[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 161 (Monday, November 2, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2676-E2678]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  CHINESE HUMAN RIGHTS ATTORNEYS TESTIFY BEFORE THE TOM LANTOS HUMAN 
                           RIGHTS COMMISSION

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. FRANK R. WOLF

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, November 2, 2009

  Mr. WOLF. Madam Speaker, I would like to draw the attention of my 
colleagues to the following testimonies of two Chinese human rights 
attorneys who submitted testimony for a hearing last week of the Tom 
Lantos Human Rights Commission.

[Written Testimony submitted to the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission 
              on the rule of law in China, Oct. 29, 2009]

    By Cracking Down on Heresies, the Government Reduces Venues for 
                  Religious Activities in Rural Areas

                         (By Mr. Wang Guangze)

       From May 2006 to July 2007, I was working as Beijing-based 
     editor and commentator for the magazine Phoenix Weekly, a 
     subsidiary operation of Phoenix Satellite TV. During that 
     period of time, I had tried to make some reports on the 
     status of religious freedom. Phoenix Satellite TV and its 
     subsidiary magazine Phoenix Weekly were registered in Hong 
     Kong, but due to their pro-CPC features, the CPC gave them 
     the special permission to set up a reporter's station in 
     Beijing and recruit employees. The restrictions on its scope 
     of news reporting are rather lax as compared with other media 
     outlets in mainland China. This is also the main reason why 
     this witness was able to report on religious cases, while 
     other media outlets in China had no such right to report on 
     related content during the same period of time.
       The religious case of ``Three Grades of Servants'' was 
     published in the eleventh issue of Phoenix Weekly in 2006, in 
     a Chinese article of as many as 11,000 characters. The entire 
     report consisted of three articles: ``An underground church 
     and sixteen cases involving death,'' ``Xu Wenku and his 
     religious kingdom,'' and ``Religious reality in a rural 
     village.'' The entire report was written by two journalists, 
     Deng Fei and Liu Zhiming, after they conducted interviews. 
     They were notified by a witness, who also gave guidance on 
     conducting interviews. In the end, I edited on the articles 
     and published them.
       Through investigations and interviews, we found that the 
     mainland Chinese Public Security department and prosecution 
     department accused ``Three Grades of Servants,'' a Christian 
     church under the management of Xu Wenku, of carrying out an 
     order to murder twenty members of another Christian house 
     church that called itself ``the Lightning in the Orient.'' 
     Both police and prosecution agencies believed that the two 
     parties not only had the motive of competing for the 
     recruitment of believers, but that there were also conflicts 
     between their religious creeds. After the case was cracked, 
     mainland Chinese police effectively cracked down upon this 
     type of mutual hate-killings between different religious 
     factions, stopping this kind of hate-killing from spreading. 
     In the meantime, mainland police also destroyed the religious 
     activities of the two house churches. According to estimates, 
     the religious belief of tens of thousands of people's may 
     have been affected.
       According to the indictment, Xu Wenku and others swindled 
     people out of 20.5 million RMB in various parts of mainland 
     China by illegally hiring believers and collecting 
     contributions, etc. At the beginning of 2007, Xu Wenku and 
     other core members of ``Three Grades of Servants'' Church 
     were sentenced to death and were immediately executed.
       Through investigations and interviews, we believe that the 
     relatively secluded venues for religious activities in rural 
     areas have given rise to religious heresies or have led some 
     people to be engaged in illegal activities in the name of 
     religion. On the other hand, mainland police, while cracking 
     down on heresies, also take the opportunity to destroy venues 
     for religious activities in rural areas, reducing the number 
     of venues for villagers' religious activities. I believe that 
     mainland police have failed to distinguish the normal 
     religious activities from the illegal and criminal behavior 
     in the religious activities that should be cracked down. As a 
     result, the religious environment in the countryside 
     continues to deteriorate and has entered into a sort of 
     vicious cycle: While cracking down on heresies, the venues 
     for religious activities were reduced. After the venues for 
     religious activities were reduced, the religious activities 
     of villagers were forced to be more secret, and secret 
     religious activities often tend to nourish the creation of 
     heresies and varying degrees of illegal religious activities.
       For more evidence, please view the following relevant 
     report at: http://www.boxun.com/hero/wanggz/.
                                 ______
                                 

