[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 147 (Tuesday, October 30, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1951-E1953]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      SHIXIONG LI LETTER DESCRIBING RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION IN CHINA

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. FRANK R. WOLF

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, October 30, 2001

  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, as co-chairman of the Congressional Human 
Rights Caucus, I want to share a letter I recently received from 
Shixiong Li, president of the Committee for Investigation on 
Persecution of Religion in China, Inc., regarding religious persecution 
in China. The letter notes that the passing of permanent normal trade 
relations (PNTR) has had a grave effect on House Church believers. A 
graph identifying the number of persecuted House Church believers shows 
an alarming increase of those being persecuted by the Chinese 
government since the passing of PNTR.
  I look forward to the day when the citizens of China will be free to 
worship the religion of their choosing and enjoy the basic human right 
of religious freedom.

 Committee for Investigation on Persecution of Religion in China, Inc.


A Truth-Finding Investigative Table of Chinese Government's Persecution 
                           of Family Churches

                        Preface, October 9, 2001

       For more than nine months, our members have done a lot of 
     concrete things in the U.S. and China. In Mainland China 
     alone, more than ten thousand believers have secretly 
     participated in the task of collecting and compiling 
     materials on religious persecution. Under China's 
     ``modernized despotism,'' this task, however dangerous it may 
     be, is worth doing, for what it produces is strong evidence 
     of the Chinese government's persecution of religion rather 
     than information based estimation or guess-work. It is a 
     record of Chinese communist crimes of treading on human 
     rights, with lists of true names of the victims and the real 
     location where abuse took place. For the participants, 
     nothing is more dangerous than publicizing their name list. 
     This is the reason that for now we can only put out name 
     lists of those who are dead, handicapped, imprisoned, under 
     surveillance or on the run. Other name lists will not be 
     revealed, but numbers of the persons on each of these name 
     lists are given. In addition, name lists of abusing public 
     security men and women are shown.

 A CONTRASTIVE TABLE OF NUMBERS OF FAMILY CHURCH BELIEVERS PERSECUTED BY
       THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT BEFORE AND AFTER THE PASSAGE OF PNTR
                   [Date of tabulation: October 2001]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                               May 24,
                                                1983 to May    2000 to
                                                  23, 2000    September
                                                                 2001
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Persons arrested..............................       20,861        2,825
Persons in labor reform or labor reeducation..        3,692          322
Persons wanted by the authorities.............            7  ...........
Persons forced to be on the run...............        1,104          441
Persons abused to death.......................          126            3
Persons abused to handicapping................          204            4
Persons under surveillance....................          892          105
Persons fined.................................        8,397        1,288
------------------------------------------------------------------------


                               A TRUTH-FINDING INVESTIGATIVE TABLE OF CHINESE GOVERNMENT'S PERSECUTION OF FAMILY CHURCHES
                                                           [Date of tabulation: October 2001]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                              Persons in
                                                                labor       Persons      Persons      Persons       Persons       Persons
                     Time                         Persons     reform or    wanted by    forced to    abused to     abused to       under       Persons
                                                  arrested      labor         the       be on the      death     handicapping  surveillance     fined
                                                             reeducation  authorities      run
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1983..........................................        1,584          426  ...........           29           11            13            56           28

[[Page E1952]]

 
1984..........................................          111           29  ...........            5            2             2             4            9
1985..........................................          169           44  ...........            5            3             1             6           35
1986..........................................          367           53            2            9            6             1             9           31
1987..........................................          855          264  ...........           25            4             5            17          169
1988..........................................          654          103  ...........            7            3             4            24          171
1989..........................................          724           97  ...........           29            4             9            24          213
1990..........................................          638           83  ...........           13            6             6            24          162
1991..........................................          767          156            1           30            9             5            22          324
1992..........................................          981          111  ...........           13            7            17            39          340
1993..........................................          822          151  ...........           44            6             7            34          409
1994..........................................        1,733          175  ...........           42            6            18            69          749
1995..........................................        2,853          554  ...........          198           25            33           111        1,661
1996..........................................        2,360          479            1          146           13            29           126        1,200
1997..........................................        1,826          371  ...........          122            9            23            95        1,014
1998..........................................        1,500          278            1          158            7            21            95          713
1999..........................................        2,070          249            2          166            3            10            93          970
2000..........................................          991          140  ...........          145            2             2            89          479
2001..........................................        2,681          251  ...........          359            3             2            60        1,008
                                               ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      Totals..................................       23,686        4,014            7        1,545          129           208           997        9,685
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


