BEIJING—A group of American Christians who had more than 300 Bibles confiscated by Chinese officials when they arrived in China is refusing to leave the airport until they get the books back, their leader said Monday.

Pat Klein said he and three others from his Vision Beyond Borders group spent Sunday night at the airport in the southwestern city of Kunming after customs officers took the Bibles from their checked luggage.

“I heard that there’s freedom of religion in China, so why is there a problem for us to bring Bibles?” said Klein, whose Sheridan, Wyoming-based group distributes Bibles and Christian teaching materials around the world.

The Bibles were printed in Chinese, he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

The move comes as China hosts the Olympics in Beijing, where false media reports last year claimed Bibles would be banned from the games. The state-run China Daily reported last month that 10,000 bilingual copies of the Bible would be distributed in the Olympic Village, which houses athletes and media.

In China, Bibles are printed under the supervision of the Communist government. The officially atheistic country allows them to be used only in government-sanctioned churches and in some big hotels catering to foreigners. A woman on duty at Kunming airport’s customs office confirmed over the telephone late Sunday that 315 Bibles were found in the passengers’ checked baggage. The officer, who would only give her last name, Xiao, denied confiscating the Bibles. She said authorities were just “taking care” of them and provided no further details. She later said she was not authorized to speak to the media.