Chen Guangcheng case a wind gauge for the persecuted Church

China (MNN) ― The Chinese government is reportedly attacking the family of a blind human rights activist.

Chen Guangcheng is known for speaking out against forced abortions and China's one-child policy. His escape from house arrest last year brought shame to the Chinese government. Since then, they've been instigating violence against his family.

According to a report from China Aid Association, the home of Guangcheng's eldest brother has come under multiple attacks. Early last week, government-hired thugs drove up to the home and started throwing beer bottles and bricks at it.

Chen Kegui, one of Guangcheng's nephews, is currently in jail suffering from appendicitis, and authorities haven't offered him surgery. Reportedly, U.S. Secretary of Defense John Kerry plans to raise the case with senior Chinese officials.

China Aid is also helping Guangcheng get justice. They've helped the activist since his escape from China, with ChinaAid founder and president Bob Fu acting as an informal liaison between Guangcheng and the U.S. government.

Now, ChinaAid is calling people to act as a proxy for Guangcheng's family. Check out our Featured Links section to see how you can help.

Although Chen Guangcheng is not a Christ-follower, underground church leaders told the Wall Street Journal his case has become an anemometer. They're watching the development of Guangcheng's case to see how far China's Communist government will go to punish those it views as a threat.

Pray that no matter what happens, the Gospel will keep going forward in China. Pray the faith of Chinese believers remains strong.

Government shuts down theological training camp

China (MNN) ― One of Henry Ford’s most famous alleged sayings with the production of the Model T vehicle in 1908 was, “You can have any color as long as it’s black.”

This humorous quote may relate to the trite subject of car color. But is there a similar mindset in China’s treatment of a Christian’s freedom to worship?

The Communist government of China states in Article 36 of its constitution, “Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of religious belief.”

However, Greg Musselman through Voice of the Martyrs, Canada’ssource, ChinaAid, says, “Over the next ten years, [China’s government] has made a stated document…that actually shows a three-phase plan to eradicate house churches or unregistered churches and then gett them all together under the three-self patriotic church which then allows the government to control the church.”

Some wonder what the big deal is with registering a house church in China anyway. Musselman explains, “There may be some good things going on within the government-controlled churches [if they are] preaching a salvation message, but really that is frowned upon by the government. So many I have talked to over the years are saying that the control of the government is not really a true church [with] the freedom to preach the whole Bible.”

One recent example of governmental crackdown on unregistered church activity took place two weeks ago, June 26, when Chinese government officials forced a teacher theological training camp for pastors to shut down.

The Chinese Theological Society is registered in Hong Kong, but not with the Chinese government where they held the training in Southern China. “They were doing some training…and near the end of their training time, the religious police came in and shut them down. And again, it’s a part of the intimidation process that the Chinese government often uses to try to force the underground Christians or the house church Christians into registering.”

ChinaAid says that cases of Christian persecution like these in China have increased by 20%.

However, Musselman points out that they don’t always make the headlines, since many of the more serious cases of persecution don’t always happen in the big cities. “China is such a massive country and many places are very rural, and so we don’t often hear the stories until much later, if at all in some cases.”

Yet, Christianity is flourishing and growing, both in the registered and unregistered churches. “The interesting thing is that there are more Christians in China than anywhere in the world,” says Musselman. “Some of the sources we’ve heard say that there are over 100 million, maybe as high as 120 million, who identify themselves as Christians.”

Musselman asks for prayer "that the Lord will give the [church] leaders wisdom and strength not to compromise.”

Brutal forced abortions condemned

Hu Xia, another mother forced to abort her child,
 in the hospital (Photo courtesy of ChinaAid)

China (MNN) ― After an emergency vote last Thursday, July 5, the European Parliament passed a “resolution on the forced abortion scandal in China” that “strongly condemns” officials in the forced abortion case of seven-months-pregnant Feng Jianmei.

According to the resolution, “On 2 June 2012 a seven-months-pregnant woman, Feng Jianmei, was abducted and underwent a forced abortion in Zhenping county (Shanxi [sic] province), sparking a wave of indignation and condemnation in China and around the world…”

Bob Fu, President of ChinaAid Association, says this is the first time the European Parliament has passed a resolution like this, but it’s a huge milestone. “Because the European Union is a huge countries block, it really has support of the international affairs.... It is really important for this voice to be heard. It sends a much stronger signal to the Chinese government that the whole world is now united against this brutal practice of one-child policy, forced abortion, and forced sterilization.”

