First the Christians, now the lawyers - China attacks human rights activists, three of whom mysteriously vanish

'I hope the government could at least tell us, his family, where he is and what crimes he has committed.'

Three Chinese human rights activists have been reported missing in China's crackdown of all groups daring to defy Communist rule.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - In November, three prominent human rights activist lawyers were detained by police in separate provinces.

China's security has been targeting Christians and the lawyers and defenders willing to work for religious minority's basic human rights.

According to The Washington Post, Liu Feiyue, one of the activists recently arrested, started a website a decade ago called Civil Rights & Livelihood Watch.

The site documented protests, detentions, land seizures and other human rights  violations that remain unreported by the official communist Chinese news media.

The site, one of precious few exposing the Chinese government's atrocities, was blocked shortly after it was launched.

For the next several years, Liu was harassed, put under surveillance and was repeatedly detained - and he isn't the only one.

According to The Guardian, Christian attorney Jiang Tianyong disappeared November 21 after boarding a train from Changsha to Beijing.

He was traveling from visiting the wife of a fellow attorney, one who was detained in a major police offensive against Chinese civil rights lawyers, called the "709 crackdown," that has been ongoing since July 9, 2015.

Jiang's wife, Jin Bianling, spoke from her home in the United States, where she has lived in fear for her husband's safety since 2013.

"I am very worried about him. I am worried about his health. I am worried he might be tortured while in jail."

King's College London legal scholar, Eva Pils, is an old friend of Jiang's and expressed her concerns for his safety as well:

"I feel powerless. In my last meeting with him, in April 2016, much of our conversation revolved around the detention of his colleagues and what the authorities might do to him.

"It was clear to us that he was at a huge risk too. And yet there was nothing one could do but watch and wait for it to happen. Now it has happened and I hate the fact we have not been able to stop it and, inevitably, worry about who might be next.

"Since he has been effectively disappeared for a couple of days, and given his history of brutality at the hands of the police, I am most concerned that he might be tortured - again.

"If his detention was planned and is part of the '709' crackdown - we can't be quite sure yet - I expect that one way or another, mentally or physically, he will be tortured."

One other activists was also reported missing - Huang Qi, who has a history of being in and out of prison after years of human rights activism.

He also ran a website of human rights violations, including hundreds of cases from village officials illegally evicting residents to the detention of protesters.

Huang was taken by police from his home in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan Monday night. Coincidentally, a member of his organization has also been reported missing by several human rights groups.

Each of the missing men have either turned off their phones or had them turned off, presumably by authorities who have detained them.

With the whereabouts of each man currently unknown, Chinese Human Rights Defenders in Washington, D.C. stated there are rising "fears that they are at risk of torture."

The group added that because China is a member of the UN Human Rights Counsil (HRC), "China's campaign to silence dissent and suppress civil society has grossly breached its HRC member obligations, which require it to 'promote universal respect for the protection of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all."

Please pray for peace and an end to the Chinese government's corruption. Pray for safety on behalf of the innocent and peace to their families.

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