China Arrests and Expels U.S. Evangelist : Human rights: Nation has long had laws against religion. But move comes as Washington weighs renewal of its trade status.

Chinese authorities have expelled an American evangelist in the most dramatic example yet of a recent crackdown on foreign religious activity in China.

Dennis Balcombe, pastor at the nondenominational Revival Christian Church in Hong Kong, told reporters here on Wednesday that public security officials raided an underground church in a house in the central province of Henan.

He said he was staying at the house with six colleagues--two Americans, two Indonesians and two Hong Kong residents.

The police confiscated their belongings, detained them for several days, then “personally escorted” Balcombe to the airport.

The other six were released separately.

“We were seized on Feb. 10 . . . and accused Feb. 15 of violating new regulations dealing with foreigners and religious activities,” Balcombe said. “I don’t know if this is an isolated incident or an enforcement of a new policy to restrict the activities of Christian foreigners working in China.”

In Washington, the State Department expressed concern Wednesday over the failure of Chinese authorities to inform U.S. officials of the arrests. Christine Shelly said U.S. officials learned of them three days later from a relative of one of the detainees.

“We are concerned that Chinese officials did not promptly notify the embassy about the detention of the U.S. citizens and that we had to learn about it from outside sources,” she said.

The Chinese government has always had laws against religion, but they are enforced inconsistently.

The new rules specifically ban proselytizing by foreigners and forbid churches from engaging in what the government calls destructive, unauthorized or overseas-financed activities.

“I think what these detentions and expulsions show is that the regulations issued by the (Chinese) authorities last month do indeed signal an increased crackdown on unofficial church movements in China,” said Robin Munro, Hong Kong director of the Asia Watch human rights monitoring organization.

The measures come amid growing concern in Washington that China is not living up to international human rights standards, which may jeopardize the renewal of China’s most-favored-nation trading status in June.

“This shows the depth of the (Chinese) authorities’ fear and anxiety about the rapidly developing unofficial Christian movement across China, which they see as a threat to the society and to the (Chinese Communist) party,” Munro said. “It also shows that the authorities in China don’t really take this MFN threat seriously yet.”

Officials in Henan province declined to comment on Balcombe’s expulsion.