China intensifies persecution of underground faithful as the start of the Summer Olympics in Beijing approaches. The government has built new patriotic churches and temples, and provided funds to existing sanctioned churches to improve their facilities for the Games in an effort to illustrate the religious freedoms enjoyed by Chinese citizens. At the same time, unofficial churches have been shuttered and their leadership and congregants subject to harassment, arrests, or sent to re-education through labor camps. There is a concerted effort to clear Beijing and the surrounding area of any persons involved in unsanctioned worship who might talk to foreign visitors of the press.

In other news...

House church leader Zhang Mingxuan and his wife were again arrested after refusing to leave the Beijing area until after the conclusion of the Olympic Games. Zhang had been arrested in June after meeting with US Congressional Representatives Christopher Smith and Frank Wolf.