[Written Testimony submitted to the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission 
              on the rule of law in China, Oct. 29, 2009]

   Expecting the Second Transformation of China's Religious Policies

                            (By Mr. Cao Zhi)


             1. Four stages of religious policies in China

       1. In the 1950s before the Cultural Revolution, the system 
     of administration of religions was formed. The basic 
     characteristics of the system were that the religious 
     organizations were politicized, were classified under the 
     administration as a `work unit,' and everything in terms of 
     religious life was simplified. In 1978, after the Cultural 
     Revolution, the political program of the country turned to 
     the ``priority of economic development'' from the ``class 
     struggle.'' In March 1982, ``Basic Viewpoints and Basic 
     Policies of Religious Issues of Our Country During the Period 
     of Socialism'' (i.e. Document No. 19) was promulgated. This 
     was the first transformation of religious policies in China. 
     On the one hand, this document required the restoration of 
     religious activities held by religious organizations at sites 
     designated for religious activities. On the other hand, 
     however, the predominant idea was that ``class struggles 
     still exist within certain areas,'' and it confined the 
     religious activities within the ``normal limits.'' In 1982, 
     Article 36 of the Constitution, essentially the ``Clause on 
     Religious Belief,'' was formulated based on the religious 
     policies defined in Document 19. With its promulgation, the 
     state now must recognize what it considers ``normal religious 
     activities,'' while at the same time, it must prohibit or 
     crack down on religious activities outside its control. The 
     idea of ``the state protects normal religious activities'' 
     must be interpreted in the context of this contradiction.

[[Page E2677]]

       2. After the third wave of the democratic movement in 1989, 
     referred to as ``Catholic wave'' by Huntington, the ruling 
     party mistakenly believed that the church was against its 
     rule. Therefore, the ideas of ``class struggle'' and 
     ``friends and enemies'' fueled a boost in religious 
     [restrictive] policies. In 1991, the ``Notification from the 
     Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and the 
     State Council on Several Questions Concerning Doing a Good 
     Job in Religious Affairs'' (i.e. Document 6) was established. 
     For the first time, this document unequivocally proposed 
     ``administration of religious affairs in accordance with 
     law.'' It further proposed to ``speed up the legislation on 
     religious issues.'' Document 6 demanded that the State 
     Administration of Religious Affairs under the State Council, 
     governments in various provinces, autonomous regions and 
     municipalities remain directly under the jurisdiction of the 
     central government-led regulations in cases concerning 
     religion. Between 1991 and 1999, two administrative 
     regulations were formulated and promulgated at the same time 
     by the State Council on January 31, 1994. In the meantime, 
     the State Administration of Religious Affairs under the State 
     Council also formulated four administrative regulations. In 
     the past 10 years, with the exception of Beijing and Shanxi, 
     29 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly 
     under the jurisdiction of the central government completed 
     the religious legislation. Among them, the comprehensive laws 
     and regulations from 16 provinces, autonomous regions and 
     municipalities directly under the central government adopted 
     a format with 10 chapters of General Rules, Religious 
     Organizations, Religious Activities, Sites for Religious 
     Activities, Clergymen, Religious Education (or institutions), 
     Religious Properties, Religious Issues Involving Overseas 
     Contacts, Legal Liabilities and Supplementary Articles.
       3. After the 1999 Falun Gong Incident, the religious 
     policies became tight. In 2001, the goal of administration of 
     religious affairs of the government was unequivocally defined 
     as to ``protect legal activities; stop illegal activities; 
     fight against infiltration and crack down on crimes.'' In 
     light of this, relevant legislations started. The 1997 
     version of the amendment to the Criminal Law changed the 
     ``counter-revolutionary crime'' in the 1979 version of the 
     Criminal Law to ``endanger the safety of the state.'' In the 
     meantime, the clause in Article 99 of the latter was 
     incorporated into Chapter 6 from Chapter 1 of the special 
     provisions of the Criminal Law. It was changed to Article 
     300. The presumptive conditions defined in the Criminal Law, 
     i.e. crimes have three situations: utilizing superstitious 
     sects or secret societies, cult organizations or utilizing 
     superstition in undermining the implementation of the law and 
     administrative regulations of the state; causing death in 
     deception schemes; raping women and obtaining properties 
     through cheating. In comparing Article 300 in the 1997 
     version of Criminal Law and Article 99 of the 1979 version of 
     the Criminal Law, ``cult organization'' was added to the 
     subjects of crime and in the objects of crime, ``proletarian 
     dictatorship and socialist system'' was changed to 
     ``implementation of state laws and regulations, personal 
     rights and property rights.'' Therefore, the objects of 
     abolishment changed from ``superstitious sects or secret 
     societies'' to religious organizations. The reason for 
     abolishment has also changed from being a ``counter-
     revolutionary'' to ``endangering public order'' or 
     ``violating one's personal rights or property rights.''
       4. In 2005, the ``Regulations on Religious Affairs'' was 
     promulgated. Its content actually can be traced back to the 
     religious policies in Document 19 and Document 6. Its 
     structure is based on the experience gathered in the 
     legislation of religious affairs in other places. The 
     language used in this regulation is vague and for the first 
     time on the level of state administrative regulations, it 
     publicly implements the system of administrative approval on 
     religious organizations, sites for religious activities, 
     religious activities, clergymen, religious publications, 
     religious institutions and religious affairs involving 
     overseas entities. Whatever does not obtain an administrative 
     permit is considered illegal.
       What is worth mentioning here is that on the question of 
     religious properties, the ``Regulations on Religious 
     Affairs'' clearly states the responsibilities of agencies in 
     charge of religious affairs and they have the tendency to 
     protect religious activities.


