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Jailed Chinese Christian on hunger strike
by Christopher Bodeen
AP (05.12.2002)/ HRWF Int. (20.12.2002) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email info@hrwf.net - The imprisoned founder of an unofficial Chinese Christian church banned as a cult has gone on a hunger strike, a U.S.-based activist said Thursday.
Gong Shengliang, who is serving a life sentence on rape and assault charges, is protesting the confiscation of a written appeal and other documents about his case, said activist Bob Fu.
In a message sent to reporters, Fu appealed for U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Lorne Craner to raise Gong's case in human rights talks to be held with Chinese officials this month in Beijing.
Gong was arrested in 2001, ten years after he founded the South China Church. At one time the church claimed some 50,000 followers in central China, mostly in Hubei province.
Communist authorities allow worship only in state-monitored churches. Millions of believers attend unauthorized services, often in private homes, but are subject to arrest and harassment.
Gong and four other church leaders were sentenced to death last year under anti-cult laws. But in a highly unusual step, an appeals court threw out the convictions and ordered a new trial.
Gong and 12 others were convicted of lesser charges at the second trial in October, according to Fu. He said four women were acquitted but sent to two-year terms in a labor camp, which Chinese police are allowed to order without going to court.
According to documents filed at the first trial, Gong was accused of raping several female church members and ordering the beatings of followers who feuded with church leaders. Supporters said Gong denied the charges.
Gong began his hunger strike Nov. 14, said Fu, who is executive director of the Committee for Investigation on Persecution of Religion in China. He said Gong already was in poor health due to mistreatment in prison and is now too weak to stand on his own.
A spokesman for the Jingmen City Prison in Hubei, where Gong is reportedly being held, said he had no information about the allegations.
The spokesman refused to say whether Gong was an inmate of the prison. The man gave only his surname, Wang.
In addition to the appeal, the seized documents included a history of Gong's church, Fu said.
He said authorities in Hubei were enraged by an earlier leak of written claims by several women who said they had been tortured into testifying against Gong.
The claims were passed to diplomats and foreign reporters by Gong's Chinese supporters.
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Falun Gong claims 15 died after torture
South China Morning Post (05.12.2002)/ HRWF Int. (20.12.2002) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email info@hrwf.net - Fifteen Falun Gong followers have died recently either in police custody or shortly after being released from detention centres where they were tortured, the outlawed spiritual group's New York office said yesterday.
Police at several detention centres where the victims were kept refused to comment.
However, a police officer at the Mishan City Detention Centre in Heilongjiang province confirmed that one of its Falun Gong inmates had died. "She died at a hospital," the officer said.
Liu Guiying, 43, was detained in March for publicising the persecution of Falun Gong, the group said.
After being detained, police tried to transfer her to the notorious Wanjia Labour Camp, but the camp turned her away because she showed symptoms of hypertension. Liu was instead transported back to a detention centre where she died in police custody on October 24, the group said.
Other cases cited by Falun Gong could not be immediately confirmed.
One of them, Li Hongwei, died on October 7 at a detention centre in northern Liaoning province, and family members said his corpse was covered with injuries from electric shocks, the group said.
Gai Liu, 60, from central Henan province, was arrested in September and two nights later was sent to a hospital and died shortly afterwards, the group said.
Police reports claim that the cause of death was related to disease, but Liu's relatives found a deep knife wound on her wrist.
Li Fenghua, a 44 year-old Falun Gong practitioner from Heilongjiang province, was taken into custody and sent to a labour camp for one year where she endured severe brainwashing and later fell into a coma. She never awoke and died on November 8, the group said.
Li's relatives presented her case to a court, but it refused to accept any cases related to Falun Gong.
The group said Kang Ruizhu was detained and taken to a brainwashing class last year where she was handcuffed to a tree for one week. She later managed to escape but was again detained in October and went on a hunger strike to protest at her illegal detention.
On October 27, police and local officials indicated that Kang had died, the group said.
The Buddhist-based Falun Gong has long said its practitioners who are sentenced to labour camps face torture and abuse on a daily basis.
Many practitioners have died in the camps, either from excessive forced labour, torture and abuse, lack of adequate nutrition and medical attention, or a combination of factors, the group said.
China banned Falun Gong as a so-called "evil cult" in 1999 and has since jailed or detained tens of thousands of practitioners.
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Tibetan group reports death of imprisoned monk
by Christopher Bodeen
AP (20.11.2002) HRWF Int (22.11.2002)- Website: www.hrwf.net/ Email: info@hrwf.net - Tibetan Buddhist monk has died in a labor camp where he was imprisoned on charges of spying and advocating Tibet's independence, a group allied to the Dalai Lama reported Wednesday.
Lobsang Dhargyal, 40, had been held at the camp in Machen county in the western province of Qinghai since October 2001, the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy said. It said he died suddenly on Tuesday.
The center, based in Dharamsala India from where the Dalai Lama heads his Tibetan exiled government, said Dhargyal had been abused and tortured at the camp, but gave no details. No phone number was listed for the camp.
China rules Tibet with an iron fist, locking up Tibetan opponents of Chinese rule and shunning the Dalai Lama. Critics say political prisoners are often held under harsh conditions, although their numbers have declined in recent years as China's grip on the region snuffs out dissent.
The center said Dhargyal had been a monk at the Rabgya monastery in Qinghai, which was traditionally considered a part of Tibet. He was arrested in 1992 and imprisoned for 3 1/2 years after printing and distributing pamphlets advocating Tibetan independence, it said.
Dhargyal went abroad after his release in 1995, the center said. He was arrested again in May 2001 in Tibet while returning to visit his mother and sentenced to 16 years in prison, it said.
Chinese communist forces occupied Tibet in 1951, and the Dalai Lama fled eight years later after a failed uprising against Chinese rule. China claims Tibet has long been Chinese territory, although many Tibetans claim they were independent for most of their history.
Supporters of the Dalai Lama had hailed signs of a thaw in relations with China following the visit in September of a pair of top advisers to the Dalai Lama and the release of several Tibetan political prisoners.
However, China's relentless campaign to vilify the Dalai Lama among Tibetans has continued unabated.
Tibetan officials must "deeply expose the Dalai's reactionary nature of wrecking Tibet and deranging religion," the official Tibet Daily said in its Nov. 13 edition, seen in Beijing on Wednesday.
Communist officials must "resolutely maintain national unity and oppose ethnic separatism," vice chairman of the region's government, Luosang Thoinzhub, was quoted saying. Papers from Tibet often aren't delivered to foreign media in Beijing until a week later.
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Leader of banned Christian sect sentenced to life in prison on second trial
Christopher Bodeen
AP (10.10.2002)/ HRWF Int. (17.10.2002) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email info@hrwf.net - BEIJING - The five leaders of a banned Christian sect had been under death sentence, accused of running an "evil cult" aimed at the downfall of the communist state.
But when an appelate court overturned the convictions, citing a lack of evidence, and ordered a retrial, prosecutors quickly changed tack.
At the new trial, they brought charges of more familiar crimes, better grounded in the legal system and harder to disprove. Observers say the tactic is increasingly favored as an effective way of dealing with those perceived as troublemakers by the communist government.
On Thursday, sect leader Gong Shengliang was sentenced to life in prison for rape and battery in a second trial at the Jingmen Intermediate Court, according to the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy, based in Hong Kong.
Two other sect leaders were sentenced to life for battery, and two others were given 15-year sentences on the same charges.
The defendants immediately said they would appeal, the center said.
The case highlights the restrictions placed on religious organizations in China, which permits worship only in the government-sanctioned church. Those who join unofficial congregations and sometimes unorthodox Protestant sects such as Gong's constantly risk harassment and detention.
Against that background, the Hubei Provincial High Court's Sept. 22 decision to overturn the convictions on charges including "using an evil cult to undermine the enforcement of the law," was extraordinary.
Observers said that might have resulted from a debate within the Chinese justice system over the appropriateness of vague, sweeping cult and state security charges.
"The methods are diversifying away from cult legislation and toward economic and criminal prosecutions as a way of attacking such groups," said Xiao Qing, Executive Director of New York-based Human Rights in China.
External pressure may also have been a factor.
The administration of U.S. President George W. Bush has repeatedly issued concerns over religious persecution in China. With Chinese President Jiang Zemin to make a visit to the United States this month, China may have wanted to temper its treatment of religious dissidents.