Fu goes on to say, “I think it will also encourage more Chinese victims to come up to tell their stories, and it will put pressure at least temporarily [on] the local family planning officials to be more careful when they try to do these kind of forced abortion, forced sterilization cases.”

The resolution urges the European Union to discuss the violation of human rights in these forced abortion cases with China in the next round of bilateral human rights dialogue.

However, the resolution didn’t cover everything. According to Fu, “It fell short in the sense [of] condemning the whole China family planning system. In the resolution, it still contends the language….It does not really condemn China’s brutal family planning system of the one-child policy.”

Feng Jainmei and her husband are Christians, and Fu says their family continues to suffer persecution. Their case only begins to scratch the surface of what China and the church there has been facing for over thirty years since the one-child policy was enacted.

Fu shares, “I have received lots of reports from churches in the past. One pastor told me his wife was dragged to the hospital by the family planning officials and, with a poison drug injection into their eight-month-pregnant baby, killed their son. So I was on the phone when that was happening with that pastor in the hospital.”

The Chinese government has prevented the birth of 400 million children since the one-child policy started 30 years ago. With 5.7 million Jews killed in the World War II Holocaust, that is equivalent to losing the population from the Holocaust 70 times over.

Fu says the Chinese church has mostly kept silent, until now. “The churches are now having a wake-up call.... Because of the enormous suppression and the enormous propaganda by the Chinese government, most of the people chose to be silent, because if you dare to speak up, you will face lots of retributions: you will lose your job, lose your property, lose everything. And not only the husband and wife involved, but also family members, the grandparents, your neighbors, all will be part of the calamity if you are found in violation of the one-child policy.”

“Chinese women have the highest suicide rate in the whole world, partially--even according to the Chinese government scholars--because of this traumatic experience of forced abortion,” states Fu. “They need the Gospel of Christ to really bring healing and to comfort their hearts, knowing the Lord has remembered her and her baby. Otherwise, there’s going to be more disaster.”

The Gospel is desperately needed. “This is a matter of life and death, and especially the value of life [is] deeply rooted from the perspective of the Gospel,” states Fu. “There’s no other way to explain why a baby’s life is so precious in his or her mother’s womb except to recognize the image of God, the ‘imago Dei.’ Every human being bears that image, and that is directly from Scripture.”

Fu poses the echoing question, “If the church does not stand up for life, who will? And if the church refuses to speak up and refuses to fight for life, who will?”

Click here to learn more and how you can take action at ChindAid’s Web site.

Chinese officials take 70 Christians into custody

China (MNN) ― ChinaAid, a ministry partner of the Voice of the Martyrs, got word this week that a house church which has been meeting for nearly 20 years was raided by police. More than 70 Christians were taken into custody.

The church, in far west China's region of Xinjiang, China, was meeting at the pastor's home when officials stormed in. 

Ten policemen and Domestic Security Protection agents announced that the believers were holding an "unapproved, illegal meeting" and ordered an immediate end to it, reports ChinaAid.

The police confiscated the Christians' Bibles, hymnals, notebooks, Christian education DVDs, and other materials, but they refused to provide a receipt for the confiscated items as required by law.

Police then took the believers away. After forcing each Christian there to be photographed, authorities took them to the respective local police stations of their places of employment for questioning. Some were not released for two days.

The pastor and his wife were called into the local police station again the day after the raid for further questioning. They were threatened by the police, who ordered them to stop holding meetings in their home.

Pray for this persecuted body of believers. Pray that they will boldly continue living out the Gospel. Pray also that the officials would have a change in heart.

ChinaAid encourages calls to the Chinese police station to advocate on behalf of this house church. Find phone numbers here.

ChinaAid President Bob Fu and Wife of Imprisoned Chinese Dissident to Testify Feb. 14 on Chinese Government Persecution of Human Rights Activists and Political Dissidents

Bob Fu (Photo: ChinAid)

WASHINGTON, Feb. 13, 2012 /Christian Newswire/ -- On Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2012, "Bob" Xiqiu Fu, founder and president of China Aid Association, and the wife of imprisoned Chinese political dissident Guo Quan will testify before the Congressional-Executive Commission on China at a hearing entitled "The Case and Treatment of Prominent Human Rights Lawyer Gao Zhisheng."

