The World - News from April 24, 1988
An underground preacher who spreads the Christian gospel in China was arrested in Beijing after he went there to hear evangelist Billy Graham, a religious rights activist in Hong Kong said. Xu Yongzhe, from China’s central Henan province, was detained April 16, one day before Graham preached in a Beijing church, said Jonathan Chao, director of the Chinese Church Research Center. China permits freedom of worship, but proselytizing is banned. Since 1980, Xu’s team of evangelists has established more than 3,000 local churches that are loosely associated, Chao said.
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