The new trial for Gong and the four others co-defendants Li Ying, Xiu Fuming, Hu Yong and Gong Bangkun began Wednesday, said a Beijing-based activist, Japheth Shaw.
Shaw said the lawyer for the group had been given no advance notice of the charges being brought or the evidence to be presented.
For the second trial, the cult charges were dropped, the center said. However, additional charges of rape and battery that were part of the first trial were refiled, and prosecutors again won a conviction on those accusations.
According to documents filed at the first trial, Gong was accused of raping several female sect members and ordering the beatings of followers who feuded with the church leadership over doctrine and finances.
Church followers said Gong, 46, denied the charges. They claimed police tortured women into testifying against him.
Gong established the South China Church in 1991 and it grew over a decade to encompass some 50,000 members spread through 10 provinces in eastern and central China.
China labeled the church an "evil cult," part of an ongoing campaign against the outlawed Falun Gong spiritual sect and other groups seen by the Communist Party's leadership as challenging its political monopoly.
Gong and his co-defendants were arrested by the Bureau of State Security in April 2001, and were convicted last December in a first trial.
In a telephone interview, Gong's younger sister said she and other relatives were beaten by police on Thursday when they tried to catch a glimpse of the defendants outside the Jingmen Intermediate Court.
"I was hit with a stick by a policeman until he knocked me to the ground. Then they pushed us all the way back, shouting and swearing," said the sister, who identified herself only as Miss Gong.
The court's press office said it had no information on the trial.
Court and government officials have declined all comment on the case, although it has been reported on extensively by highly reliable sources in the religious and human rights community. The retrial, like the original one, was apparently held behind closed doors.
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China arrests underground Catholic bishop
Reuters (17.09.2002)/ HRWF International Secretariat (18.09.2002) - Wesite http://www.hrwf.net - Email info@hrwf.net -Police in northeastern China have arrested a ranking bishop in the country's underground Roman Catholic church, a U.S.-based religious rights group said.
Bishop Wei Jingyi, 44, who once served as secretary of a conference of Chinese bishops loyal to the Holy See, was picked up by police in the city of Qiqihar on September 9, said the Stamford, Connecticut-based Cardinal Kung Foundation.
No other details on Wei's case were available, it said in a statement seen Tuesday. Police in Qiqihar could not be reached for comment.
Wei was previously in Chinese labor camps from 1987 to 1989 and from 1990 to 1992, the group said.
It said his arrest was a sign China is tightening its noose on the spiritual leaders of eight million Chinese Catholics the Vatican ( news - web sites) estimates are loyal to the Pope, compared to only five million in the state-backed Catholic Church.
"Currently, every one of the approximately 50 bishops of the underground Roman Catholic Church is either arrested, under house arrest, under strict surveillance or in hiding," it said.
"The persecution of the underground Roman Catholic Church is obviously getting worse."
Communist China officially endorses religious freedom but only recognizes the authority of state religious organizations. It broke off relations with the Vatican half a century ago.
A court in Hebei province, which borders Beijing, sentenced three Catholic priests to three years in a labor camp in July for "cult" activities China says threaten social stability, rights groups have said.
Police in the northern province of Shaanxi arrested Bishop Lucas Li Jingfeng late last year amid a campaign to force a large community of closet Christians to join the state-backed China Patriotic Catholic Association.
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China Frees South Korean Missionary
by Sang-Hun Choe
AP(06.08.2002) HRWF International Secretariat (06.08.2002) - Wesite http://www.hrwf.net - Email info@hrwf.net- A key figure in an underground campaign to help North Korean asylum-seekers escape to South Korea via China and elsewhere said Tuesday he has been freed from a Chinese prison after eight months and would soon be deported.
Chun Ki-won, a 46-year-old South Korean Christian missionary, said he had helped 170 North Koreans escape to South Korea since 1999, taking them through jungles of Southeast Asia and grasslands of China's Inner Mongolia, before Chinese border guards arrested him in December.
In a telephone interview from Hailar City in China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, Chun told The Associated Press that a Chinese court released him Monday. It fined him $6,040 and ordered that he leave the country. He was waiting for his exit papers and hoped to return home later this month.
A call about Chun's case to the China's foreign ministry in Beijing was not immediately answered Tuesday evening.
The soft-spoken missionary said eight months in a grimy Chinese prison has hardly shaken his faith in his work.
"I found my mission when I first saw some of the North Korean women in China forcibly separated from their husbands and children and sold for money by human traffickers," Chun said. "I will continue to help these people wherever I am."
Chun is leader of the Seoul-based Doorihana, one of several missionary groups that run illegal relief operations in northeastern China, providing food, shelter and Christian or Buddhist teachings to North Koreans who flee their communist homeland and live in hiding in China.
Last December, Chun took 12 North Koreans he found wandering in China to the border with Mongolia. Using a map, the North Koreans were supposed to cover the last two miles into Mongolia, where religious activists were waiting to arrange their defection to South Korea.
A blizzard hit, forcing the refugees to lose their bearing and stumble into the hut of a shepherd, who reported them to Chinese border guards for a cash reward.
Several hours later, a taxi driver turned in Chun to the police several miles behind the border.
"I am most worried about those North Koreans I tried to help," the missionary said.
The group, reportedly detained in a prison in Inner Mongolia, includes four children and a woman who gave birth in prison.
Those North Koreans "are at risk of imminent forcible return to North Korea where they may face serious human rights violations, including arbitrary detention, torture or death in custody," said Amnesty International in a statement last week.
Thousands of North Koreans have fled famine and repression in their isolated homeland. Many are believed to be hiding in China, seeking a chance to come to South Korea. About 580 people have made it to the South this year.
Since March, 60 North Koreans have sought refuge in embassies and consulates in China, embarrassing the Beijing government.
China has allowed many to leave for the South, despite a treaty with North Korea that requires it to return fleeing North Koreans to their country. But it also has condemned South Korean "non-governmental groups" for taking what it calls "illegal North Korean migrants" to the South.
Many North Koreans in China live in fear of arrest and repatriation as Chinese authorities have renewed their crackdown in northeast China by rounding up North Koreans and sending them back to North Korea, Amnesty International says.
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China sentences Catholic priests to labour camp
Reuters (27.07.2002) HRWF International Secretariat (30.07.2002) -Websitehttp://www.hrwf.net - E-mail info@hrwf.net - China has sentenced three Catholic priests to three years in a labour camp for "cult" activities it says threaten social stability, a U.S.-based religious rights group said.
Fathers Pang Yongxing, 30, Ma Shunbao, 50, and Wang Limao, 32, all underground Roman Catholic clergy members in Baoding city in the northern province of Hebei, were sentenced on July 7 for "disturbing the peace of society", the Connecticut-based Cardinal Kung Foundation said.
Police arrested Wang as he delivered mass on Palm Sunday in March, Ma while offering Easter Sunday mass a week later, and Pang in his home on December, 2001, it said in a faxed statement received on Saturday.
It said the three were being held at the Balizhuang labour camp in Baoding, around 150 km south of Beijing.
Phone calls to the camp were not answered.
"To sentence these Roman Catholics under the 'cult' law and to punish them for this in labour camps is a transparent example that there is no religious freedom in China," said the foundation's president Joseph Kung.
"It makes a mockery of the 'religious freedom' clause in the Chinese constitution."
Rights groups say China has used cult laws, enshrined as part the government's fight against banned spiritual movement Falun Gong, to ratchet up its crackdown on Christians and Muslims outside the state-approved religious bureaucracy.
The Holy See estimates there are eight million Chinese Catholics loyal to the Pope, compared to only five million in the state-backed Catholic Church.
Six underground Catholics from the coastal province of Zhejiang were arrested for "illegal pilgrimages" to Baoding but released after they paid a total of 30,800 yuan ($3,850) in fines, the group added.
Another dozen were unable to pay the fines and still in custody, it said.
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China detains nun in raid on underground Catholic church class
by Christopher Bodeen
AP (22.07.2002)/HRWF International Secretariat (23.07.2002) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - E-mail info@hrwf.net - Authorities in southeastern China detained a Roman Catholic nun and 30 others who were attending a secret children's religious class, a U.S.-based church advocacy group said.
An official in the village of Dong'an in Lianjiang county on Monday said a group of villagers were detained last Friday for "attending an illegal religious activity."
