Committee for Investigation on Persecution of Religion in China

Written Statement for the Record

submitted by email to anne.tsai@cecc.gov.
Congressional-Executive Commission on China
Monday, March 25, at 2:30 pm
Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, DC
Room SD-215.

We are grateful for this opportunity to participate today by email with the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, a United States government commission which has been created by legislative mandate to monitor human rights and the development of the rule of law in China and will submit an annual report to the President and the Congress. To this staff-led public issues roundtable of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, held specifically to deal with the issue of religious freedom in China, we present the following documentation.

We invite the members of this Congressional-Executive Commission on China and all present to visit our web site in order to become more familiar with our work and updates regarding Religion and National Security in China. We have posted in English and in Chinese languages, an authenticated document detailing Secret Documents from China's Security Sector.

Since we have made these documents public, we have received many more documents further detailing the crackdown on religious practitioners in China, and additional testimony of Christians in China who continue to suffer religious persecution. We have received approximately 40 additional documents including indictment papers and appeal letters with thousands of signatures from South China Church in Chinese. We have not secured funds to translate these new documents into English, and hope that when we do, your commission will include them.

Our Committee is extremely grateful to Amnesty International for their "Stop Torture Now Petition Campaign" on behalf of Gong Shengliang, Li Ying, Xu Fuming, Hu Yong, Gong Bangkun, Zhang Hongjuan, Li Tongjin (also known as "Immanuel"), Yang Tongni (also known as "Ni"). The first five people have been sentenced to death by the Jingmen City Intermediate People's Court in the central province of Hubei, China. All five were condemned to death on 29 December 2001 in connection with their membership in an unofficial Christian organization, the "Huanan (South China) Church". They were tried with 12 others who were sentenced to terms between two years and life imprisonment.

We ask for the Congressional-Executive Commission on China to receive the three attached documents as a matter of public record and as a matter of extreme urgency.

The first two documents include testimony from two women. One testimony was written by a Christian woman, Yulan (Jin Tongyen), who was arrested and imprisoned for interrogation purposes in August 2001. Police authorities attempted to force her to lie, to accuse and to incriminate her Christian teacher, Pastor Gong, of having sexual relations with her. During that extended interrogation, Yulan's testimony details how police authorities used various means of torture on her and other Christian women in her prison to try to force them to lie. This included interrogation by extended beatings and severe beatings with electric prods on Yulan and on other Christian women in her prison, leaving blisters not on their faces, hands or backs - but on their chests and breasts.

The other testimony was written by another young Christian woman, Cui Guilian, who was also arrested at a Christian gathering in August 2001. Her testimony includes several recounts of what she witnessed in prison - severe torture and extended beatings on other Christian women. She states that police officials were trying to force the Christian women into admitting that they were raped by their teacher, a Christian pastor, so that they could shoot him after sentencing him to death.

The third document is about the loss of church members' property which had been confiscated by China's Public Security Bureau on various dates. This brief report details the time and place that Christian books and journals, food, clothing, quilts, money, and other items were stolen during raids on Christians in Hubei Province by police officers. This report also details the recent dismantling of homes of Christians in Hubei Province by police officers and the confiscation of bricks, tiles, rafters, windows and doors by those police officers.

As disciples of Jesus, we must not be afraid to proclaim the truth. We cannot compromise the truth, surrender the truth, nor betray the truth. We thank you for your efforts to promote peaceful solutions to the upscaled persecution of Christians and other people of faith in China.

www.ReligiousFreedomForChina.org [N.B.: June 2, 2005 - website defunct]
Shixiong Li, President
Bob Fu, Executive Director
215-886-5210(TEL)
215-8861668(FAX)
E-mail: FXQ02@yahoo.com