CHINA:AS A muggy haze hung over the Olympic city of Beijing yesterday, US president George W Bush attended a Christian service in the fiercely secular Chinese capital to call for greater religious freedom, while a leading underground church activist was detained en route to the ceremony.
After Mr Bush and first lady Laura Bush attended the service at the Kuanjie Protestant church, the US president staged a photo opportunity with parishioners on the front steps and made pointed remarks about religious freedom to the gathered crowd.
"It just goes to show that God is universal. No state, man or woman should fear the influence of loving religion," Mr Bush said.
His calls for religious freedom followed on from critical remarks about China's human rights record that angered his hosts.
Hua Huiqi, one of the most prominent underground church activists in China, was on his way to the Kuanjie church at 6.20am when he was stopped by security officers working with the religious affairs bureau, according to remarks made in a phone interview by his brother Hua Huilin, who was also detained.
Mr Hua has been practically under house arrest during the Olympic period - one of the victims of a tightening of restrictions to stamp out potential criticism or protests during the Games.
Mr Hua also helps people who have other complaints, such as those forced to relocate from their homes due to Olympic redevelopment.
The brothers were taken away and their Bibles seized. Hua Huilin was released and his brother subsequently walked out of the location where he was being held when the security officials fell asleep.
Police beat Mr Hua unconscious in October when he tried to intercede for residents evicted from their homes by private security thugs.
He served six months in jail last year for "obstructing justice" after he and his mother (78) scuffled with police as they prepared to present a petition to the government about the demolition of their home in 2001.
As a communist country that favours dialectical materialism over transubstantiation, Christianity is strictly controlled in China, and believers can only worship in officially approved churches such as the one visited by Mr Bush yesterday.
As a result, millions of people pray privately in house churches, organised by underground church groups, to avoid detection.
Nobody really knows how many Christians there are in China. The official figure is four million Roman Catholics and 10 million Protestants.
Other estimates, which factor in the underground churches, put the figure at 54 million, of which 39 million are Protestant and 14 million are Catholic.
Three American Christian activists were detained for protesting for a second day for religious freedom on Beijing's Tiananmen square.
The members of the Christian Defence Coalition were swooped on as they started a news conference and prayer vigil outside the Mao Zedong Memorial Hall.
Mr Bush also expressed sorrow for the death of the father-in-law of the US Olympic volleyball team coach, who was killed by an unemployed Chinese man on Saturday.
The death received little attention in China, although Chinese president Hu Jintao did express sorrow at the man's death.
There were further small protests by foreign activists yesterday.
A group of foreign Tibet independence activists, including a Tibetan of German nationality, were hauled off Tiananmen Square after demonstrating.
In general, the protests have ended peacefully and no arrests were reported, although several people have been deported.
Separately, there were concerns that Zeng Jinyan, wife of human rights activist Hu Jia, who was jailed this year for subversion, was missing and may have been taken into custody to stop her talking to foreign journalists.