The official would not say how many people were detained or identify members of the group, but said some children had attended with their parents. Most of those detained have since been released, said the man, who refused to give his name.
In a statement released during the weekend, the Stamford, Connecticut-based Cardinal Kung Foundation said that in addition to the nun, those arrested comprised of 26 students under age 18 and four chaperones.
All except the nun, identified as Sister Chen Mei, were released a day after the raid. Mei remains in the Lianjiang county detention center in Fujian province, said the group.
It said the raid took place Thursday on a private home in Dong'an where the class was being held in secret.
A spokesman at the Lianjiang county detention center said around 30 people had been detained last Friday in relation to underground religious activity, but refused to disclose any details. Local police refused to comment.
The foundation said the religious class was organized by members of the underground Roman Catholic church in China, which rejects the authority of the government-sanctioned China Patriotic Catholic Association.
Beijing insists that the Catholic Church in China follows government orders rather than the pope's in such matters as the selection of bishops. But many worship in underground churches, which the government deems illegal.
Beijing and the Vatican broke formal relations in 1951, when China's new communist rulers kicked out missionaries and forced Catholics to sever ties with Rome.
China claims about 4 million Catholics practice in the official Church. Independent groups claim millions more worship in the underground church.
In its statement, the Cardinal Kung Foundation accused Chinese authorities of intimidating and harassing young Catholics in order to pressure them and their parents into abandoning the underground church and joining the Patriotic Association.
China's officially atheistic communist government tightly restricts all religious expression. Believers are organized into state controlled religious institutions and police are used to break up underground groups.
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China likely to deport indicted South Korean missionary home
Korea Herald (09.07.2002)/ HRWF International Secretariat (10.07.2002) - Websitehttp://www.hrwf.net - E-mail info@hrwf.net - China is expected to deport a South Korean missionary, who was indicted on charges of assisting North Korean defectors, to his home country, officials and activists said here yesterday Cheon Ki-won, 46, a member of "Durihana Mission," underwent a trial in Hailar, a city in China's Inner Mongolia region, Monday. He was arrested near the China-Mongolia border last December, while attempting to smuggle 12 North Korean escapees out of China.
The Chinese court decided to make a ruling on Cheon in one or two weeks, and is expected to deport him after sentencing him with fines or detention, the activists said.
"China did not confirm anything about the trial. But sources there expected the Chinese government would deport him to South Korea sometime soon," said Park Hyun-ja, a pastor with Durihana Mission, a Christian group that has been helping North Korean asylum seekers.
Prior to Cheon's trial, a South Korean diplomat asked Beijing to deal with Cheon and two other missionaries, also detained for helping North Korean defectors, on humanitarian grounds, officials in Seoul said.
Last week, the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced that Cheon and another South Korean, Choi Bong-il, and a U.S. citizen, Choi John Daniel, were taken into custody for "the smuggling of persons and crossing borders."
After a flood of North Koreans seeking asylum in foreign missions in China began in March, the Beijing government began cracking down on nongovernmental organizations helping North Korean in their bids for asylum.
At least 64 defectors have since made it to South Korea after entering diplomatic missions there. Two more North Koreans are currently holed up in the South Korean consulate in Beijing.
Officials in Seoul expected Beijing would also allow the two defectors to travel to the South as early as this week.
Back to the Table of ContentsChina turns harsh on defector helping NGOs
By Kwon Kyung-bok
Chosun.com (27.06.2002)/ HRWF International Secretariat (01.07.2002) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - E-mail info@hrwf.net - A government official said Thursday that China appears to be cracking down on non-government organizations helping North Korean defectors there, arresting three as of May on charges of illegal missionary action. He added that it was highly likely they would be indicted for breaking Chinese domestic laws.
The three are Chun Ki-won of Doorihana Missionaries, arrested in Inner Mongolia in November last year; the Reverend Choi Bong-il, detained in Yenji in April; and Reverend Chun Myong-keun arrested in May. A fourth Reverend Kim Dong-sik, arrested in January, is presumed to have been kidnapped by North Korean security forces.
The source continued that Seoul has been requesting humanitarian treatment of the three, but Beijing appears to have decided to be harsh with them, concerned about maintaining social order, because of the repeated attempts by defectors to get into overseas missions. Prior to this the government had asked the media to refrain from naming the arrested, feeling it would jeopardize their chances of release.
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Xinjiang: where Islam thrives in China
by Jaimie FlorCruz
CNN (11.06.2002)/ HRWF International Secretariat (12.06.2002) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - E-mail info@hrwf.net - In China's remote northwest region of Xinjiang, Islam thrives among the ethnically Turkic group called Uighurs.
As the call to prayer rings out, devout Muslims answer, packing the government-approved mosque. But these Muslims practice their religion with certain restrictions.
"If one chooses to believe in Islam, we welcome them," says the mosque's religious leader.
After September 11, Xinjiang officials have tried to link Uighur dissidents with terrorism, accusing them of using religion as a cover.
"They first gather people in underground meetings to brainwash them on certain religious beliefs, then teach them how to organize to overthrow the government," says Omarjan Mirzahmat, district commissioner for the region of Aksu.
The imams may preach to the faithful but they may not seek converts outside the mosques.
Residents in this predominantly Muslim region continue to practice religion even after September 11 as long as they don't cross certain lines.
Imams and their followers may not engage in politics and may not advocate a separate Muslim state.
Chinese officials claim that one thousand Uighur dissidents have received weapons and training from the Taliban and the al Qaeda networks.
Economics
But observers say the root cause of Uighur dissidence is economics.
Uighurs coexist with other ethnic groups, including a growing number of Han Chinese. Leaders concede it's not a totally peaceful coexistence.
"Small problems between ethnic groups exist because of religious and cultural differences. It's just like siblings quarrel with a family. It's normal," says the director of the predominantly Mongolian prefecture of Bayangol.
Xinjiang officials say ethnic groups enjoy autonomy, and even exceptions to rigid rules. Couples in places like Aksu may have three or even four children, while Han Chinese are limited to one child per couple.
But some Uighurs complain that the Han Chinese dominate the local economy and politics -- often at their expense.
One Uighur couple, both made redundant two years ago, now sell garments in a clothing market -- but earn little profits. They are forced to live with their family.
The former taxi driver and nurse worry about the future, especially of their two small children.
"We both worked for our companies for a long time. We don't even have a place to live now," they explain.
"My son will need to go to school, which needs money. We're both laid off, with no money. I have a lot to say, but I can't say them in a few words. The more I say, the sadder I feel," said 35 year-old nurse Maila.
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China alarmed at rapid rise of Christian "cults"
AFP (27.05.2002)/HRWF International Secretariat (29.05.2002) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - E-mail info@hrwf.net - China is alarmed over the rapid rise of Christian "cults" in the countryside and will do more to win over people who flock to such groups, state media said today.
The "cults" are influential in rural areas, where the number of Christians is rising so rapidly that the official church does not have enough staff to accommodate them all, the China Daily reported.
"Reality has shown us that the future of Chinese Christianity will be harmed if we do not attach importance to the churches in rural areas and help followers improve," said Cao Shengjie, president of the China Christian Council.
Christian "cults"--Beijing's shorthand for some unofficial congregations--were in focus at a national conference of representatives of China's official church, the paper reported.
Several participants at the meeting called for more church staff to be trained to fill in the gaps, according to the paper.
Cao said at the conference that the "cults" had made ingenious use of the Bible, "quoting it out of context and making up heresies."
"They control followers, barring them from rational reasoning," he said. "They have bad morals and have even violated the laws."
China permits official versions of four main religions, Buddhism, Taoism, Islam and Christianity, keeping them under strict state control.
But a series of underground Christian groups, particularly evangelical Protestant churches, have expanded rapidly and drawn in millions of worshippers.
A recent crackdown on Christian groups has caused deep concern overseas and in February prompted President George W. Bush to say that his "prayer" was for freedom of belief to flourish in China.
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Korean-American missionary said to be held
AP (21.05.2002) /HRWF International Secretariat (22.05.2002) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - E-mail info@hrwf.net - Chinese authorities have detained a Korean-American missionary and have questioned dozens of other people suspected of helping North Korean asylum-seekers, a South Korean activist said Tuesday.
Do Hee-yoon, a spokesman for a human rights group, said China's crackdown began after a series of asylum bids at foreign missions in Beijing and the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang.
