[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
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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.
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