BEIJING - In the 1960s, when he was 12, Gong Shengliang preached to tiny, clandestine groups of Chinese Christians worshipping in farmers' homes. In the 1980s, he founded his own South China Church and drew thousands of followers. But China's rulers saw a threat to their authority, and they banned Gong's group as a cult.
On Dec. 8, after being tried in secret, he was sentenced to death for rape and "using a cult to sabotage the enforcement of state law," according to human rights monitors and members of his church who obtained a summary of the ruling. They said two of Gong's colleagues also were sentenced to death.
If true, it is the heaviest penalty known in recent years in a crackdown on independent religious activity.
"I'm very happy to be imprisoned for Christ. I hate only that I am unable to pay back all debts, those of spirit and of money," Gong, 51, wrote in a letter smuggled from prison in December.
The treatment of underground Christians is drawing increasing attention and could be an issue when President Bush visits Beijing this week.
Bush expressed concern over a Hong Kong man arrested last year bringing Bibles to another banned Christian group.
On Wednesday, the Vatican's missionary news agency released the names of 33 bishops and priests it said were either detained or being kept under strict police surveillance.
It said about 20 more priests, their names not known, were also being detained.
The Chinese leadership "has never given up its idea that religious freedom can only be a controlled semi-freedom," the agency, Fides, said.
Yet even as Chinese leaders vow to continue their crackdown, Chinese Christians and religious activists abroad say some officials are pushing for a deal to let them worship openly if they register with the government.
That would end the threat of arrest for millions of Christians, but the groups have refused registration in the past.
China officially sanctions only Protestant congregations that are affiliated with a government-approved organization and a Roman Catholic church whose bishops are acceptable to communist officials and not appointed by the pope.