Ruth Wang, Chinese lawyer for underground church, flees to Taiwan – rights group

Taiwan said Friday it has provided “temporary accommodation” to a Chinese citizen, after a rights group reported that a lawyer representing detained leaders of an underground church in Beijing had fled to the island.

Taiwan’s top China policy body did not identify the person, but ChinaAid said Ruth Wang, a partner at Vdoor Law Firm in Beijing, had arrived in Taiwan on Wednesday “seeking protection from Taiwanese authorities”.

ChinaAid said Wang was a lawyer for detained leaders of Zion Church, one of China’s unregistered churches that some Christians choose to worship at instead of state-sanctioned ones regulated by the government.

“Wang and her family left China because of concerns about increasing government pressure related to her legal work and representation of detained Beijing Zion Church leaders,” ChinaAid said on Thursday, citing information it had obtained and reporting by the Associated Press news agency.

Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council issued a brief statement on Friday in response to media reports about a “Chinese lawyer seeking assistance in Taiwan”.

It said the government has provided a “Chinese national transferring through a Taiwanese airport” with “temporary accommodation on humanitarian grounds and is following up on the matter”.

Members of the Zion Church, including the founder Ezra Jin, were detained in October on “suspicion of the illegal use of information networks”.

China released Jin, also known by his Chinese name Mingri, in July after US President Donald Trump raised his case with Xi Jinping.

Eight of the Zion Church members detained in October are still being held, ChinaAid said.

China’s ruling Communist Party has historically regarded organised religion with suspicion, and under Xi has tightened scrutiny of unofficial groups.

Authorities have been cracking down on unregistered churches in recent months.

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Dateline:

Taipei, Taiwan

Type of Story: News Service

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