[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 131 (Monday, September 19, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: September 19, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
            RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION BY THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT

                                 ______


                          HON. CHRISTOPHER COX

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, September 19, 1994

  Mr. COX. Mr. Speaker, many of us have had serious doubts about the 
Clinton administration's abandonment of any human rights agenda in 
China. The recent visit of Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown to China was 
a particularly vivid illustration of the new Clinton policy: Secretary 
Brown ostentatiously avoided any public, and virtually any private, 
reference to human rights; and the Chinese Government did its share in 
keeping the issue off the agenda--arresting dozens of dissidents just 
prior to his visit.
  You will recall that one of the principal justifications for 
President Clinton's backflip on human rights was that his new policy 
would actually be more effective than his old one in promoting respect 
for human rights in China. The emerging evidence is not encouraging. 
News Network International, a worldwide news service specializing in 
religious freedom issues, has recently published a series of reports on 
the Chinese Government's escalating campaign of religious persecution--
a campaign that has increased in ferocity in the months after President 
Clinton tore up his China-MFN Executive order. I ask that this 
disturbing evidence be reflected in the Record.

                Fangcheng House Church Leaders Flee City


                        imminent arrests feared

                  (By Andrew Wark, NNI Correspondent)

       Hong Kong.--Seven key house church leaders from the central 
     Chinese city of Fangcheng in Henan Province fled their homes 
     in early July, saying they will be arrested by local police 
     if they return.
       According to Hong Kong church sources who spoke to one of 
     the fugitive church leaders in early August, police have 
     identified the seven as Fangcheng's key ``underground'' 
     church leaders and blame them for the large number of 
     itinerant evangelists that the local house church movement 
     has sent throughout China.
       Although authorities have not issued warrants for their 
     arrest, the church leaders say that Public Security Bureau 
     (PSB) officials in Fangcheng have made it clear that they 
     will be detained if they return.
       The leaders told sources that the July 1 arrests of two 
     Fangcheng itinerant evangelists in Guilin, Guangxi Province, 
     has raised the prospect of their arrests. Authorities in 
     Guilin, who launched a crackdown on ``illegal religious 
     activities'' in early July, are said to be linking the 
     presence of the two itinerant evangelists with the Fangcheng 
     house church movement at large.
       The fugitive church leaders are now concerned that the 
     Guilin arrests will provide precedent for the Fangcheng 
     authorities to issue national warrants for their arrests.
       Under the Chinese government's ``three designates'' 
     religious policy, only designated registered church personnel 
     may preach at a designated registered religious venue at a 
     designated time. As such, itinerant evangelists who are 
     associated with the unregistered house church movement are 
     usually viewed with opposition by the government and are 
     often referred to as ``hostile elements who use religion to 
     conduct criminal activity.''
       In early February, police in Fangcheng arrested five 
     foreign Christians after accusing them of violating the 
     nation's newly-promulgated religious regulations. All five 
     were detained in police custody for five days.
       Seven Chinese house church Christians were apprehended at 
     the same time, but were released within three weeks of their 
     arrest.
       According to Hong Kong sources, international media 
     coverage of the foreigners' arrests served as a catalyst to 
     many Fangcheng house church Christians, who subsequently 
     embarked on a series of evangelistic crusades throughout the 
     region. The campaigns are said to have resulted in several 
     thousand people in the Fangcheng area converting to 
     Christianity during February and March.
       Henan has long been regarded as the epicenter of the 
     unregistered house church movement, and according to sources 
     within the PSB, Fangcheng is now regarded by China's central 
     government as the hub of Henan's ``illegal'' house church 
     movement.
                                  ____


         Christian Arrested for Association With Union Movement


 protestant group issues international plea on behalf of all christian 
                               dissidents

                  (By Andrew Wark, NNI Correspondent)

