
China has been accused
of carrying out a systematic campaign of human rights violations against
hundreds of thousands of Muslim Uyghurs in the far western region of Xinjiang.
China says its actions there are meant at combating violent extremism, and it
has repeatedly
denied
claims that the region has turned into an Orwellian surveillance state.
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