Joseph Choi, a Korean-American missionary who has been helping North Korean children near the Chinese border, was detained early this month on charges of trying to help North Koreans seek asylum, Do said.
A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy confirmed the detention of "an American in northeast China" but would not say whether it was Choi, citing reasons of confidentiality.
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Kong Quan said he had no knowledge of missionaries having been arrested.
But Do, a spokesman for the Citizens' Coalition for Human Rights of North Korean Defectors and Abductees, said two South Korean missionaries also have been detained in recent months for allegedly helping North Korean asylum-seekers leave China.
As well, dozens of ethnic Korean aid workers have been questioned, he said. He claimed some of those detained were beaten and deprived of sleep.
Tens of thousands of North Koreans who have fled the authoritarian regime and famine in their country are hiding in northeastern China.
China insists they are illegal immigrants, not refugees, and by treaty must be sent home. But it has made exceptions recently for North Koreans who have entered foreign missions in Beijing demanding asylum, allowing them to leave for other countries.
However, it has rejected Japanese demands to hand over five North Koreans detained at the Japanese consulate earlier this month.
Japan has accused Chinese guards of breaking international law by going into its consulate in the northeastern city of Shenyang without permission to grab the five. Beijing insists that Japanese officials gave permission for the detentions.
Kong, the Chinese spokesman, said Tuesday the five were in "good condition" and suggested that one member C said by South Korean activists to be a toddler C was no longer in police custody.
"China has not taken any legal measures against this girl," Kong said at a news conference. "She can do whatever she wants."
Asked what would happen to them, Kong would say only that they would be handled in line with Chinese and international law and in a "humanitarian spirit."
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China's anti-cult campaign in context
Difficulties bound in sorting out a confusing situation
by Xu Mei
Compass Direct (13.05.2002)/ HRWF (17.05.2002) Email info@hrwf.net - Website http://www.hrwf.net - In late April, reports filtered out from China that about 100 leaders of the evangelical China Gospel Fellowship -- a major house church grouping that claims some four million members -- had been arrested by the police. Soon after, contradictory but more reliable reports said these key leaders had almost certainly been kidnapped by the sinister Lightning from the East (LFE) cult in a carefully orchestrated strategy.
This bizarre event shows how confusing the situation can be for Chinese Christians -- and even more so for overseas observers.
Some Western Christians who tend to always place blame on the Chinese authorities were brought up short. As the Chinese government's crackdown on cults continues and reports of both cultic activity and of persecution of genuine house church believers continue to emerge, it is necessary to stand back, take stock, and analyze the entire situation. It is crucial for Western Christians and those concerned for human rights not to jump to ill-informed conclusions but to see often confusing and contradictory events in their overall context.
The reality of cults in China today
The vast revival of religion since the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) has spawned a bewildering variety of sects, cults and new religions. Maoist ideology has failed to satisfy Chinese spiritual aspirations. The void has filled with a plethora of religious sects, which the government has growing difficulty in categorizing.
If some 70 percent of the population are peasants, then over 800 million people are living in semi-literacy and poverty, prone to superstition, witchcraft and magic.
The five religions tolerated by the authorities -- Buddhism, Daoism, Islam, Catholicism and Protestantism -- are like icebergs floating in a murky ocean that conceals depths of folk-religion, bizarre cults and outright fanaticism. Witches and shamans beat the spirits out of possessed or mentally ill patients. People die because of exorcisms and false promises of faith healing.
In late 1998, members of the pseudo-Christian cult Lightning from the East "armed with daggers, steel bars, and powdered lime lured their victims out of their villages under the pretext of praying for the relief of illness, but disfigured their victims, breaking their legs and cutting off their ears," a May 2000 Tianfeng article stated. LFE's belief that Christ has returned as a Chinese woman living in Henan province is completely heretical from a Christian standpoint, but not necessarily a punishable offense. However, any government would take action against those who rape, steal, injure and even murder under the cloak of sectarian religious activities.
The historical background
The Chinese have a long history -- and a long memory. The government is well aware that over the centuries most dynasties fell when impoverished and desperate peasants formed into religious cults and secret societies that sooner or later mutated into open rebellion. The Red Turbans and the White Lotus were examples of Daoist or Buddhist sects that rose up against the emperor.
However, the most recent rebellion came from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which seized Nanjing as its capital from the decadent Manchu Qing dynasty in 1853 and was only suppressed 11 years later at the cost of 20 million lives. The Taiping "emperor," Hong Xiuquan, was a failed Confucian scholar who had read a Christian tract and had visions that he was the younger brother of Jesus Christ, sent to this earth to destroy the "demon" Manchus.
Many missionaries were initially impressed by the Taiping fervor for the Ten Commandments and the Sabbath Day. Could this be God's means for the evangelization of China? But Hong's brutal slaughter of his opponents and his vast harem brought bitter disillusionment.
Today, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) no longer extols the Taipings as peasant revolutionaries as in the radical Maoist years. The CCP is poised to welcome capitalists and entrepreneurs into its ranks. Some Party cadres wear designer suits and hold lavish banquets costing more than 10 years' income of the average farmer.
China already has a huge number of rural unemployed. Urban unemployment is expected to triple over the next four years as reforms initiated by China's membership in the World Trade Organization bankrupt uncompetitive industries, according to an April 29 Reuters/China Daily report. Only three years ago, Beijing was rocked by the demonstrations of 10,000 Falun Gong supporters outside the CCP leadership compound.
Is it any wonder that the suppression of sects and cults, seen as the spawning ground of political disaffection and rebellion, is now a top priority for what has become an intensely conservative and reactive rather than proactive regime? "Unity and Stability" at all costs has become the CCP's mantra.
Defining cults
In April 2000 the Ministry of Public Security defined a cult as any organization which: Sets up an illegal organization in the false name of religion. Deifies its leaders. Fabricates and spreads superstition and heterodox beliefs to excite doubts and deceive the people and recruits and controls its members by these means. Systematically disturbs social order and injures the lives and property of citizens.
This is a catch-all list of regulations that can be used to ban virtually any religious organization. Most house churches can be falsely labeled cults under the first, third and fourth points. All house churches that have not registered are illegal and members are potentially liable to arrests and fines. Those that spread the gospel vigorously can be accused of spreading heterodox beliefs and recruiting followers.
In practice, the CCP has so far listed 14 cults as illegal, in addition to Falun Gong. Of these, 12 are "Christian" and only two are Buddhist. Of the "Christian" cults, many are heretical by orthodox Christian standards.
For instance, the founder of the Lingling cult, Hua Xuehe, claimed he was the "Second Jesus." The founder of the Lord God cult, Liu Jiaguo, claimed to be the "Lord God," swindled believers out of 400,000 RMB and raped 19 women. Wu Yangming, the founder of the Established King cult, also claimed to be the Messiah and raped many women.
The Shouters or Local Church, based in California, was founded by Witness Lee, Watchman Nee's right-hand-man. Although on the fringes of the Christian world in that they hold a very narrow view of themselves as the only true church and Lee's views on the Trinity have been criticized, many consider them to be Bible-believing Christians. Viewed with suspicion by most evangelicals, for years they have operated freely in the U.S., Taiwan and other countries. However, in China they are banned -- probably because of Lee's strong anti-communist views.
The Total Scope Church, also known as the New Birth Church, was founded by Xu Yongze and has grown to many millions. This house church has been criticized both by the Three Self state church and by other more conservative house churches as being a cult.
There is certainly evidence of "sheep-stealing" and of high pressure on new converts, forcing them to weep and wail while confessing a whole list of sins. However, a fair assessment would be that the group is extreme in practice, rather than heretical in doctrine. Xu and many members have been imprisoned at different times and the church strongly persecuted.
Orthodox house churches
Orthodox unregistered house churches are placed in a peculiarly difficult position at present. The mere fact of not being registered means they are technically illegal and may suffer the full weight of the law.
In practice, conditions vary considerably. In some areas, the authorities turn a blind eye. Many house churches operate semi-openly, their leaders and places of worship known to local police and officials, but meetings are relatively undisturbed. In other areas, they have to meet secretly or "underground."
The government relies to some extent on local official church leaders in the Three Self Patriotic Movement, China Christian Council or Patriotic Catholic Association to keep them informed of all religious activities. In areas where these "patriotic" religious leaders are sympathetic to their unregistered counterparts, a compromise ensues.