                                  ____
                                  

                                   Bayside, NY, September 1, 2001.
       Dear Honorable Congressman Wolf: On behalf of the 23,686 
     and ever increasing number of Chinese Christian prisoners who 
     have been imprisoned because of their religious faith, I want 
     to extend my deep gratitude to you and your colleagues for 
     your consistent and continual concern for the ongoing 
     religious persecution in China. The meeting we had the other 
     day itself was encouraging in demonstrating that there are 
     still some courageous men and women in this great country who 
     are willing to listen to the voice of the persecuted 
     faithful. Though many of you might have heard in the past few 
     years that China's human rights and religious freedom record 
     had been ``greatly improved,'' if you were to let the truth 
     and facts speak for themselves, you would have a different 
     picture. So what has really been happening to millions of the 
     silenced underground church believers in China?
       To celebrate its victory in the US Congress of the passage 
     of PNTR, and correspondent defeat of those like you who had 
     been concerned with the issue of China's religious 
     persecution, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has launched 
     more campaigns against religious believers recently without 
     any concern of international pressure being applied at all. 
     To the contrary, their response has been to strike harder and 
     more ruthlessly than ever on house-church believers. If there 
     was any meaningful signal to religious persecutors in the 
     past, it was the annual congressional review of PNTR which at 
     least served as a helpful tool, if not the most effective 
     one, to contain the human right abusers in China, or at least 
     to alert China that the situation was one of concern to the 
     US. Regrettably, even this, one of the last means to rein in 
     Chinese human right abuses, has been removed in Congress in 
     the name of the ``American economic interest.'' All that you 
     can do now to improve CCP's ``deteriorated'' human rights 
     record is to wait for the collapse of persecutors who are 
     well-aided by ``American economic interest group.''
       We are all people under God. Though practicing different 
     faiths, we all put our trust in the One and only true god. 
     While noting the importance of economic interest, 
     nevertheless we should never sacrifice human rights and 
     religious freedom in exchange for bread and toys. Moreover, 
     according to our independent investigation by some ten 
     thousand house-church believers inside China, even children 
     have become prey to the Chinese religious persecutors just 
     because their mothers and fathers are members of the house-
     church. How depraved we would be to neglect hundreds of 
     thousands of crying, scared, hungry children--many of whom 
     have no home to go--just because their parents are believers 
     in God and members of house-churches! With their homes 
     destroyed as ``illegal religious sites'' and their schools 
     rejecting them as ``unfit for communist education,'' these 
     children wrote down their stories and experiences with 
     trembling hands and fearful tears. (Please see the attached 
     two children's testimonies written in their own hands.)
       Dear Congressman Wolf, here I want you to pay special 
     attention to one fact: the passage of PNTR has had a grave 
     effect on the fate of house-church believers. Before the 
     passage of PNTR, in the eighteen years that we have had 
     records of the Chinese house-church movement, the average 
     number of believers forced to flee their homes because of 
     persecution was 63 each year. However, that number has 
     increased to 330 just one year after the passage of PNTR, a 
     five-fold increase. Moreover, before the passage of PNTR, the 
     average number of people arrested was 1,192 per year, and now 
     that number has increased to 2,118, a 70 percent increase. In 
     addition, house-church believers have been experiencing much 
     greater pressure than ever before from the fact that anyone 
     who is accused as a believers in God is subject to 
     persecution by local police. Numerous believers have been 
     arrested, tortured, and imprisoned for distributing church-
     related materials.
       Based on the above facts, I have three specific requests of 
     Congress:
       First, we plead for Congress to ask President Bush to show 
     his extensive concern over the issue of China's religious 
     persecution when he pays his state visit to China next month. 
     He can accomplish that by submitting to President Jiang Zemin 
     the list of names of Chinese religious prisoners; requesting 
     their immediate release according to Article 36 in China's 
     Constitution which claims ``Chinese people have the freedom 
     of religious belief''; and recommending the Chinese 
     government compensate those who have been the victims of the 
     persecution.
       In addition, we ask President Bush to submit another list 
     of the at least 789 severe persecutors, including some senior 
     officials such as Mr. Kun Cao, deputy director of the Public 
     Security Bureau (PSB), Nongan county, Jilin province; Mr. 
     Lianshen Zhang, deputy directof of PSB, Xinqu district, 
     Tangsha city, Hebei province, and Mr. Qing Guo, director of 
     PSB of Yeji branch, An county, Anhui province. President Bush 
     should press Chinese President Jiang to prosecute those 
     criminals, along with the law enforcement officials who 
     abused their power by carrying out religious persecution 
     using China's own Criminal Justice Law and other laws that 
     have been perverted as a means of persecuting rather than 
     protecting the Chinese citizenry. (Please see the attached 
     respective lists.)
       Second, we ask the US Congress to continue to monitor 
     China's deteriorated human rights record, particularly with 
     regard to religious persecution. Please press the cases of 
     religious prisoners and their children by seeking their 
     release and justice for them, which should include a trial of 
     the criminal police.
       Our third and final request is that the Congress continue 
     its moral endorsement and support of those conscientious 
     people who advocate and help those who are persecuted because 
     of their religious belief; that it pass legislation to 
     prevent and foreign government or its affiliated 
     organizations from monitoring, threatening, and harassing the 
     groups and individuals based in the United States who fight 
     for religious freedom in China.
       May the day of true religious freedom in China soon arrive!
       Thank you for giving me this opportunity.
       May God be with you!
       May God bless the American Congress and its people!

