A Roman Catholic bishop in China who had been missing for six years was hospitalized under police guard, a U.S.-based monitoring group reported. The church is illegal in China.
Su Zhimin, recognized by the Vatican as bishop of Baoding, was taken to that northern city's Central Hospital around Nov. 15 for an eye operation and treatment of a heart ailment, the Cardinal Kung Foundation said.
Su, believed to be 71, was guarded by 20 plainclothes police officers and not formally registered as a patient, the U.S. group said. It was not known whether he remained hospitalized.
The bishop has spent more than 20 years in prison for rejecting Communist restrictions on religion. No information about him has been released since he was arrested in 1997 after appealing for religious rights to the National People's Congress.
China's officially atheistic government allows worship only in a government-controlled Catholic Church that denies the pope's leadership and right to appoint bishops.
Authorities continue to harass and arrest leaders of the unrecognized Roman Catholic Church, which claims an estimated 8 million or more worshippers, double the total for the government-approved body.