One patriotic Catholic bishop was even allowing his pro-Vatican underground counterpart to hold training seminars in his church. However, in areas where the local official clergy are hostile to house churches, they may spy, inform and encourage the police to arrest house church leaders, falsely labeling them as cults.
In many places, Religious Affairs Bureau officials may be knowledgeable about Christianity and the orthodoxy of unregistered house churches. However, in some rural areas they are incredibly ignorant. A few months ago, police arrested house church believers in western China because they were kneeling to pray. Police automatically labeled them as belonging to the Falun Gong cult.
Clear distinctions
The Chinese government should not arbitrarily label groups "heretical," China watchers say. Government at all levels should allow full religious freedom, only intervening if criminal activity has been undertaken by a religious organization.
In China, the tradition of Confucian state orthodoxy has been overlaid by the orthodoxy of "Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong thought" that is basically hostile to all religions. Only mainstream religions as defined by the state are tolerated. The state wrongly arrogates to itself the right to label religious groups as orthodox or heterodox. It still regards "freedom of religious belief" as a privilege to be granted by the CCP rather than as a basic human right.
The whole bureaucratic structure of control of religion by the CCP through the Religious Affairs Bureau and the compliant patriotic religious associations is inimical to genuine religious freedom and increasingly anachronistic as China continues to open up in so many other fields.
The CCP should recognize that genuine Christian faith makes good citizens. It should cease persecuting house church believers. It should also realize that religious heterodoxy is no excuse for the government to breach human rights.
On the other hand, Christians overseas need to recognize the reality of cults in China today. They should not demonize the Chinese authorities nor dismiss every report of cultic activity as disinformation. They need to recognize that unregistered groups cover a wide spectrum from perfectly orthodox Christians to the lunatic and criminal fringe.
Perhaps above all they need to distinguish wider human rights from purely Christian issues. They will rightly wish to support Christians wrongly imprisoned for their faith. But what about Tibetan Buddhist nuns tortured in prison? While assessing Falun Gong as a dangerous cult from a Christian perspective, will they nevertheless speak out against the reported death in Chinese police custody of over 100 Falun Gong followers?
To this end they may like to ask the following questions whenever a case of purported religious persecution is reported and action urged:
Is the report reliable? Is it exaggerated? Has it been confirmed? What is the motive behind spreading this report? (e.g.: Is it anti-communist propaganda with a political motivation?)
Is the Chinese government right in labeling a group as criminal or cultic?
Is the group or leader genuinely Christian and biblically-based?
If the group is "heretical," to what extent? Is it merely extreme in some aspects?
Even if it is heretical, does that justify government persecution? (We may regard some as heretical, but all operate freely in Western society. Should China be allowed a double standard in criminalizing many fringe religious groups?)
If a crime has been committed, does it justify fines, imprisonment, or even the death sentence?
If certain leaders or members of a group have been rightly found guilty of criminal activities, does this mean that all the members of the group are necessarily guilty and should also be outlawed or punished?
Is this a case which as a Christian: (a) I can wholeheartedly pray for and challenge the Chinese government about? If so, what is the wisest course of action that will most help the persecuted group or individual? (b) I have some reservations about, and need more information before I can wholeheartedly support. (c) I recognize is heretical or non-Christian but nevertheless is a gross miscarriage of justice.
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30 Chinese Christian leaders abducted
Cult activity is now suspected
By John Lindner
Worthy News.com (29.04.2002) / HRWF (01.05.2002) Email info@hrwf.net - Website http://www.hrwf.net - An uncertain number of leaders of a major house church movement in China have disappeared in what at first was thought to be a massive government raid. Now cult activity is suspected.
About 30 main leaders of the China Gospel Fellowship disappeared the evening of April 19. Since the group was blacklisted by the government as a cult in the late 1990s, it was assumed at first that they were victims of Public Security Bureau raids. That view later was changed.
According to a reputable source in Hong Kong, members of the Eastern Lightning cult a year ago posed as leaders of a Bible institute in Singapore offering free in-depth training to house-church leaders. So last week the China Gospel Fellowship leaders went to attend meetings allegedly arranged in six locations inside China. When some of the leaders showed up at one location, they were told the situation was "very tight" (meaning the PSB was coming) and were asked to hand over their cell phones. When some refused, they were beaten and the phones forcibly seized. One woman escaped on pretense of going to the toilet.
House church members did not realize anything had happened to their leaders until several days went by without any contact from them via cell phone. It was immediately assumed they had been arrested by the PSB. Later, as the lone female leader who escaped made her way to a place where she could safely relay what had happened, the church members realized the situation was much more sinister.
Eastern Lightning is a cult that believes Jesus Christ has returned as a Chinese woman named Lightning. The members favor rural areas where sound Bible teaching is often rare and, according to Amity News Service, twists Scripture to deceive the elect. For example, it uses Matthew 24:27 and Isaiah 41:2 to show that Jesus intended to come as "Lightning," and refers to Jeremiah 31:22 and Genesis 1:27 to "prove" that Christ will come again as a woman.
If Christians do not willingly convert, they are enticed with inducements, reportedly as high as a month's salary. Sometimes they will send a young female member to seduce their intended victim. Photos of the event can then be shown to the police to precipitate false rape charges that could result in the worker's imprisonment or death. Cult members have been known to break workers' arms and legs so they cannot preach again, and even to kill people, according to the Hong Kong source.
"The cult is very dangerous, and according to the Christians, much more dangerous than Falun Gong, and has caused huge numbers of true Christians to leave the church," the source said.
Even though they are a violent and dangerous cult, the government appears to do nothing to halt them. When members of the China Gospel Fellowship were asked why they did not report the incidents to the police, they answered that the police said they would do nothing unless they were first given RMB 5,000 (nearly a year's wages). Moreover, some of the CGF leaders are wanted by the police because of their zealous unregistered church activity.
"The house church believers are caught in the jaws of a giant vise," said Christian Aid's expert on China who asked not to be named. "On the one hand the government is branding certain evangelical groups as evil cults so it can legally press charges against them. On the other hand, the government allows this truly evil cult to attack evangelical believers and does nothing to hinder them."
According to Asia Harvest, China Gospel Fellowship started in Henan Province and spread rapidly throughout China and today numbers at least three million believers. The abductions have left the movement virtually without senior leadership.
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Chinese pastor arrested again
Religion Today.com (12.04.2002)/ HRWF International Secretariat (19.04.2002) C Website http://www.hrwf.net C Email info@hrwf.net - The Voice of the Martyrs has learned that Pastor Li Dexian, a well-known house church leader in China's Guangdong Province, has once again been arrested for preaching the gospel. The arrest came April 11 in Hua Du.
Witnesses said representatives of the Public Security Bureau (PSB) descended on an evangelistic meeting and began shouting that the service was an illegal gathering. The Christians had not petitioned the government for permission to gather for the house church meeting. Pastor Li, his wife, Zhao Xia, and four other church members were apprehended and taken to the local police station for questioning.
Police questioned Li and the five others for several hours and then released all of the Christians except Li. Pastor Li is expected to be held at least until April 25th - the mandatory period that he can be detained without charge. Li has been arrested at least 20 times during the past three years, according to Voice of the Martyrs.
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China cracks down on growing faiths
By Indira A.R. Lakshmanan
Boston Globe (02.03.2002) / HRWF International Secretariat (04.03.2002) C Website http://www.hrwf.net C Email info@hrwf.net - China's widening crackdown on unregistered religions coincides with a dramatic rise in the number of Chinese who are embracing faiths, especially Christianity, according to official figures and independent groups. Critics of the government's stepped-up campaign say Beijing is worried that if more Chinese come to believe in God than in communism, they may organize and threaten the regime. Authorities counter that they are safeguarding society from cults and charlatans who trick the ignorant and endanger public safety.
The truth seems to lie somewhere in between.
On one hand, the practice of religion in China is freer than at any time since the 1949 communist revolution brought to power an atheist leadership, outlawed ''superstitious'' beliefs, and later expelled foreign missionaries from what had been the largest mission country in the world.
At the same time, groups the regime considers a threat to state authority or a public menace are branded as cults and subjected to harsh criminal penalties, including death sentences.
The paradox is that the steady decline in government control during the past two decades means far greater personal liberties for the majority in China - but zero tolerance for a growing number of unorthodox groups that the regime fears are taking those freedoms too far.