 

When: Tuesday, February 14, 2012, 2:30-4:30 pm

 

Where: Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2118, Washington, DC

 

The following is an excerpt from Fu's testimony, entitled "The Chinese Government Should be Held Accountable for the Persecution of Gao Zhisheng and his Family":

 

Gao is a pioneer in China's rights defense movement. Like the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. of the United States, Gao's Christian faith and his ethical values have been the great spiritual motivator spurring him to defend the legal rights of the persecuted and the marginalized, and that faith and those values have given him the courage to make great sacrifices, even to the point of giving up his life, for this civil rights movement. The emergence in China of a group of human rights lawyers—men of integrity and courage, who are fighting on the frontlines for human rights, rule of law, and religious freedom in China--is due entirely to the power of the example set by Martin Luther King Jr. and Gao Zhisheng.

 

An excerpt from Li Jing, wife of Guo Quan's testimony:

 

It is very important for the world community to raise the case of my husband, of Gao Zhisheng, of Chen Guangcheng and Liu Xiaobo--China must know that the world is united against the imprisonment of peaceful dissidents and rights defenders. But without U.S. leadership on human rights, few in Beijing will be listening.

 

ChinaAid was founded in 2002 to draw international attention to China's gross human rights violations against house church Christians and monitors and reports on religious freedom violations in China. Drawing on a wide network of sources throughout the country, ChinaAid issues frequent news releases on cases of religious persecution in China. The Midland, Texas-based organization also assists victims of religious persecution to assert their rights and works to promote the rule of law in China.

 

 

ChinaAid to tell European Parliament ‘Religious Freedom in China at Lowest Point Since 1989’

By Michael Ireland
Senior International Correspondent, ASSIST News Service

MIDLAND, TEXAS (ANS) -- Human rights and religious freedom in China has deteriorated to its lowest point since the period after the crackdown on the 1989 Tiananmen Square student-led pro-democracy demonstration.

Bob Fu will testify before the European Parliament.

ChinaAid founder and president Bob Fu will be telling the European Parliament about the current situation with several other ChinaAid witnesses on Wednesday (Nov.30).

Fu and the other witnesses were invited by the European Parliament to testify at its hearing on "The human rights situation in China" at the parliament building in Brussels, Belgium.

In a media update, ChinaAid says the delegation will the next day be in The Netherlands to participate in a human rights forum on "The situation of Christians in China," where Fu will be making a similar presentation on the serious deterioration of religious freedom, the rule of law and human rights in general.

For the EU hearing, ChinaAid was asked to make recommendations that would help the European Union set its China policy so as to address human rights problems in China.

In attendance at the hearing will be members of the European Parliament and their assistants.

This is the second time that ChinaAid and Fu have appeared before the European Parliament. In 2009, Fu and two Christian lawyers engaged in rights defense work also testified before the same body.

Speaking in a media release, Fu expressed appreciation to the European Parliament for the opportunity to testify.

"The grave human rights violations by the Chinese government is a global issue," he said. "We urge the European leaders to take more concrete steps to encourage the Chinese government to improve its record by building an international coalition founded on an unwavering solidarity with the Chinese rights defenders community."

In Ridderkerk, The Netherlands, the ChinaAid delegation will be speaking to an audience of mainly NGOs, representatives of the missionary organizations of several churches, some individuals with ties to China and members of the Dutch Political Reformed Party (SGP), Holland's most orthodox Protestant party, as well as members of the Dutch media.

Both reports will be posted on ChinaAid's websites www.ChinaAid.org  and www.MonitorChina  as soon as they are delivered.

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** Michael Ireland is the Senior International Correspondent for ANS. He is an international British freelance journalist who was formerly a reporter with a London (United Kingdom) newspaper and has been a frequent contributor to UCB UK, a British Christian radio station. While in the UK, Michael traveled to Canada and the United States, Albania,Yugoslavia, Holland, Germany,and Czechoslovakia. He has reported for ANS from Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Israel, Jordan, China,and Russia. Michael's volunteer involvement with ASSIST News Service is a sponsored ministry department -- 'Michael Ireland Media Missionary' (MIMM) -- of A.C.T. International of P.O.Box 1649, Brentwood, TN 37024-1649, at: Artists in Christian Testimony (A.C.T.) International where you can make a donation online under 'Donate' tab, then look for 'Michael Ireland Media Missionary' under 'Donation Category' to support his stated mission of 'Truth Through Christian Journalism.' Michael is a member in good standing of the National Writers Union, Society of Professional Journalists, Religion Newswriters Association, Evangelical Press Association and International Press Association. If you have a news or feature story idea for Michael, please contact him at: ANS Senior International Reporter

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** You may republish this story with proper attribution.

