[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5247]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            PROTESTING THE ARREST OF REVEREND CAO SAN QIANG

  (Mr. CONAWAY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. CONAWAY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to shed light on the religious 
persecution of Christians by the Chinese Government.
  On March 5 of this year, Reverend Cao San Qiang, also known as 
``Pastor John,'' was arrested and is still behind bars in the Yunnan 
province of southwest China. I believe that his arrest and detention 
was for inflated charges leveled against him simply because he is a 
Christian.
  Pastor John has been a permanent resident of the United States since 
1990, where he attended seminary and became a pastor in Greensboro, 
North Carolina. He is married, with two children, and is kind and 
humble. Even though he was living a comfortable life in the United 
States, he kept his Chinese citizenship so he could continue to travel 
there and spread the good word of Jesus Christ.
  He has been ministering to the impoverished people of Myanmar and the 
Yunnan province of China for over a decade. In these last 3 years, he 
helped build and staff 16 schools in northern Myanmar.
  For years, Pastor John regularly crossed the border on his small 
motorcycle loaded with food and medicine, without incident. For some 
reason, this time, he was arrested and charged as a smuggler.
  Since his arrest, Chinese officials have raided and threatened a 
number of Christian churches in several provinces. I urge the State 
Department to seek Pastor John's immediate release from Chinese custody 
and to stop further raids before other innocent individuals become 
casualties of aggressive religious persecution.

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