As many as 15 million people belong to the official Protestant church and as many as 10 million to the state-sanctioned China Patriotic Catholic church - up from 830,000 and 3 million respectively in the 1950s, according to Yang Huilin, director of the Institute for the Study of Christian Religion at People's University in Beijing.
The number of underground Christians - those who refuse to join approved churches that demand loyalty to the state above God and teach a watered-down version of the creed - is believed to be double the official church membership and rapidly growing, say religious scholars.
If the figures are accurate, it is easy to see why the state might feel threatened: the Christian population of China already may exceed the Communist Party's membership of 50 million.
President Bush raised concerns about religious freedom in China last week during meetings with President Jiang Zemin, following reports that 53 Catholic clerics are being detained or kept under surveillance and that leaders of a banned Protestant sect were sentenced to death.
Jiang responded that China guarantees freedom of religious belief but does not allow activities that break the law. During Bush's 30-hour visit, authorities detained 47 Christians holding an unauthorized prayer meeting outside Beijing, and publicized the earlier arrest of nine Protestant leaders in Hubei province who broke the law by ''recklessly praying, fasting, collecting charity, and distributing promotional material.''
The highest-profile religious crackdown has been on Falun Gong, the meditation group that Beijing branded a cult in 1999. Falun Gong activists say tens of thousands of practioners have been detained or imprisoned, and 1,600 have died in custody. Authorities counter that Falun Gong practices have killed 1,900 followers.
Two weeks ago, a US-based religious watchdog group released what it said were seven classified government documents issued between April 1999 and October 2001 which, if authentic, document a harsh campaign to crush Falun Gong and more than a dozen evangelical sects. The directives order ''banishing, purifying, searching, educating, converting, and controlling'' unregistered believers.
China's Constitution guarantees ''freedom of religious belief'' and protects ''normal religious activities.'' But it stipulates that ''no one may make use of religion to engage in activities that disrupt public order, impair the health of citizens, or interfere with the educational system of the state.'' The religious education of children is forbidden.
Yang notes that China's ''freedom of religious belief'' differs from the Western concept of freedom of religious activity. ''Authorities do not care what you believe. But if you practice publicly or preach ... you have to think about whether it's legal or illegal.''The state recognizes five religions: Buddhism, Taoism, Protestantism, Catholicism, and Islam. But the number of Chinese faithful is still a minority - estimated at between 200 million and 300 million out of a 1.3 billion population, said Miikka Ruokanen, a Finnish theologian and visiting professor at three Chinese universities.
Buddhism is China's largest faith, but Protestantism is the fastest-growing, with an estimated 2 million Chinese being baptized every year, according to independent scholars and ministers here.
''This is a golden age for religion in China,'' Ruokanen said. ''There is a vacuum of faith and morality, and something is going to fill that vacuum.''
Communism used to be the guiding faith of this country. But after decades of failed ideological campaigns, followed by 20 years of market-style reforms that have moved China far from socialism, many people are searching for something else to believe in. Communist Party members are required to be atheists, but a minister who spoke on condition of anonymity said he knows ''many, many party members who are Christians, and in Xinjiang province who are Muslims. Religion is growing, but Communist Party membership is not, so [authorities] have reason to be afraid.
''They know what happened in Poland'' with the Catholic Church's involvement in the Solidarity labor union, the cleric added. ''Religion was not the only factor, but it was one factor in the breakdown of communism.''
For unregistered Christians, freedom of worship depends on the attitude of local officials. Some pray openly in churches with neon signs, while others change their meeting places constantly to avoid detection.
Overseas Christian activists say reports that leaked out recently from a Chinese leaders' meeting last December indicate Beijing hopes to pressure unapproved groups that it considers harmless into registering with the government in exchange for being left alone.
A February report from the New York-based Committee for Investigation on Persecution of Religion in China acknowledged there are some heretics who call themselves Christians, but faulted Beijing for ''keeping these communities deprived of Scriptures and books, unable to conduct training seminars, and isolated from the worldwide religious communities who want to help.''
One banned sect that has been accused of kidnapping and trying to convert people is ''Oriental Lightning,'' whose members believe a woman in Henan province is a second Jesus. Another, the banned ''Shouters,'' have shortened the Lord's Prayer to three words - ''Oh, Lord Jesus!'' - which they bellow repeatedly.
A third illegal group is the ''Crying School,'' whose members believe doomsday is imminent and hold three-day sessions of desperate wailing.
''There is so little knowledge and expertise here that some wild religions do appear. People here have a hunger for religion, and many uneducated people will believe almost anything,'' Ruokanen said.
But with only 18 approved Protestant seminaries, China is unable to train enough pastors to meet the growing demand; in rural areas, believers often outnumber ordained ministers by 50,000 to 1. Until that changes, Ruokanen said, ''Christianity will remain a lay movement lacking in theological education, and there is a danger of heresy.''
Falun Gong was targeted ''because they practiced too publicly and wanted people to be converted,'' said Yang, of the religion institute. He suggests ''Christians could take some lessons from the tragedy of Falun Gong."
For the interests of all, he said, compromise would be the best policy. "Scholars can try to make the authorities have a more open attitude. On the other side, we can try to persuade religious persons not to be too pushy.''
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Secret documents reveal China's anti-Christian measures
by Patrick Goodenough
CNS News (11.02.2002) / HRWF (13.02.2002) C Website http://www.hrwf.net C Email info@hrwf.net -Just days before President Bush visits Beijing, religious freedom campaigners Monday released a report indicating that state repression of Christian and other religious groups in China is systematic, harsh, and authorized at senior government levels.
The Center for Religious Freedom at Freedom House analyzed seven top-secret or confidential Chinese government documents, which when taken together paint a picture of officials both determined to stamp out groups classified as cults, and deeply concerned about their speedy growth in Chinese society - even within communist party circles.
"These documents provide irrefutable evidence that China remains determined to eradicate all religion it cannot control, using extreme tactics," said the center's director, Nina Shea.
"President Bush, who has repeatedly voiced concern for religious oppression in China, must speak out forcefully and publicly in support of religious freedom during his state visit to China next week," she added.
Beijing only tolerates a "patriotic" Protestant church and an authorized Catholic church, which appoints its own bishops without consulting Rome. These official congregations have seen massive growth since the end of the Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s.
But unauthorized churches have grown even faster, with unregistered Protestants possibly numbering more than 50 million. The Vatican says millions of underground Catholics in China remain secretly loyal to the Pope.
Many of these unregistered Christians, along with members of other groups like the Falun Gong meditation sect, have borne the brunt of the state clampdown on what Beijing calls "cults."
The center said the seven documents, dated between April 1999 and October 2001, were photocopied by sympathetic security officials in China and provided by the New York-based Committee for Investigation on Persecution of Religion in China. A renowned expert authenticated the documents.
Among other things, the documents give the state's definition of a cult, identify and describe several groups so designated, and outline tactics to be used against them, including surveillance, the use of undercover spies, interrogation, arrest, confiscation of property and closed trials.
As the center points out, the documents also reveal ignorance among officials of the basic teachings of Christianity - ignorance which likely underpins decisions to designate a particular church group as a cult.
For instance, misinterpreting the basic Christian belief that Christ lives in the believer, officials accuse members of groups that believe this of "deifying" their leaders.
"This officially atheist state and its officially atheist security officials are setting themselves up as the arbiters of true religious doctrine and, on this basis, imprisoning and torturing religious believers," the center comments.
The documents also reveal paranoia about what officials see as outside attempts to attack China through unauthorized religious groups.
Thus, the Vatican is accused of inciting members of the authorized Catholic Church to rebel, while "antagonistic powers" like the U.S. and Taiwan are seen as colluding with Falun Gong adherents.
The U.N. Human Rights Commission meeting in Geneva each March has over the past decade become the stage for an annual power struggle between the U.S. and China.
Washington sponsors a resolution critical of Beijing's human rights record, and China invariably works up sufficient support from other nations to prevent a vote on the measure.
Ahead of this year's gathering, China at the weekend launched a diplomatic initiative aimed at countering criticism of its rights record.
The center noted Monday that Beijing has also been pushing a public relations campaign to persuade the West "that there is no religious persecution in China, that whatever incidents of repression occur are either the unauthorized acts of 'overzealous cadres' or else necessary measures against dangerous criminals, cultists and practitioners of 'abnormal' religious activities."
