STAMFORD, Connecticut (CWNews.com) - A Catholic bishop serving the underground Catholic Church in Communist China, two priests, and a layman were arrested were arrested last year, according to a US-based Chinese Catholic rights organization.

    The Cardinal Kung Foundation said Bishop Han Dingxiang, 63, of Yong Nian was arrested on December 1 and has been detained for two months so far in an unknown location. The bishop had been arrested many times before according to the group. The foundation also said Wang Chenqun, a Catholic layman, was arrested in the city of Baoding just before Christmas and is being held in a labor camp. Wang has been arrested seven times in the past two decades and suffered a stroke the last time he was in a labor camp in 1997.

    The foundation also reported that Father Guo Yibao and Wang Zhenhe were arrested on Easter 1999 and being held incommunicado in a detention center, and Father Xie Guolin was arrested sometime last year, but details of the detention are unknown.

    Joseph Kung, president of the Cardinal Kung Foundation, said: "We do not know the official reasons for the arrests of these persons. However, we believe their arrests are the result of their religious activities in accordance with their conscience." The Communist Chinese government requires Christians to worship only in state-controlled associations, including the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, which eschews any connections to the Vatican or the Pope. Many Catholics worship in illegal, underground churches, following only bishops appointed by the Pope.

    Kung, nephew of the exiled Cardinal Kung, added: "In negotiating with China to enter the World Trade Organization, the countries of the free world must take serious consideration of this ongoing and severe religious persecutions in China. Any invitation or encouragement to China's entry into the world trade organization amounts to condoning the five decades of religious persecutions in China," he added.