                            II. Four Issues.

     1. Religious clergymen.
       In the process of recognition (agreement)--record filing 
     for religious clergymen, ``record filing'' is the center of 
     the issue. ``Record filing'' is merely the name of it, but 
     the real intention is to control the clergy through the 
     approval system. Two examples of this are the Zhaozhi case in 
     Niuxin Temple of Sichuan in 2005 and Shengguan case in 
     Huacheng Temple in Jiangxi in 2006. These incidents have 
     brought up this situation: that is, the recognition and 
     appointment of religious clergymen is not based on the 
     criteria of belief or knowledge in the doctrines of the 
     specific religion, but on whether they obey the government. 
     The religious organizations and the site for religious 
     activities where these religious clergymen serve are 
     therefore subordinate to the government and we have a 
     situation where the state dictates the church. Therefore, 
     such a process violates the Constitutional principle of the 
     separation of the church and the state and is therefore an 
     inappropriate process. One of the ways to reform the 
     religious system is to abolish such a process and turn 
     control over to the religion itself for the recognition and 
     appointment of religious clergymen. The government must not 
     intervene and should withdraw itself from the administration 
     of affairs on religious clergymen.
     2. Religious publications.
       Due to ideological domination, ``freedom of religious 
     belief'' in Article 36 of the Constitution can only be 
     interpreted in the narrowest sense of the phrase: i.e. 
     citizens have only the freedom of ``belief' which does not 
     include citizens' freedom of ``establishing a church'' and 
     ``proselytizing.'' As ``proselytizing'' and ``establishing a 
     religion'' are the core [elements] of the freedom of belief, 
     publication is a necessary means for ``proselytizing'' and 
     ``establishing a religion.'' Therefore, if someone intends to 
     limit the expansion of a religion, restricting the 
     publications for the religion is a must. Therefore, the act 
     of printing publications on a large scale and distributing 
     them for free by religious organizations, especially house 
     churches, can be penalized through the ``crime of illegal 
     business operation.'' on Interpretation of Several Questions 
     in the Specific Application of Law Governing the Trial of 
     Criminal Cases of Illegal Publications. It is stipulated in 
     Article 11 of Zui Gao Fa Fa Shi, 1998, No. 30, that if. the 
     circumstance is serious for publication, printing, copying 
     and distribution of publications, and it seriously harms the 
     public order and disrupts the market in violation of the 
     relevant stipulations of the state, the perpetrator shall be 
     convicted of illegal business operation and penalized in 
     accordance of Item 3 of Article 225 of the Criminal Law. 
     Examples of this are the Cal Zhuohua case in 2005, Wang 
     Zaiqing case in 2006, Zhou Heng case of 2007 and Shi Weihan 
     case of 2008.
     3. The issue of legality of religious organizations.
       The registration system for religious organizations is 
     built upon seven major components based on the regulations on 
     social organizations and religious regulations: the nature of 
     registration process as an administrative permit, the system 
     of double permits, conditions for the legal person, format 
