Posted on 08/25/2002 8:57:42 AM PDT by tallhappy
Associated Press Worldstream
August 23, 2002 Friday
HEADLINE: Activists accuse China of a sweeping crackdown on Christians worshipping in underground churches
BYLINE: WILLIAM FOREMAN; Associated Press Writer
DATELINE: BEIJING
About 70 Christians have disappeared or been secretly arrested in China in recent months, a group of Chinese religious activists said Friday.
The Christians worshipped in underground or "house" churches that operate outside the communist government's control, said the New York-based Committee for Investigation on Persecution of Religion in China.
The group said the crackdown came as China prepares for the Communist Party's national congress, a major meeting of China's leaders that takes place about once every five years. Authorities usually arrest political and religious activists and others who might embarrass the Communist Party during such high-profile events. The government has yet to announce the date for the congress, expected to be held this autumn. The committee compiled a list of 71 people who have allegedly been secretly arrested or have disappeared - most in July. The list included the detainees' names, ages, addresses, brief descriptions of how they were arrested and where they were held.
Calls seeking comment from the Ministry of Public Security and the Bureau of Religious Affairs went unanswered Friday evening.
The Associated Press tried to call the homes of some of the people on the list, but operators in their towns - mostly in rural areas of the northern provinces of Heilongjiang and Jilin - said that they had no telephone service. It is common for rural homes not to have phones.
The committee, run by Chinese Christians living abroad, has released detailed reports before that have been praised by human rights researchers and scholars.
The names on the list released Friday included:
-Zhao Yazhou, 41, of Antu County in Jilin. The committee said police burst into Zhao's home and ransacked it on July 30 before arresting her without charge. She was taken to a detention center in nearby Mingyue Township.
-Liu Jinfeng, 34, of Jiutai City in Jilin. The group said police arrested Liu in her home at 11 p.m. on July 29 and took her away as if they were kidnapping her. She was detained in a jail in Jiutai, it said.
-Hou Chunling, 33, of Mudanjiang City in Heilongjiang. The committee said she disappeared on June 10. One week later, her husband learned she was being detained at the Mudanjiang railway police jail, it said.
Foreign religious scholars have estimated that the number of house church members run as high as 60 million. China's official Christian churches have about 15 million followers.
You are truly reprehensible.
That "same sort of thing" is to try and correct many misconceptions I continually see posted here (belive me, I've thought more than once I should just give it up). Shoot the messanger if you want, but what is being posted by some on here simply is not true. Are we supposed to ignore these things?
Tell me there are not many churches open for service every Sunday in China. Tell me Christianity is not the fastest growing religion in China. Tell me there is not a 4 story high nativity scene on Hui Hai Road in downtown Shanghai at the Parkson's department store every Christmas (and what are you talking about anyhow, we can't even post the 10 commandments in this country).
If these things are not true, then I will be quiet. But from some of the posts on here one would think you will be jailed in China for hanging a cross in your home. And if that is the case, the Chinese government better get busy knocking down a whole bunch of very large outdoor crosses visible in many places from all directions.
Worse is your purposefull attempt at character assasination -- fighting your pro CCP propaganda war with innuendo and slander.
You cannot act in a lower more contemptable manner than you do.
And then for you to act so disingenupous about it...No insult would be too harsh for what you do.
During impeachement and Clinton's tenure the Clintonistes came and posted the same nonsense over and over. And made the same comment you do here.
They posted propaganda, as you do, that was and is countered all the time in many posts in many ways.
But they kept posting the same propaganda lies over and over, just like you, and then demand "correction" etc...
They and you do not merit any respect nor time to do such.
I do not need to argue with Nazis who slander and spew propaganda. Nor do I ned to argue with CCP who lie and spew propaganda.
BTW, it matters not what the official "charge" is. Stalin jailed hundreds of thousands for the ctrime of "wrecking," which could be intrepreted as virtually anything.
Did the govt in 1999 order its 60 million communist party members to abandon religious beliefs? Is it legal for soldiers in the army to practice any religion?
Our giving China Permanent Most Favored Nation trading status has not only secured them as our "strategic ally," but it is also bringing about the Civil Rights reforms we were told it would. Not to mention opening China's markets to American goods, thus eliminating the $70-billion-plus per-year Trade Deficit we have with them.
Oh... excuse me... none of that is happening. Oh, well.
Probably these people were told at least once to stop their meetings but continued to assemble illegally.You support arresting Christians who merely meet to pray, simply because the government won’t approve their assembling in homes?
Sick.
patent +AMDG
I am not supporting anything one way or the other. I'm simply stating the facts as I know them. Assembly in China, for any reason, is illegal, be it for Amway meetings, Mary Kay or in the name of The Lord.
Is this something you dispute?
With all due respect to your position, you are seriously misreading mine.
BTTT
Is this something you dispute?Oh, no. I readily recognize that China has an immoral dictatorship that happily jails, beats, and kills anyone it doesn’t like. The difference is I disapprove of that, and have no hesitation to say so. You try to defend it by saying “it’s the law.” That is pathetic.
patent +AMDG
Thanks for the Teutonic sentence.
The US Constitution allows peaceful assembly, no permit required.
China doesn't, you say. If so, one more reason why China will never progress to become a first-rate country.
THey are illegal because they are private assembly.
People should be allowed to worship God in their homes.
They can, just not in groups.
They should be allowed to hold private meetings with other Christians
It is not allowed, not because they are Christians but because people are not allowed to organize meetingsin their homes. It does not matter if it is Amway they are selling or Church. Assembly of this nature in China is illegal. It is the same reason why Amway had to change it's marketing approach. They can not do it in China the way they do it in elsewhere.
Would you say people that sell Amway are persecuted in China? The answer is, if they meet in their homes after being warned not to, they will be.
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