Questions are being raised concerning the death of twenty-four-year-old Bernhard Wilden in China in December 2006, which was ruled a suicide at the time.  A German newspaper is now suggesting that the visiting student was murdered by Chinese secret police over his association with an unauthorised house church.

Days before his death, the young man phoned his parents and sent an e-mail saying that he felt “threatened” and was being “monitored by Chinese secret police”.  He also said he wanted to come home.

It [Welt am Sonntag “World on Sunday”] quoted his parents, Regina and Gerhard Wilden, as saying they doubt he committed suicide as suggested by Chinese police investigators. Officials said at the time that Bernhard, who studied Sinology, or 'Chinese Studies', died because he jumped from a fire staircase of a high building in Haidian, Beijing's main student district.
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His parents described their son as someone for whom "suicide was unthinkable because of his faith" in Christ. "Our son was a balanced person with excellent study results," they told Welt am Sonntag. They said he was apparently killed because of his close ties with an underground Chinese house church, which was not recognized by authorities. Gerhard Wilden claimed he only found out about his son's church activities last month during a visit to China to investigate Bernhard's death.

His investigation turned up contradictions and implausibilities in the official finding of suicide.

China has recently stepped up persecution and intimidation of Christians in advance of the upcoming Olympic Games.

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