ChinaAid to European Parliament: Religious Freedom in China at Lowest Point Since 1989

European Parliament - Brussels, Belgium

MIDLAND, Texas, Nov. 28, 2011 /Christian Newswire/ -- ChinaAid founder and president Bob Fu will be telling the European Parliament on Wednesday that the situation with human rights and religious freedom in China has deteriorated to its lowest point since the period after the crackdown on the 1989 Tiananmen Square student-led pro-democracy demonstration.

 

Fu and several other ChinaAid witnesses were invited by the European Parliament to testify at its hearing on "The human rights situation in China" at the parliament building in Brussels, Belgium.

 

The next day, the delegation will be in The Netherlands to participate in a human rights forum on "The situation of Christians in China," where Fu will be making a similar presentation on the serious deterioration of religious freedom, the rule of law and human rights in general.

 

For the EU hearing, ChinaAid was asked to make recommendations that would help the European Union set its China policy so as to address human rights problems in China. In attendance at the hearing will be members of the European Parliament and their assistants.

 

This is the second time that ChinaAid and Fu have appeared before the European Parliament. In 2009, Fu and two Christian lawyers engaged in rights defense work also testified before the same body.

 

Fu expressed appreciation to the European Parliament for the opportunity to testify.

 

"The grave human rights violations by the Chinese government is a global issue," he said. "We urge the European leaders to take more concrete steps to encourage the Chinese government to improve its record by building an international coalition founded on an unwavering solidarity with the Chinese rights defenders community."

 

In Ridderkerk, The Netherlands, the ChinaAid delegation will be speaking to an audience of mainly NGOS, representatives of the missionary organizations of several churches, some individuals with ties to China and members of the Dutch Political Reformed Party (SGP), Holland's most orthodox Protestant party, as well as members of the Dutch media.

 

Both reports will be posted on ChinaAid's website as soon as they are delivered.

Jailed Sichuan Activist Ding Mao Case Sent Back to Prosecutors from Police for Third Time, Wife and Son Denied Birthday Visit

Ding Mao's family

MIAYANG, Sichuan, Nov. 8, 2011 /Christian Newswire/ -- Government prosecutors handling the case of Sichuan activist Ding Mao, arrested for forwarding Twitter messages about the Arab Jasmine Revolution and charged with subversion, had demanded police for further investigations because of insufficient evidence and the case now has been sent back to prosecutors for the third time, ChinaAid has confirmed.

Meanwhile, his wife's request to visit him on the eve of his birthday, which is Nov. 9, was denied. None of his family members, including the couple's six-year-old son, has seen Ding Mao since local police seized him from his home on Feb. 19. He has been held in the Mianyang Detention Center. In March 28, he was formally arrested on suspicion of inciting subversion of state power.

Ding's wife, Feng Xia, a House Church Christian in Blessings of Autumn Rain House Church in Chengdu city, was notified on Oct. 24 that the case had been sent back to Mianyang Prosecutors from the Public Security Bureau (police) again as she was in the United States trying to draw attention to her husband's case in an effort to win his release. During her three-week visit, she met with high-level U.S. government officials and congressional leaders as well as leaders from non-government organizations and the legal community.

The case had already been sent back to police three times because of insufficient evidence for prosecutors to build a case and indict Ding. According to China's criminal procedure law, a case can only be sent back to police three times before the prosecutors have to decide to issue a formal indictment or dismiss the case.

When Feng flew back home on Sunday (Oct.6) from the United States, she was met at the airport in the provincial capital of Chengdu by a U.S. consulate official who was there to ensure that she was not harassed by Chinese government authorities in retaliation for her U.S. trip, and had a tea together.

The U.S. Consulate on Monday invited her for a formal one-hour meeting with three consular officials, during which she provided them details about her husband's case and his health. Ding, who weighs just over 100 pounds and is physically weak, had had an excruciating toothache in April that made it impossible for him to sleep, and in August had back pain as well.

