ICC Note: Occasionally Christians in China facing persecution have the courage to try and take action through China’s notoriously opaque and corrupt legal system. For these believers in the remote Northwest province of Xinjiang, this has resulted in even greater harassment by local authorities, who only remained in check until the Christian lawyer hired by the church had left the area. ICC stands by these believers and supports them in their attempts to seek restitution. 
07/22/2012 China (China Aid) – A house church in far Western China’s region of Xinjiang that has taken legal action against local police for earlier persecution has been targeted again by local police, who detained 17 believers on Sunday and confiscated church books.
In April and May, the Hotan house church sought legal help from a Christian lawyer and filed for an administrative review for taking its church leader, Zhong Shuguang into custody in March and holding him for 15 days.They seemed to be making progress, but now the church has been targeted for a series of retaliatory actions by the local police.
On July 22, Zhong and his wife were among 17 believers who were taken into custody by police, who also confiscated the church’s books. They were all released the same day.
In early July, Domestic Security Protection agents illegally entered the house of Zhong on the pretext of investigating an illegal meeting and took its projector, computer and other computer-related items.
Last week, Beijing lawyer Zhang Kai, a Christian who has handled multiple church persecution cases, arrived in Hotan as the church’s legal representative in handling the administrative review request. The local authorities put up various kinds of obstacles, but finally agreed to give an answer in five days as to whether the request would be granted. Just after Zhang Kai left, the retaliatory action began.
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