       Hong Kong.--Police arrested a prominent member of a state-
     sanctioned church in Beijing on July 10, for allegedly 
     associating with independent trade union dissidents.
       Details regarding the arrest of Liu Huanwen (in his early 
     30s) are sketchy, as there has been no contact with him since 
     he was taken into policy custody. It is also not known if 
     formal charges have been filed against him.
       Liu, a former seminarian with the Three-Self Patriotic 
     Movement, the officially recognized Protestant church in 
     China, previously spent more than two years in a labor camp 
     for carrying a six-foot (two meter) wooden cross through 
     Tiananmen Square during the 1989 pro-democracy student 
     protests.
       Meanwhile, the unregistered Protestant Christian group 
     known as the Sacred Love Fellowship, has appeal to Christians 
     worldwide and ``everyone in the world who loves democracy and 
     freedom'' to support Chinese church members who have recently 
     been arrested in Beijing for associating with dissidents.
       Despite the inherent risks in contacting the foreign press, 
     the group issued a written appeal to reporters based on 
     Beijing on August 1, and acknowledges that some members of 
     their group joined the 1989 student demonstrations and took 
     part in founding an independent trade union movement.
       The plea asserts that several prominent dissident labor 
     union activists, including detained union leader Wei 
     Jingsheng, have attended the group's prayer meetings and 
     Bible studies in the past.
       The appeal makes reference to Liu's July 10 arrest; 
     highlights the case of Xiao Biguang, a detained Beijing 
     Christian academic who was arrested April 12 for co-founding 
     an independent labor union movement; and refers to the 
     imprisonment of Gao Feng, a Beijing Christian who was 
     incarcerated between May 28 and July 6 for allegedly 
     criticizing China's poor human rights record.
       The group's petition also focuses on the cases of four 
     other local Christians--Wu Rengang, Liu Fenggang, Hua Huiqi 
     and Xu Yonghai--who were arrested and briefly detained in 
     recent months for ``illegal'' preaching activities. No 
     further details are currently available regarding these 
     cases.
       In the past, most Chinese Christians have been reluctant to 
     comment on political issues and have abstained from 
     participating in political protests. China church analysts 
     say the recent cases involving some Beijing Christians in 
     independent trade union movements are isolated, and that the 
     vast majority of Chinese Christians are ``apolitical.''
       China's communist leaders are sensitive to Christian 
     participation in free trade union movements, following the 
     key role the Catholic church played in helping union 
     movements topple Poland's socialist government in 1989.
                                  ____


         Police Harass Wife of Murdered House Church Christian

                  (By Andrew Wark, NNI Correspondent)

       Hong Kong.--The widow of a Chinese house church Christian 
     who was beaten to death in a Hunan Province police cell in 
     January has been repeatedly harassed by security officials 
     and kept under tight police surveillance, according to 
     Chinese house church sources.
       Sources say Public Security Bureau officials have 
     interrogated Yin Dongxiu numerous times since May, after she 
     filed a legal suit against local police and the PSB, whom she 
     blames for her husband's death.
       Yin's husband, Zheng Musheng, was arrested in Dongkou 
     County, southwestern Hunan, on January 5 after being accused 
     by police of fraud and spreading religious fallacies.
       In her lawsuit, Yin alleges that Zheng was repeatedly 
     tortured by security officials after his arrest in an effort 
     to make him confess his crimes. He died the following day of 
     injuries incurred while in detention. Relatives who later 
     viewed his body said there were rope burns around Zheng's 
     neck and ankles, and multiple stab wounds on his torso.
       Authorities in Dongkou later acknowledged Zheng was 
     murdered while in police custody, but claim he died at the 
     hands of 13 inmates.
       House church sources say security officials were angered by 
     the international media coverage of Zheng's murder and have 
     accused Yin of releasing the information. They say Yin's 
     house has been ransacked by local police, and she has been 
     threatened with arrest.
       Yin's legal case against local police and the Public 
     Security Bureau is believed to have made little progress 
     since she filed the preliminary lawsuit earlier this year.
                                  ____


                  Three Guilin Church Workers Arrested


                      religious tensions escalate

                  (By Andrew Wark, NNI Correspondent)

       Hong Kong.--Two itinerant evangelists and a church leader 
     were arrested July 1 by Public Security Bureau officials in 
     the southwestern city of Guilin, in an apparent crackdown on 
     unregistered Protestant activities. Several ``illegal'' house 
     churches have also been closed, according to Hong Kong 
     sources who recently returned from the region.
       According to reports, security officials arrested the 
     itinerant evangelists--a man and a woman, both from Henan 
     Province and in their mid-20s--after raiding a house church 
     where they were living. The leader of the unregistered church 
     was also arrested during the raid. The names of the three 
     church workers have not yet been released.
       The three workers were reportedly interrogated at the 
     Guilin headquarters of Public Security and remain in police 
     detention, although it is still not known if official charges 
     have yet been filed.
       Following the raid, security officers placed the house 
     under surveillance, later arresting two other unregistered 
     Christians as they entered the premises. The two Christians 
     were briefly detained in a Public Security lockup and 
     interrogated about their association with the house church.
       Sources in Guilin say security officials raided at least 
     four other house churches throughout the city in July, 
     ordering them closed and placing them under police 
     surveillance. Several key house church leaders have since 
     fled the city, fearing arrest.
       According to one Hong Kong church source who travels 
     regularly to China, the heightened tensions between Guilin's 
     Public Security Bureau and house churches is unusual, given 
     the popularity of the city as an international tourist 
     destination.
       Some Guilin house church members allege that the recent 
     escalation in police activities follows actions by leaders of 
     Guilin's state-sanctioned Protestant Three-Self Patriotic 
     Movement (TSPM) to highlight the illegality of the house 
     churches.
       Sources say several of the city's older TSPM leaders took 
     action against the ``underground'' churches after younger 
     TSPM clerics expressed sympathy and solidarity toward the 
     local house churches. There are an estimated 20 unregistered 
     house churches in Guilin.

                          ____________________