Church Leader Xu Guoxing Released from Chinese Labor Camp

(Compass) – Philip Xu Guoxing, a prominent leader of an unregistered house church movement based in Shanghai, was released June 7 from labor camp in Jiangsu province. Xu had served 18 months in the camp for setting up unregistered house churches in East China . According to a close relative, he has now returned to Shanghai to be with his wife and little daughter. First arrested in March 1980, Xu was again arrested and jailed in 1989 and 1997. He performed hard labor and suffered beatings during more than six years in “re-education thru labor” camps, punishment for his refusal to join the government-controlled Three Self Patriotic Movement. Even though Xu’s fourth imprisonment has taken its toll on his health, he has consistently refused to leave China , believing God has called him to stay to build up the church.