Plans for quake anniversary commemoration fuel arrests

BEIJING — On the 10th anniversary of China’s deadliest earthquake in decades, police on Saturday detained an outspoken pastor and blocked a planned service to mourn the 70,000 or more people killed when whole towns and villagers were crushed.

The anniversary of the earthquake, which rippled across Sichuan province in southwest China on May 12, 2008, has been a time of renewed mourning for survivors, while the ruling Communist Party has used the date to praise China’s reconstruction of devastated areas.

But officials in Sichuan have sought to stifle any unapproved commemorations that could rekindle angry questions about why many new buildings, including schools, collapsed in the 7.9-magnitude quake.

On Friday night, police detained Wang Yi, a Protestant pastor whose independent church planned to hold a memorial service Saturday morning in Chengdu, the provincial capital of Sichuan, his wife, Jiang Rong, said.

He was released Saturday night after about 24 hours in detention, she said later.

Police also took away dozens of people who arrived for the planned service Saturday morning, and they used trucks to remove publications belonging to the church, indicating that a broader move was underway against the congregation, known as the Early Rain Covenant Church.

Another church leader, Li Yingqiang, was formally held for questioning and released Saturday night, Jiang and other supporters of the church said.

“Today more than 200 brothers and sisters were taken away by the police, and three still have not been released,” Wang said in a phone message to members of his church.

Police in Chengdu did not answer calls, or said they did not know about the case.