WASHINGTON, D.C.--Public Security Bureau officers raided an underground Christian house church in China and arrested its leader, 40-year-old Chu Wei, along with his wife and 10 other Christians, according to Agape Press.

The twelve were held all day and interrogated by police, who did not allow them food or water, or access to a toilet. Police officers tried to get the Christians to sign a document renouncing their faith and their attendance at their church meetings, which the officials characterized as "evil cult" gatherings.

The officers eventually released the group, but days later, Che Wei was warned that officials with the Chinese government were going to send him to a labor camp. He went into hiding.

Voice of the Martyrs representative Todd Nettleton said the Chinese government officials are threatened by the Christian leader. "Chu Wei is the head of a group of about 50 house church meetings in China, so he has considerable influence," Nettleton said. "The government is trying to pressure him into registering all those meetings and coming under government control."

Nettleton said the government officials want Chu Wei to transfer his allegiance. "Instead of being loyal first to Jesus Christ, they want him to be loyal first to the Communist government. Obviously he refuses to do that," Nettleton said.

But for Christians in China who resist joining the official state church, Nettleton said, this kind of pressure is not unusual. "This is the normal occurence," he said, "to be put under pressure by the government, for a church group to be arrested and questioned, interrogated and intimidated -- that's an everyday occurrence in China."

Despite the pressure, the Chinese Church is growing underground, Nettleton said. "The raids, imprisonments, torture and interrogation -- all the oppressive tactics of the government -- force caution, but they cannot keep the Word from going forth."

Voice of the Martyr staff members spread the message of the myth of religious freedom in China and uge Christians in America to pray and to advocate for persecuted Christians by writing cordial letters of protest to the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C.