                                                  Shixiong Li,

                          President of Committee for Investigation
                              on Persecution of Religion in China.

                                  ____
                                  

                         Children's Testimonies


                            Testimony No. 1

       At about 5 pm, I found a police car parked behind our house 
     when I returned home after class. I was very surprised. I 
     hurried back home and found several policemen conducting an 
     intensive search of our home.
       ``Do you and your mom still believe in God?'' a policeman 
     shouted to me when he saw me come in.
       ``Yes, is there anything wrong with believing in God?'' I 
     replied nervously.
       ``It's not a matter of right or wrong. It's a matter that 
     you are not allowed to believe that.''
       I was scared to death when one policeman approached me and 
     asked, ``What's your name?''
       ``How old are you? Where are you studying?''
       After awhile, I heard one policeman shout to my mom, ``You 
     have to come with us today.''
       I was left alone, watching my mom being dragged out to the 
     police car. With extreme darkness outside and the echoing of 
     the policeman's shouting, I burst out crying suddenly. After 
     many hours, my mother came back at midnight and told me that 
     she was told that the matter was finished. After that I was 
     always afraid that someday my mom would be arrested. And, it 
     did happen at noon, when I came back home to find the door 
     locked.

[[Page E1953]]

       ``Your Mom was taken away by the policeman,'' a neighbor 
     told me. I wandered around the house, waiting for Mom in a 
     long, suffering afternoon without having anything to eat. At 
     about nine in the evening, Mom came back with bruises and 
     told me with tears: ``Mom has to leave. They (the police) 
     won't let me stay at home any longer.'' I couldn't accept 
     that. Lying on the bed without sleep, I wondered: Is Mom 
     going back home again? What shall I do? Who will cook for me? 
     Who will pick me up from school? The next morning, I knew Mom 
     was leaving but I pretended not to care about this while a 
     river of tears flowed in my heart.
       I found the door was locked and Mom had left that afternoon 
     after class. I was very anxious and desperate so I had to 
     find a place to stay. I went to stay at my cousin's home.
       At that time I thought the school was my only place to find 
     some rest. But the police would not even let me go. In the 
     beginning, they tried to know where my parents were by asking 
     my teachers to question me. The fact is I really knew nothing 
     about that except they were working somewhere. Then the 
     police started following me everyday from school to my 
     cousin's home after class. One day, a policeman rushed into 
     my cousin's home and threateningly told me, ``It's hard for 
     us to believe that you don't know where your parents are. 
     It's impossible that there is no communication between you 
     and your mom. Sooner or later we'll find and arrest her even 
     if you don't tell us.'' The most terrifying thing happened 
     when two policemen stormed into my cousin's home the night 
     before I had to take a major entrance exam for high school. 
     They searched everything everywhere, upside down, and warned 
     me before they left, ``It's not possible that your Mom won't 
     come back when you take this entrance exam. You will be 
     severely punished according to the law if you don't report it 
     immediately.'' My heart was so stirred and terrified that I 
     couldn't continue to review my class notes. Nobody from my 
     relatives came to meet me the next day after the exam; only a 
     few policemen were watching me with suspicious and evil eyes. 
     They followed me wherever I went. And I failed to enter 
     senior high school. My brother-in-law and all my other 
     relatives could not receive me because of the police's 
     harassment. How much more pressure could I bear as a teenage 
     girl? Having to throw away the beloved books of my education 
     and ideal without knowing what my tomorrow will be, I am 
     still walking outside my hometown, living life like a real 
     wanderer.


                            Testimony No. 2

       Somebody reported to the public security bureau that my 
     whole family believes in God. My parents had to run away from 
     home that night after hearing about that. Suddenly I was left 
     alone in our three-bedroom house that night. I was so 
     terrified that I turned on all the lights in the house. I 
     started crying and asking myself: Is Mom going to come back? 
     How could I live my life after this? How could I bear the 
     suffering of being separated from Mom who always cares most 
     about me?
       After that, I had to stay at my grandma's home. But the 
     police turned their attention onto me in order to find my 
     parents. In the beginning, they tried to get information 
     about my parents' whereabouts by asking my teacher to 
     question me. Failing to get any information, they started 
     harassing me by following me daily after school. I was so 
     isolated that nobody at my school dared to stay with me 
     because there were always policemen around me wherever I 
     went. Every morning when I walked to school from grandma's 
     house, a policeman came up and ``escorted'' me and sometimes 
     interrogated me as if I were a criminal.
       Because both my grandparents were over seventy years old 
     and very ill, they were not able to take care of me. And none 
     of my relatives were willing to invite me to stay with them 
     because of the fear of police. I had to leave my beloved 
     school with tears. I am now really a wanderer. Whenever I 
     wander around a school watching other children playing games, 
     I cannot help bursting out into tears. When can I resume my 
     school?

     

                          ____________________