     of rules and regulations, ``simplicity'' clause of social 
     organizations, the clause that prohibits the establishment 
     of regional branches and the measure of abolishment. Its 
     functions aim at ensuring that the religious organizations 
     obey the system of government administration. The logic 
     for the administration through registration is that the 
     agencies in charge of religious administration exercises 
     its power in approving the registration and issuing the 
     administrative permits. It requires the religious 
     organizations to obey the guidance and supervision by 
     agencies in charge of religious administration and 
     departments in charge of civil affairs. Otherwise, their 
     application for registration would not be approved; 
     religious organizations not registered do not have a legal 
     status and they may not establish sites for religious 
     activities or hold religious activities. They would be 
     abolished by agencies in charge of religious 
     administration and cannot exist. To house churches, 
     ``obeying the guidance and supervision by agencies in 
     charge of religious administration and departments of 
     civil affairs'' means that they must be affiliated to the 
     TSPM church system. Examples like this are the Shouwang 
     Church case in 2006 and ``Autumn Rain'' Church case in 
     2009.
     4. The issue of church properties.
       It is said in Document 19 of the Central Party Committee 
     that ``reasonable arrangements of sites for religious 
     activities is an important material condition for the 
     implementation of the Party's religious policies and for the 
     normalization of religious activities. At that time, it was 
     required that ``we must take effective measures and make 
     further reasonable arrangements for the sites of religious 
     activities according to different situations.''
       In the ``Notice of the Central Party Committee and the 
     State Council on Several Questions of Further Doing a Good 
     Job in Religious Affairs'' (i.e. Document 6) issued in 1991, 
     it is unequivocally proposed that ``In implementing and 
     carrying out the policies of freedom of religious belief, we 
     must resolutely correct the phenomenon of violating the 
     citizens' rights of freedom of religious belief and the 
     legitimate rights of the religious circle. Where there are 
     few sites for religious activities, we must solve the problem 
     of lack of sites people need for their normal religious 
     activities. We must properly resolve the issue of religious 
     real estate properties left from the past so as to contribute 
     to the unity with the vast religious believers and the 
     stability of the state and the society.''
       The ``Regulations on Religious Affairs'' explicitly 
     explains the obligations of the agencies in charge of 
     religious affairs on the church properties. It is stated in 
     Article 33 of the Regulation that ``Where the houses or 
     structures of a religious organization or a site for 
     religious activities need to be demolished or relocated 
     because of urban planning or construction of key projects, 
     the demolisher shall consult with the religious organization 
     or the site for religious activities concerned, and solicit 
     the views of the relevant religious affairs department. If, 
     after consultation, all the parties concerned agree to the 
     demolition, the demolisher shall rebuild the houses or 
     structures demolished, or, in accordance with the relevant 
     provisions of

