07/17/2021 China (International Christian Concern) – On June 19, Zhejiang Province’s state security officers arrested Chen Wensheng, a Christian from Hengyang City, Hunan province. After transporting him back to Hengyang, Chinese Communist Party (CCP) authorities held Mr. Chen for twenty days under residential surveillance at the West Lake Resort.
During his detainment, the Bureau of Ethnic and Religious Affairs leaders and the State Security department interrogated Mr. Chen. They tried to get him to stop preaching the gospel on the streets.
Mr. Chen was released on July 8. Throughout his time detained, CCP security officers communicated with him almost continuously. They told MR. Chen that they knew exactly where he had preached the gospel over the last two decades.
According to China Aid, CCP authorities knew all of the trips Mr. Chen had made in that timeline to different places throughout China, as well as the individuals who had traveled with him. The officers even had documented when Mr. Chen had traveled with four other Christians through numerous countries on their way to Tibet, where they preached the gospel.
In response to this unsettling information, Mr. Chen recently said, “Thank God for the CCP’s thorough knowledge of the fact that I go to different places to preach the gospel. They recounted my record as if they were enumerating the heirlooms of their own family. Authorities also told me that by 2021, I had been to other regions to proclaim the gospel more than 1,000 times.”
On the afternoon of July 8, the officers who had watched and interrogated Brother Chen for 20 days ordered several take-out dishes and beverages, treating Brother Chen to one last dinner at the West Lake Resort where he was locked up.
Brother Chen later said, “I am so thankful that the guards showed mercy to me this time. Thank God for their thorough love and care… that I experienced the special treatment of ‘the gospel commissioner of God’s kingdom. May my God have mercy on them and grant them faith so that they will respond to my Lord Jesus’ salvation… In the Lord’s holy name… Amen.”
