Hebei Officials Release Bishop Jia Zhiguo; Catholic Priests Arrested in Guangdong

December 6, 2006

Hebei provincial officials released from detention Catholic Bishop Jia Zhiguo, the unregistered bishop of Zhengding diocese, on September 25 but continued to keep him under surveillance, according to a September 26 report of the Union of Catholic Asian News (via the Indian Catholic). Bishop Jia was detained on June 25, when officials removed him from the hospital where he was recovering from surgery and took him to an unknown location, according to a July 6 report of the Cardinal Kung Foundation (CKF), a U.S. NGO that monitors religious freedom in China. The CKF report said that the religious affairs bureau told some Catholics that Bishop Jia was being sent away for "education." Bishop Jia has been detained frequently in the past.

Hebei provincial officials released from detention Catholic Bishop Jia Zhiguo, the unregistered bishop of Zhengding diocese, on September 25 but continued to keep him under surveillance, according to a September 26 report of the Union of Catholic Asian News (via the Indian Catholic). Bishop Jia was detained on June 25, when officials removed him from the hospital where he was recovering from surgery and took him to an unknown location, according to a July 6 report of the Cardinal Kung Foundation (CKF), a U.S. NGO that monitors religious freedom in China. The CKF report said that the religious affairs bureau told some Catholics that Bishop Jia was being sent away for "education." Bishop Jia has been detained frequently in the past.

On the same day as Bishop Jia’s release, officials in Guangdong province detained Fathers Shao Zhumin and Jiang Sunian, unregistered priests who serve as Vicar General and Chancellor, respectively, of the Wenzhou diocese in Zhejiang province. The two priests were detained in Shenzhen city, Guangdong province, as they were returning home from a trip to Rome and other European cities, according to a September 29 CKF report. According to an October 16 Radio Free Asia report (via Epoch Times), officials in Wenzhou formally arrested the two priests on October 11 and charged them with illegally crossing the national border. Officials told a human rights NGO that the two priests had used false identification cards in applying for their visas. According to an October 26 report of the Union of Catholic Asian News (via Catholic Online), the Wenzhou PSB has investigated the case and, in anticipation of a criminal trial, a lawyer has been engaged to defend the priests. Fathers Shao and Jiang were previously detained in October 2005.

The freedom "to establish and maintain communications with individuals and communities in matters of religion and belief at the national and international levels" is provided for in Article 6 of the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief. Chinese authorities have prevented some religious leaders in the past from traveling abroad, and imprisoned others upon their return to China. In September 2005, for example, the Party-controlled Catholic Patriotic Association (CPA) denied four bishops permission to travel to Rome; one bishop was unregistered, one was registered with the government but not with the CPA, and two were CPA-registered. In 2006, officials also prevented house church Protestants from traveling abroad, according to a May 16 report from the China Aid Association, a U.S. NGO that monitors religious freedom in China. In 2005, officials charged Zhang Rongliang, a leader of a Protestant house church network who had been unable to get permission to travel abroad, with "illegally crossing the national border" and "fraudulently obtaining a passport." In June 2006, Zhang was sentenced to seven years and six months in prison, according to a July 2006 Compass Daily report.

For more information on Bishop Jia and Fathers Shao and Jiang, see the CECC Political Prisoner Database. For more information on Catholics in China, see the CECC 2006 Annual Report, Section V(d).