[[Page E2678]]

     the State, make compensation on the basis of the appraised 
     market price of the houses or structures demolished.'' First, 
     the article requires that the demolisher of the religious 
     properties must consult with the religious organization that 
     owns the religious properties or the organization that owns 
     the site for religious activities, and solicit the opinions 
     from Bureau of Religion which has jurisdiction over the area 
     where the religious properties are located; second, the 
     precondition for the demolition is that both the owner of the 
     religious properties and the Bureau of Religion must agree to 
     the demolition and relocation; third, in the case of 
     demolition and relocation, priority should be given to the 
     rebuilding of the site for religious activities. That article 
     requires that one must solicit the views from the Bureau of 
     Religion in the demolition and the relocation. In fact, it 
     requires the Bureau of Religion to implement its obligation 
     of protecting the legitimate rights of religious 
     organizations or sites for religious activities, and ensure 
     the religious activities be held in a normal manner and 
     maintains the harmony of religious relationships.
       At the end of 2007, Hu Jintao made a speech on religion in 
     which he explicitly pointed out that the government should 
     reflect the will of the believers and earnestly safeguard the 
     legitimate rights of the people in the religious circle.
       The current problem is that the conflict over religious 
     properties between the growth of religion and the economic 
     development (i.e. the interests of special interest groups) 
     is becoming more and more prominent. For example, in the 
     religious properties case in Tianshui, Gansu province in 
     2006, the believers had to use the sit-in demonstrations to 
     defend their rights. Because the local government changed its 
     hard-line attitude in a timely manner, held negotiations with 
     the church, united the believers in a maximum manner, and 
     proposed a solution to safeguard the legitimate rights of the 
     people in the religious circle, the incident was resolved 
     in a way both sides were relatively satisfied, and it 
     quickly restored the social stability. In the case 
     involving religious properties in Taian, Shandong province 
     in 2007, the believers defended their rights by guarding 
     the religious properties, demanding that provincial CCC/
     TSPM intervene, petitioning at the government site and 
     petitioning in higher authorities. The two sides finally 
     reached a compromise. The advantages of the two cases in 
     Gansu and Shandong have these following characteristics in 
     common: The religious properties are protected either with 
     land for land exchange or remained unchanged.


                           III. My Proposals

       Mr. Wang Zuoan, the new director at State Administration 
     for Religious Affairs, pointed out in a recent speech in 
     welcoming the United Religious Delegation from the U.S., that 
     the characteristics of the relationship in China between the 
     state and the church are: separation of the church and the 
     state, equality among all the religions, administration 
     according to law, and political participation.
       Currently, the key issue is that only religious 
     organizations that are affiliated to the government are 
     regarded as legal religious entities. Only by being in such a 
     status can the organizations hold all the religious 
     activities. In other words, the state protects religious 
     activities in this sense. Otherwise, all other activities are 
     illegal ones and should be restricted or cracked down.
       Therefore, the Congress should work with the Chinese 
     government and promote change in the following areas:
       1. If they implement the separation between the state and 
     the church, they should try to abandon the mentality of 
     regarding religions, especially Christianity, as ``enemies'' 
     or representatives of the West attempting to infiltrate 
     China.
       2. If they recognize equality among all the religions, they 
     should recognize the Chinese house churches that have existed 
     for 60 years and that are approved by the TSPM.
       3. If they want to have administration on religions in 
     accordance with law, they should require that the state law 
     and regulations meet with the relevant international 
     conventions, such as revising the registration system for 
     religious organizations and change it to the system of record 
     filing from the current system of review and approval; they 
     should let the parents decide first of all or mainly the 
     issue of the religious belief of their minor children, 
     instead of using state control by force on this issue; they 
     should respect and protect religious properties and prevent 
     special interest groups from infringing upon the legitimate 
     interests of the people in religious circles.
       4. The religious case widely regarded as a litmus test on 
     the freedom of religion in China is the religious case in 
     Linfen, Shanxi that just happened last month and is still 
     worsening.
       Jindengtang Church of Linfen is a house church. It has a 
     history of 30 years and it currently has a membership of 
     50,000 people. After its religious properties at the church 
     in Fushan County were demolished, they were cracked down 
     during their negotiations with the government. At this time, 
     over 30 of its church branches are forbidden to gather. The 
     pastor, his wife and core-co-workers have been arrested. The 
     US Congress may communicate with the Chinese government on 
     this case through appropriate manners.

                          ____________________