Yesterday Feng also filed a formal application with government prosecutors for a birthday visit with her husband, or a phone call or permission to send a birthday cake to him. All were denied.

Police in Mianyang have barred Ding from meeting with a lawyer hired for him by his family because, according to police, the case "involved state secrets."

At the time of his arrest, Ding was general manager of an investment company in Mianyang. He is also a founder of the Social Democratic Party. During the 1989 Tiananmen Square student democracy movement, Ding was a student of philosophy at Lanzhou University in Gansu province and became a student leader in the protests.

He has already spent about 9 years in jail during two previous imprisonments, first in 1989 and again in 1992 when he was arrested for organizing the Social Democratic Party.

Other cyber-dissidents and advocates of civil society were arrested at the same time as Ding. They include Chen Wei and Ran Yunfei, who were prosecuted on the same charge as Ding. Ran was released in August but put under six-month's of house arrest during which he is forbidden to express himself publicly.

They are among dozens of dissidents, activists and lawyers who have been illegally detained or who have disappeared into government custody since February.

ChinaAid Tells U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs That Religious Freedom in China at its Worst in Nearly 30 Years

ChinaAid's Bob Fu testifying
 at the House Foreign Affairs
 Committee Hearing on China's
 human rights and rule of law.
 (ChinaAid photo)

WASHINGTON, Nov. 5, 2011 /Christian Newswire/ -- ChinaAid told a congressional foreign affairs committee on Thursday that religious freedom in China has deteriorated to the lowest point in nearly three decades, and it is not likely to get better any time soon.

ChinaAid founder and president Bob Fu was one of five panelists invited to testify at a first-ever hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the annual report submitted to Congress by the Congressional-Executive Committee on China.

The CECC was created 10 years ago to monitor China's human rights and the rule of law as a compromise measure in the debate over whether to allow China to join the World Trade Organization and to make it a normal trading partner with the United States. The hearing topic was the CECC's 10th annual report released on Oct. 15. (See Statement on the Release of U.S. Congressional Annual Report on China's Human Rights Record, Excerpts from CECC Report: Freedom of Religion in China Not Up to International Standards  and CECC Annual Report 2011)

Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) opened the hearing by saying, "Over a decade later, we can see that economic engagement with and trade liberalization for China did not produce political liberalization and thus granting [normal trading status] was a mistake."

The CECC report presents "a clear picture of a China where human rights lawyers disappear, 'black jails' illegally imprison those who seek to voice dissent, Falun Gong practitioners are mercilessly persecuted, and the internet is censored by thought police," she said. (The full text of statement her statement is available here.)

In Fu's five-minute oral statement, he not only confirmed that the past 10 years have seen no improvement in human rights in China, but noted that "religious freedom conditions are at their lowest point since 1982, the year Deng Xiaoping officially ended the policy of eradicating religion."

"As China's influence and power grows, this pattern is unlikely to change, and certainly not before the 2012 transfer of power to a new generation of senior leadership," he added.

Fu called for the United States and other government to continue to bring pressure to bear on China, saying "international attention matters and can make a difference. That's because it constrains what the Chinese government does and how it uses its force against rights advocates."

Fu broke from his prepared remarks to introduce Feng Xia who was in the hearing room. Her husband, Ding Mao, was arrested in February for forwarding twitter messages about the Jasmine Revolution.  Feng was in the United States to try to draw international attention to her husband's case so as to win his release.

Fu also referred to a Chinese-government exhibition of Chinese Bibles currently touring the United States, which he said is part of "the increasing propaganda campaign by the Chinese government in the United States." Fu and two other former Chinese house church leaders visited the exhibition in Dallas on Wednesday. (SeeHouse Church Leaders Visit Chinese Government's Bible Exhibition, Call for Exhibit to Tour China)

"It's nothing but political manipulation. Lies!" Fu said, adding that Americans need to "be woken up" to the truth. (See ChinaAid's commentary about the exhibition.)

Other panelists at the hearing were: Chai Ling, founder of All Girls Allowed and a student leader of the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy movement; John Kamm, chairman of The Dui Hua Foundation; Sophie Richardson, China Director of Human Rights Watch; and Bhuchung K. Tsering, Vice President for Special Programs of the International Campaign for Tibet.