Boise, Idaho, Christian activist Brandi Swindell was detained with two others Wednesday in Beijing's Tiananmen Square after protesting religious repression.

The protesters went to the infamous square and unfurled a banner that read in English and Chinese, "Jesus Christ is King," according to Rev. Rob Schenck, who helped organize the protest. With the Olympics set to begin Friday in Beijing there is intense media attention focused on China.

"This is a good time to expose China's repressive policies and practices," he said.

Swindell is in China with Michael McMonagle of Philadelphia and Rev. Patrick Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition in Washington, D.C., to raise awareness of the Chinese government's religious persecution and human rights abuses, specifically the practice of forced abortions, said Schenck, president of the Washington D.C.-based National Clergy Council.

After the group unfurled their banner, Mahoney decried the Tiananmen Square Massacre, during which Chinese protesters were killed in 1989 in a government crackdown. Swindell and the other protesters then knelt in prayer.

After a plainclothes officer failed to convince the protesters to leave the square more officers arrived and tried to obscure the banner with open umbrellas, Schenck said. Schenck said the officers then started prodding the protesters with the umbrellas, marched them out of the square and interrogated them for about an hour before releasing them.

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