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Li Guozhi, or Pastor Yang Hua, was sentenced for 30 months for exposing document outlining official plan for the destruction of his church<\/span><\/p> <\/p> PUBLISHED : Sunday, 08 January, 2017, 9:02am<\/span><\/p> <\/p> <\/p> <\/p> UPDATED : Sunday, 08 January, 2017, 9:02am<\/span><\/p> <\/p> <\/p> <\/p> A 39-year-old house church pastor who was sentenced in absentia on December 30 to two and a half years for leaking state secrets in southwest China’s Guizhou province but was only informed of the verdict last week said he will seek an appeal.<\/span><\/p> <\/p> <\/p> <\/p> Li Guozhi, known as Pastor Yang Hua with the Living Stone Church in the provincial capital Guiyang, had pleaded not guilty at a closed-door hearing on December 26 in Nanming district court. A written verdict was handed down four days after the hearing but it did not reach him or his lawyers by mail until this week.<\/span><\/p> <\/p> <\/p> <\/p> Why are Chinese Christians so concerned about new religious affairs regulations?<\/span><\/p> <\/p> <\/p> <\/p> Critics labelled the case religious persecution, part of an intensifying trend by Beijing to crack down unsanctioned religious groups.<\/span><\/p> <\/p> A pastor commenting on the case who refused to be named for fear of retribution described the verdict as “ridiculous”.<\/span><\/p> <\/p> “<\/span>It is religious persecution inside and out with legal and political implications? It is truly sad and disappointing,” said the pastor.<\/span><\/p> <\/p> <\/p> <\/p> <\/p> <\/p> Li was accused of forwarding a social media post containing a document that was deemed as state secret by Guizhou authorities. The document concerned a plan to crack down on the Living Stone Church in 2015, according to the verdict. Li also distributed a letter calling for prayers for the church in the online post.<\/span><\/p> <\/p> Living Stone was eventually shut down, with hundreds of members dispersed. Only a few dozen meet privately at individual houses today. Authorities sealed the church’s 600-square-metre office worth 5 million yuan (HK$5.6 million) suspended its bank accounts .<\/span><\/p> <\/p> In December 2015, Li was placed in administrative detention for five days for disturbing public order and was officially arrest the following month for leaking state secrets.<\/span><\/p> <\/p> He remained locked up in Nanming district detention centre for more than a year while another pastor of the church, Su Tianfu, who was placed under a year-long residential surveillance, and two other Christians were charged by with the same crime.<\/span><\/p> <\/p> Hundreds of police dismantle cross at Wenzhou church, while fire guts Ningbo cathedral<\/span><\/p> <\/p> <\/p> <\/p> “<\/span>The so-called state secret was a document prepared by a temporary city administrative task force calling for the destruction of Living Stone Church. But the decision itself was illegal and should have been exposed instead,” said Shandong-based lawyer Zhao Yonglin.<\/span><\/p> <\/p> According to a defence statement prepared by Zhao and Chen Jiangang, another lawyer for Li, alleged that Pastor Yang Hua had been tortured and verbally abused to make a confession several times last year, but prosecutors denied this in the verdict.<\/span><\/p> <\/p> Days before Li’s hearing, Su was escorted away from Guiyang by secret state security agents, according to Wang Hongwu, Li’s wife, who was barred from attending the trial.<\/span><\/p> <\/p> “<\/span>I knew nothing about the verdict until this week,” said Wang. The couple have two sons, aged 15 and six.<\/span><\/p> <\/p> “<\/span>Yang Hua is appealing and I’m backing him all the way. The verdict is in the hands of the Lord. I trust that He will never do us wrong,” said Wang.<\/span><\/p> <\/p> Wang said she was thankful for one thing despite of the ordeal watching the church, one of the largest in Guiyang, being destroyed and her husband being locked away.<\/span><\/p> <\/p> “<\/span>I was told that he is very popular inside prison. Most inmates don’t know his name but they call him Jesus. That must be all he talks about inside,” Wang said.<\/span><\/p> <\/p> China<\/span>’s house churches, both Protestant and Catholic, operate independently from state-sanctioned religious organisations.<\/span><\/p> <\/p> The State Council’s Legislative Affairs Office recently considered introducing a tougher regulations on religious affairs, prompting concerns that house churches will be the state’s next target following last year’s massive crackdowns on lawyers and NGOs.<\/span><\/p> <\/p> <\/p> Since 2014, a campaign in Zhejiang province has seen crosses removed from atop churches.<\/span><\/p> <\/p> It is estimated there are at least 60 million Christians in China, a third of whom belonging to official churches.<\/span><\/p> <\/p> Hundreds of police dismantle cross at Wenzhou church, while fire guts Ningbo cathedral<\/span><\/p> <\/p> <\/p> <\/p> Dr Fan Yafeng, a legal expert and director of the Holy Mountain Institute in Beijing, said house church Christians comprised the largest NGO outside party control, which worried authorities deeply.<\/span><\/p> <\/p> “<\/span>Living Stone is a small case in major cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, but it was a major crackdown target in a backwater city like Guiyang,” Fan said.<\/span><\/p> <\/p> In 2014, Pastor Zhang Shaojie of the Nale County Christian Church in Henan province, a sanctioned church, was sentenced to 12 years for fraud and for gathering crowds to disturb public order.<\/span><\/p> <\/p>