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| Ruan Haoan sits in his home with his wife, Luo Caixia, as well as their son and his elderly mother. |
ChinaAid
(Jiangmen, Guangdong—Feb. 24, 2018) A house church Christian in China’s southern Guangdong province has been blacklisted out of employment after being arrested for his faith.
Ruan Haoan, a member of Fengle Church in the city of Jiangmen, discovered that after his release from a month-long detention last year, employers in the area have been warned not to hire him. Though he serves as a receptionist for the church, before his detention he was a hotel chef, but now, none will give him a job.
Both he and a pastor of the church, Li Wanhua, were accused of “using an evil cult to undermine law enforcement” and detained in June 2017. Police tried to coerce Ruan into signing an admission of engaging in “cult activities” but Ruan refused and was sent to criminal detention. Both were released about a month later on bail.
“When I came out,” Ruan said, “I went to work at the original hotel. They would not hire me, saying I was a cultist. None of the big hotels wanted me either. After checking my ID, they said they knew I had been detained and was in a cult. Some hotels asked me to wait for a response at home, but I never got an answer. Now, I can only work in a small restaurant for minimum wage.”
There are five people in Ruan’s family. He cares for his elderly mother and his wife just gave birth to his second child. “I now have to support five people on my own income. I do not know how to feed my family if the wages are so low and I have no stable job.”
Fengle Church has dozens of members who meet once a week. During the June arrests, police confiscated 12 Bibles, 48 hymnals, and more than 1,000 leaflets from the church.
ChinaAid reports on instances of religious persecution, such as the discrimination against Ruan Haoan and Fengle Church, in order to expose abuses committed by the Chinese government and promote religious freedom and rule of law.
ChinaAid Media Team
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