However, the documents reflect the views of senior officials at national, regional or local levels. One document, a speech by a provincial-level security official, quotes senior party officials on the importance of crushing one group designated as a "cult" - including Hu Jin-tao, designated as successor to President Jiang Zemin.
One of the documents reveals official concern that the clampdown is not proving successful. A provincial security official in a speech notes that, although banned, some illegal groups "came back from the ashes and resumed their activities."
"Their key members have either altered their techniques or divided into small groups but are still busy clandestinely making connections," he says.
The official also claims some members of unauthorized churches attempt to infiltrate the communist party and government.
Another document expresses anxiety about the rapid growth of one particular group that has not been sufficiently successfully spied upon to provide authorities with intelligence on its sources of funding, overseas contacts and communication network.
It accuses the group's adherents of infiltrating "inner circles" of the party, government and state-sanctioned Protestant movement.
The document also voices concern about relations between one unregistered Protestant group and underground Catholics.
"This cult is hastening its efforts to infiltrate underground Catholic churches so as to increase its strength by uniting with other underground powers," it says.
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Westerners held over Falun Gong protest
China usually deports foreign Falun Gong supporters
by Adam Brookes
BBC News (11.02.2002) / HRWF (13.02.2002) C Website http://www.hrwf.net C Email info@hrwf.net -Chinese police have detained one American and one Canadian citizen in Beijing for attempting to demonstrate in support of the banned Falun Gong movement.
Police quickly restrained the protesters.
In a statement, the two identified themselves as Jason Loftus, a 21-year-old engineering student from Toronto, and Jonathan Browde, 29, who works for a software company in New York.
They said they wanted to protest against an official campaign against the group based on an incident last year when five alleged Falun Gong members set light to themselves in Tiananmen Sqaure.
The two men said the incident, in which the authorities say two people including a 12-year-old girl died, was staged managed to smear the group.
Falun Gong, a mystical movement with millions of adherents in China, is considered a dangerous cult by the communist party and was banned in 1999. 'Rapid deportation' tactics
The two detained men went to Tiananmen Square, began shouting slogans and unfurled a banner which read: "The Self-Immolation is a Hoax; Falun Gong is Good."
But within seconds police restrained them, took down the banner, forced them into waiting vehicles and drove them off the square.
On previous occasions when foreigners have demonstrated in support of Falun Gong they have been held by police and then rapidly deported, as China appears unwilling to allow such cases to complicate its diplomatic relations.
That may be especially true now as the US President, George W Bush, is due to visit China later this month.
For Chinese citizens the story is rather different.
Many tens of thousands of Falun Gong followers have been ostracised and punished for their beliefs. Some have found themselves in labour camps, a few have died in custody.
From its headquarters in the United States, Falun Gong encourages its followers to perfect themselves spiritually through exercise and meditation, and draws heavily on Chinese folk religion.
The government campaign against the movement has lasted two-and-a-half years and has succeeded in all but erradicating it in China.
The widespread demonstrations by angry Falun Gong practitioners which used to take place all over China have largely tailed off over the last year.
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Amnesty International appeals on behalf of China Protestants sentenced to death
AFP (O6.02.2002)/ HRWF International Secretariat (08.02.2002) - Website: www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net Rights group Amnesty International issued an appeal in the cases of five members of an underground Protestant church sentenced to death in China.
"Amnesty International is concerned that the five sentenced to death may have been tortured to force them to confess," the appeal said Wednesday.
The case comes amid concerns by rights groups that a government crackdown on the Falungong group and other similar Buddhist-based organisations has been extended to underground Christian churches.
The United States has raised concerns about the repression of Christians such as the recent jailing of Hong Kong businessman Li Guangqiang for trying to smuggle 16,000 Bibles into the China.
"We find it a deplorable sentence and a deplorable charge," US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Tuesday.
Five members of the South China Church were given death sentences on December 29 by the Intermediate People's Court in Jingmen city, in the central province of Hubei, a criminal court official told AFP at the time.
Twelve other members were sentenced to between two years and life imprisonment, the official said.
Church founder Gong Shengliang was sentenced to death for "using an evil sect to harm the implementation of the law" as well as "premeditated assault" and "crimes of rape and hooliganism", the official said.
The Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy reported that Gong's niece, Li Ying, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for printing copies of a church publication.
Amnesty on Wednesday named Xu Fuming, Hu Yong and Gong Bangkun as the three others sentenced to die, with Gong Bangkun's sentence suspended to two years.
Under Chinese law death sentences with a reprieve are commuted to life if the period in question is served with good behaviour.
Amnesty said its concerns about torture were prompted in part by reports that three young women also connected with the church had endured seriousphysical abuse when arrested last year.
In letters to their families later made public, Zhang Hongjuan, Li Tongjin and Yang Tongni said abuse had included beatings with electric batons and belts.
Yang and Li were reported to be serving three-year terms at a labour camp in Hubei, while the whereabouts of Zhang were unknown, Amnesty said.
Relatives of two of those facing death sentences, Li Ying and Xu Fuming, have publicly appealed to authorities to review the cases, Amnesty said.
"Even at this very moment we still don't know the whereabouts of our loved ones, how their life is, whether they are still healthy, even whether they are still alive or what awaits them eventually," they were quoted as saying.
China permits Christian worship but only through tightly-controlled "official" Protestant and Catholic churches.
However underground churches flourish, with some estimates saying as many as 10 million people worship at unofficial Protestant groups alone.
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China blasts Human Rights Watch report
on Falungong crackdown
AFP (07.02.2002)/ HRWF International Secretariat (08.02.2002) - Website: www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net China Thursday blasted Human Rights Watch for issuing "irresponsible reports" after the New York-based group said the outlawed Falungong spiritual movement had been brutally crushed.
"With respect to Human Rights Watch, the organization often releases irresponsible reports, which bear no comment," foreign ministry spokesman Kong Quan told a media briefing.
The comment came after Human Rights Watch released a 117-page document saying China had used widespread torture, deaths in custody and a massive campaign of detention without trial to suppress the Falungong.
Kong said China was determined to crack down on the group, but rejected the
allegations of excessive brutality.
For adherents of the Falungong, we hope they can break away from this evil
cult and return to society," he said. "There is no such thing as Chinese abuse of Falungong practitioners."
Falungong, which Human Rights Watch said once claimed 40 million adherents in China, was outlawed in July 1999.
By September 2001 it had mostly been driven "underground", said the report, entitled "Dangerous Meditation: China's Campaign Against Falungong."
"Substantial evidence" showed that tens of thousands of followers were detained and thousands put into labor camps without trial, with hundreds more convicted of crimes, according to the report
.
"Serious human rights violations, including restrictions on freedom of thought, belief, and expression, wrongful detention, unfair trials, torture, and deaths in custody have accompanied the Chinese government response to Falungong," Human Rights Watch said.
Without disputing the government's claim that Falungong is a highly organized "sect", the report maintains that law-abiding citizens have a right to peacefully practise their beliefs. Human Rights Watch said it had documented widespread police torture against
incarcerated followers
"There is evidence of a range of serious abuses against Falungong members in
custody, including beatings, electric shock and other forms of torture, forced feeding and administration of psychotropic drugs, and extreme psychological pressure to recant," the report said.
As of June 27, 2001, exiled members of the Falungong claimed 234 practitioners had died in suspicious circumstances in custody or immediately following release, and that countless others were victims of torture and mistreatment.
"By altering laws and creating new laws with the expressed intention of dismantling Falungong, the Chinese leadership has succeeded only in undermining its claim that the judicial system is rooted in a 'rule of law' principle," Human Rights Watch said.
In many respects the government's tactics were strikingly similar to various extrajudicial campaigns previously waged against "imperialists", "counter-revolutionaries" and other suspect elements, it said.
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Bible smugglers sentenced to prison, not death
ZENIT.org - Fides. (28.01.2002) / HRWF (29.01.2002) C Website http://www.hrwf.net C Email info@hrwf.net - A Hong Kong businessman arrested last year for smuggling thousands of Bibles into China was sentenced today to two years in prison.
He risked the death penalty for spreading "an evil cult that undermines the stability of the nation."
After protests by human rights activists, and U.S. pressure, Fuqing city court, in mainland China's Fujian Province, downgraded charges against Lai Kwong-keung, 38, to "illegal trading." That charges carries a maximum of five years of detention.
