China House Church Members Detail Increasing Persecution, Torture
Members of the underground house church in China detailed the increasing persecution and torture of Christians during a press conference late last week in Washington D.C.
Members of the underground house church in China detailed the increasing persecution and torture of Christians at the hands of the Chinese government during a press conference late last week at the National Press Club in Washington D.C.
Among those who gave their accounts on Thursday was Liu Xianzhi, a member of the South China Church who was arrested in 2001 and tortured by police into falsely testifying that the pastor of the South China Church, Gong Shengliang, raped her.
With China Aid Association (CAA) President Bob Fu serving as her interpreter, Liu recounted her experience of torture, abuse and arbitrary imprisonment by Chinese police.
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According to the Family Research Council—one of the largest and most influential social policy establishments in the U.S.—Liu was brutally beaten by the police and forced to falsely accuse Gong of "raping" her. Gong is currently serving life in prison based on the multiple "confessions" obtained through torture.
“Religious persecution has accelerated in the last few years as the Chinese government attempts to put a halt to the rapid growth of the Chinese church,” stated the Family Research Council (FRC). “These abuses in China have brought a renewed focus by congressional leaders and the UN.”
Recently, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention released a formal opinion in the case of Yinan Zhang, a Chinese church leader sentenced to two years of "re-education through labor." According to the CAA, authorities convicted Zhang of attempting to subvert the national government" by misinterpreting statements culled from his personal prayer journals and Christian essays.
In concluding, the UN working group stated that China’s arbitrary detentions are a violation of the UN Declaration of Human Rights.
“It's time for policymakers to take a stand for human rights and religious freedom in China,” FRC President Tony Perkins wrote in a statement released Friday. Perkins encouraged friends of the FRC to “stand with our brothers and sisters in China by urging President Bush and Congress to hold China accountable for its persecution of the Church.”
Last year, the U.S. State Department released its annual report on religious freedom in which it reported that the China Government tries to control and regulate religious groups to prevent the rise of groups that could constitute sources of authority outside of the control of the Government and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The report, released on Sept. 15, stated that unregistered religious groups continued to experience varying degrees of official interference and harassment. Members of some unregistered religious groups, including Protestant and Catholic groups, were subjected to restrictions, including intimidation, harassment, and detention. In some localities, "underground" religious leaders reported ongoing pressure either to register with the State Administration for Religious Activities (SARA, formerly known as the central Religious Affairs Bureau) or its provincial and local offices, still known as Religious Affairs Bureaus (RAB).
However, despite efforts at government control, official sources, religious professionals, and persons who attend services at both officially sanctioned and underground places of worship all reported that the number of believers in the country continued to grow.
