Police have charged an activist for China's unofficial Christian church with revealing state secrets more than a month after he was detained while investigating church demolitions, a U.S.-based church activist said Wednesday.
Authorities in the eastern city of Hangzhou issued a formal arrest notice for Liu Fenggang on Tuesday, said Bob Fu, citing unidentified police sources. That step clears the way for Liu's likely indictment and trial.
Fu said police earlier this month denied a request by Liu's lawyer to visit his client, saying that was not permitted in cases involving state secrets. Authorities have not said what sort of secrets Liu was accused of revealing, according to Fu, who heads the China Aid Association, which is based in the Philadelphia suburb of Glenside.
Liu's Beijing lawyer, Zhao Jian, said his client was under investigation on state secrets charges, but declined to discuss details of the case over the telephone.
China's sweeping state secrets law is ill-defined and broadly applied. Those charged under it have included independent labor organizers, representatives of householders whose dwellings were destroyed in urban renewal projects and people who have posted political essays on the Internet.
Liu was detained on Oct. 13 in Hangzhou while visiting with leaders of destroyed churches who had recently been released from detention. About one dozen Christian churches have been torn down over recent weeks by authorities in the Hangzhou area after they were labeled illegal religious venues.
Police at Hangzhou's Xiaoshan district said they had no information about Liu's case and repeatedly transferred calls without answering questions.
Fu called on U.S. President George W. Bush to push for Liu's release when meeting with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in Washington next month.
"This is such an obvious case of using the so-called law to carry out religious persecution," Fu said in a news release.
China's officially atheistic Communist authorities allow worship only in tightly controlled state churches and those who meet outside are routinely harassed and fined, and sometimes sent to labor camps.
While the official Protestant church, the awkwardly named "Three-Self Patriotic Movement," claims 10 million followers, up to 50 million are believed to worship in unofficial Protestant congregations.