The charges were also changed for two other men arrested with Lai, Yu Zhudi and Lin Xifu, accused of helping him, who were imprisoned for three years. The three men were arrested last May for delivering 33,000 Bibles to the underground religious organization known as the Shouters.
Observers say that rather than a sign of religious tolerance, the move comes in view of U.S. President George W. Bush's visit to China next month.
In December, a Hubei Province court gave the death penalty to pastor Gong Shengliang of the South China Church and his niece Li Ying for leading an "evil cult."
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China warns U.S. over bible smuggling case
CNN (08.01.2002)/ HRWF (09.01.2002) C Website http://www.hrwf.net C Email info@hrwf.net - Beijing has warned the United States not to interfere as it reacted to criticism over the detention of a Hong Kong resident accused of smuggling bibles into China.
"It's being dealt with according to law and no other country should interfere in China's independent judicial system," a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
"Actually its not a case of smuggling bibles," the spokesman said. "They smuggled a large amount of cult publications."
The spokesman commented after U.S. President George W. Bush took personal interest in the case of Li Guangqiang Monday, a 38-year-old businessman detained in southern China and charged with propagating an "evil cult," a crime that could be punishable by death.
Li is not a U.S. a citizen or a permanent U.S. resident.
In referring to Li's detention Monday, State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher said, "The president is deeply concerned about these reports," and had asked the State Department to look into the matter.
Bush counts conservative Christian groups among his political supporters and has made religious freedom one of Washington's top concerns in its dealings with Beijing.
A State Department report on human rights last October included China on a list of countries that deny religious freedom to their people, accusing Beijing of the suppression spiritual groups like the Falun Gong, which have been banned as cults.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry has dismissed the report as "groundless accusations."
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Chinese House Church leader granted time to appeal death sentence
by Alex Buchan
Compass (07.01.2002)/ HRWF International Secretariat (08.01.2002) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - The forty-six-year-old founder of the "South China" house church movement, Gong Shengliang, was granted a reprieve from
his death sentence, which was due to be carried out on Saturday, January 5. Gong was given a stay of execution, relatives said.
High level pressure on the Chinese government was exerted late last week after news broke in early January that he had been given a death sentence in a December 18 secret trial in Hubei province on December 18 on charges of "complicity in rape" and "leading an evil cult."
Sources in Beijing confirmed that Gong had indeed not been put to death. But the official reason from the Chinese Foreign Ministry was that Gong had been granted a period of several months to appeal the death sentence.
High level sources are confident that Gong will have his death sentence commuted to imprisonment, especially as evidence has come to light that two women whose testimony was used to convict him of rape were forced to provide false versions of events.
The 50,000-member South China movement is one of many spin-offs from the larger Born Again house church movement, whose founder Xu Yongze recently served three years in jail.
The evidence against Gong has not been made public, and some evangelical sources are skeptical that his movement is a cult or that the rape charges are well founded.
The case highlights the question of defining a cult. The Chinese government has not given a proper definition, and their religious rules criminalize any Christian group that refuses to register with the government, making them vulnerable to the cult charge.
The South China group has been labeled a cult, and in the December trial, four other leaders were given death sentences that were suspended for two years. A total of 63 members of the movement have already been jailed.
"This group is in big trouble; the police are really gunning for them," said a Beijing house church pastor, "but I don't think they are particularly bad. They may be a bit eccentric in some doctrines, but there is nothing cultish about them."
Sources in Beijing said that Gong's reprieve was due "in a significant measure" to the pressure exerted by U.S. Government and Congressional sources, as well as swift publicity by agencies such as Compass Direct and Freedom House.
The year 2002 is expected to be a difficult year for those house churches that refuse to register with the government. Evidence suggests that the multi-million-member Born Again movement has also been singled out for harassment, show trials and multiple jailings of its leaders.
Another serious case cropped up on January 5 when a Hong Kong citizen and trader, Li Guangquiang, was also accused of "using an evil cult to damage a law-based society" [the same charge as Gong's] for smuggling 33,000 Bibles in April and May 2000 to the "Shouters" -- a house church movement prominent in some rural parts of China.
Li was issued the indictment by a court in China's Fujian province, where he is being held.
The Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy warned he might also be handed a death sentence. The Center speculated that no less than 16 Christian house church movements had been designated as "cults" by the government and could face the same kind of fierce crackdown that the folk-Buddhism movement Falun Gong has experienced during the past two years.
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China indicts man for bible deliveries
Hong Kong resident accused of aiding 'cult'
By Philip P. Pan
Washington Post Foreign Service (06.01.2002)/ HRWF International Secretariat (07.01.2002) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - A Hong Kong businessman who tried to deliver tens of thousands of Bibles purchased by American worshipers for an underground Christian congregation in China has been indicted on charges of assisting an "evil cult," his friends and a human rights group said today.
The case is the latest sign the Chinese government is pushing ahead with a broad crackdown on unauthorized religious activity even after its success against the campaign's main target, the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement.
Li Guangqiang, 38, was indicted last month on charges of "using a cult to undermine enforcement of the law" and is expected to go on trial next week in the southeastern city of Fuqing, according to the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy.
Last week, two leaders of an underground Protestant church in central China's Hubei province were sentenced to death under the same anti-cult law, which the governing Communist Party adopted in 1999 to justify its campaign against Falun Gong.
The law does not provide a precise definition of a cult, and human rights groups say the government is using it to harass religious organizations that refuse to worship in state-run churches, including at least 16 Christian sects.
Li is believed to be the first Hong Kong resident prosecuted under the law. Friends described him as a devout Christian who spent several years studying theology in Taiwan. He is a partner in a business that buys candles in China and sells them overseas, they said.
According to the indictment, Li shipped a truckload of about 17,000 Bibles to the underground church in Fuqing in April and was attempting to transport another 16,000 Bibles in May when police arrested him and seized the shipment.
The indictment also charges two leaders of the church that requested the Bibles, Yu Zhudi and Lin Xifu, both 42, and describes them as members of the Shouters, which has been active in China since the 1920s and has been targeted by the government for decades.
The group, which says it has 500,000 members, espouses a literal interpretation of the Bible, and its members are known for their evangelical practice of shouting "Jesus is Lord!" in unison. They have been singled out for persecution in part because of their ties to overseas Christian groups, according to human rights groups.
Friends said Li is a member of the group's foreign branch, known as the Local Church, and was asked by a church leader from Anaheim, Calif., to deliver the Bibles to Fuqing about a year ago. "He knew this job was risky and dangerous," said one close friend and fellow church member in Hong Kong, who asked not to be identified because he travels often to China. "He did it for the church, for his faith and to help the Christians in China. He knew there was a high need for these Bibles there."
The Bibles are new Chinese-language translations that do not differ significantly in content from those approved by Beijing, but they have been banned because of their affiliation with the Shouters, church members said.
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Bible smuggler back in Hong Kong
By Verna Yu
Associated Press (09.02 2002) / HRWF International Secretariat (11.02.2002) - Website: www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - A Hong Kong businessman convicted of smuggling Bibles into China returned to Hong Kong on Saturday after he was released from a Chinese prison.
A Hong Kong Security Bureau statement said Hong Kong officials have been in touch with Lai Kwong-keung's family after his return. It gave no other details. Phone calls to Lai's wife in China and his Hong Kong church members went unanswered. Beijing's official Xinhua News Agency said earlier that Lai would be released from prison but placed under surveillance to receive treatment for hepatitis B.
It said a court in the southeastern Chinese city of Fuqing ruled Saturday that Lai can serve at least part of his two-year sentence outside of prison because of his health, Xinhua said. The agency gave no indications that Lai would be returning to Hong Kong.
Lai was sentenced last month for bringing thousands of Bibles to a banned Chinese Christian group in May. President Bush, who is to visit China later this month, expressed concern about Lai's case and asked the State Department to look into it.
Lai, 38, was convicted of illegally selling foreign publications inside China. But his arrest came during a crackdown on religious groups operating outside of Beijing's control. China allows only state-monitored worship and is trying to crush independent groups that it says are a threat to Communist Party rule and public order.
Members of the banned Falun Gong meditation group have been jailed for up to 13 years. Lai, also known as Li Guangqiang, was detained last May after bringing 33,080 Bibles into China for a group known as the Shouters, which has a half million members in southeast China. Lai was carrying a version of the Bible edited by a founder of the Shouters. That version is not authorized in China, where the Christian group was banned in 1995 as a cult.
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