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Chinese police arrested more than 100 house-church leaders who were meeting for a retreat in the western Xinjiang Autonomous Region, according to a U.S.-based advocacy group.

The Christians were surrounded by more than 200 military police, Public Security Bureau officers and others who arrived at the scene July 12 in 46 police and military vehicles, reported the Voice of the Martyrs. No arrest warrants or official identification papers were shown by officers as they carried out the raid, VOM said.

Thirty of the leaders still are being held near the retreat center in Liu Gong Town and the others have been transported to their home areas where they are under detention of the local Public Security Bureau.

Several have been confined in the bureau's "Transformation and Study Center" where they will be interrogated and pressured to renounce their faith, VOM said. Those who resist likely will be formally charged and tried.

The U.S.-based persecution monitor said the "co-workers meeting" was held to train and encourage Christian workers in China's western frontier province, the home of the mostly Muslim Uighur people. The meeting was sponsored by the Ying Shang Church, a large house-church network headquartered in Anhui province.

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SI Moderator - Greg Gordon

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SI Moderator - Greg Gordon