Beijing, China - Police have arrested six priests from China's underground Catholic church and severely beaten two of them, a United States-based religious rights group said on Tuesday.
The priests all belonged to the diocese in Zhengding county in northern China's Hebei province, said a statement from the Connecticut-based Cardinal Kung Foundation and foundation president Joseph Kung.
They were arrested on November 18, the foundation said.
Two of them, Wang Jinshan and Gao Lingshen, in their 50s, were severely beaten, it said. Gao bled profusely from his mouth.
"They were beaten savagely, very badly," Kung told AFP by telephone, saying his sources saw Chinese state security officers beat the men with their fists.
The other four priests - Guo Zhijun, 36, Zhang Xiuchi, 60, Peng Jianjun, 30, and Zhang Yinhu, 45 - were put under house arrest on the same day, then officially arrested and taken to a police station in nearby Gaocheng city, the foundation said.
Local officials declined to provide information when contacted by AFP.
"I know about the four people you mentioned, but I'm not sure if they have been detained by the police," said an official from the Gaocheng city religious affairs bureau.
It's unclear what prompted the arrests, Kung said.
"They could arrest the priests for any reason they want. They don't have to give you a reason. The fact you're underground is a reason," Kung said.
He said it may be due to the ongoing campaign to get underground churches and priests to register with the government and thereby submit to official monitoring and meddling.
"The campaign has been going on for several years but lately it's been intensified," Kung said, adding that all six priests had refused to register.
Zhengding is an area with many underground Catholics - people who belong to the unofficial Catholic Church in China rather than the government-approved "Patriotic Church."
There are approximately 100 000 underground Roman Catholics in the Zhengding diocese.
The diocese's bishop, Jia Zhiguo, was arrested on November 8 and remains in police custody. Two other priests under him were arrested a day before.
Earlier this month, another underground priest and 10 trainee priests in the town of Xushui, also in Hebei province, were arrested.
China's communist rulers strictly control all religious activities and insist that Christians can legally worship only at state-sanctioned churches, with police often arresting those who defy them.
Millions, however, prefer to attend "underground" or "house" churches, which are not registered with the government and pledge allegiance to the Roman Catholic Church and the Vatican, whose authority China refuses to recognise.