China2000

Compass News (18.12.2000)/ HRWF International Secretariat (19.12.2000) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - The Chinese government sponsored an International Symposium on Evil Cults in Beijing November 8-10 that urged local authorities not to inquire too closely into the beliefs of accused cults. Instead, authorities were encouraged to assess whether they are "harmful to society" a catch-all criterion that some house church leaders fear could lead to their own movements being classed as cults.

Nearly 60 academics from all over the world attended the Beijing Symposium, and it was full of predictable denunciation of the Chinese folk religious movement, Falun Gong. But it was a recommendation buried beneath academic verbiage that caught the eyes of some house church leaders: "We should not excessively debate whether it is a genuine religion or not. We should mainly view it from the angle of whether it is harmful to the society."

According to a Shanghai-based house church leader, "Every house church movement could be accused of being "harmful to society" simply because we refuse to belong to accredited religious bodies, which leads them to say, 'You must be a cult because you are being so secretive."

Interestingly, many house church leaders interviewed express surprise that the government did not crack down harder this year. Said one in Xian, "It is like the government has been distracted with Falun Gong." Another in Beijing added, "In practice, many authorities are able to distinguish between a genuine Christian house church and a very unorthodox Christian sect or cult, but local police are often not so discerning."

At the same time, a prominent China ministry profiled the secretive "Two Grains of Rice" (Er-Liang-Liang) Christian cult. The ministry released its findings to Compass on the understanding they would not be named.

The sect, also known as the Blessed Group (Meng-Fu Pai), or the Disciples, is growing rapidly in the provinces of Hebei, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Shangdong and Yunnan. Estimates start at 100,000 members and up. Members are put on starvation rations and told to pray not to Christ but to the founder of the movement, San-Shu, who claims to forgive sins.

Members also undertake dangerous fire baptisms and refuse medical treatment. Various provincial governments outlawed the movement in 1995. The sect teaches that military rebellion against the government is legitimate, referring to police as the "great locusts" of Joel 1:6.

The research of the China ministry makes it clear how hard it would be to classify the "Two Grains of Rice" sect as an orthodox house church movement, however much Scripture may be quoted back and forth.

Started in 1982 by a man called Ji San Bao, he changed his name to San-Shu after becoming a Christian. Then he quickly began to propound heretical viewpoints. Citing the New Testament Scripture 1 John 4:2-3, he claimed to be "the second manifestation of Christ in the flesh." He married again, to a woman called Hsu-Shu, who claims to be the living manifestation of the Holy Spirit.

Members of the group must pray in the name of these two leaders. San-Shu claims that only he has the right to forgive sins. Followers must write down all their sins and pass them to him for forgiveness. If he decides to put them into an "ark of the covenant," then they are forgiven.

San-Shu also claims to determine when the coming of the "kingdom of Zion" will take place, and proclaims that the new Zion is in fact the Chinese city of Xian. Stories of miracles abound surrounding his ministry, though his power comes also from the fact that his disciples sell all they have and deed their property to his movement. However, he is believed to be under arrest at the moment.

The nickname "Two Grains of Rice" comes from a doctrine unique to the group. They link the miracle of Jesus feeding the 5,000 from two loaves and five fish in the Gospel of John, chapter six, with the widow's "handful of flour and a little oil" in the Old Testament verse in I Kings 17. They claim these items are the "bread of life," and thus each meal should be a kind of miraculous feeding.

So a person should eat no more than two grains of rice at each mealtime to experience a miracle of multiplication. If a person eats more than two grains, it is a sign they lack faith and have not repented. Not surprisingly, there have been cases of starvation and severe malnutrition among many of the followers.

Another peculiar doctrine concerns baptism. San-Shu takes the words of John the Baptist in Matthew 3:11 that "the one who comes after me ... will baptize with fire" quite literally. The rite of baptism in the cult involves passing through live flames and sometimes of throwing infants through flames.

"The cult really only flourishes among the very poor peasants that live in isolated communities, though it is also making inroads among the unemployed," a house church leader in Xian commented. "The challenge is to give these cult members some real biblical teaching, and the whole cult is organized to deny us access to bring this teaching."

Yet it is remarkable that the Chinese house church movements have remained largely orthodox in their Christian teaching, despite a repressive government policy which makes the teaching of the Scriptures a hazardous activity. Bibles are still in short supply in many rural locations, and Bible teachers have to conduct their seminars in secret.

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Places of worship razed in Chinese crackdown

Campaign focuses on heavily Christian city of Wenzhou

by Frank Langfitt

Baltimore Sun (15.12.2000)/ HRWF International Secretariat (18.12.2000) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Beijing, members of at least 40 Protestant congregations on China's southeastern coast are looking to celebrate Christmas elsewhere this year after local officials destroyed their churches and places of worship.

The demolition campaign is part of a crackdown that has claimed not only churches but also hundreds of privately built local temples for folk worship in Zhejiang Province, Chinese officials and state-run newspapers say.

Most of the destruction appears to have occurred in the past month. However, the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy, a Hong Kong group, says about 1,200 temples and churches have been demolished or shuttered in the province since late 1999.

Chinese officials say the buildings were targeted because they were never approved by the government, which is trying to control the spread of homegrown religion and other practices it sees as potential threats to its monopoly on power.

For instance, at Zhejiang's Yangshan Temple, which was blown up earlier this week, mediums and fortune tellers reportedly offered to heal visitors' diseases and exercise evil spirits.

"This is like attacking Falun Gong," said Lu Tianlei, an official with the propaganda department in Zhejiang's Wenzhou City, referring to the spiritual meditation group the Chinese government outlawed last year. The temples and churches "did not follow the procedure of the state."

Since last year, Beijing has waged a war to destroy Falun Gong, which claims millions of adherents. Although it failed to break the group, the nationwide crackdown has led to the deaths of more than 70 members in government custody, according to the Hong Kong center.

Religion is one of the most sensitive issues for China's authoritarian regime, which permits various forms of worship - including Christianity, Taoism and Buddhism - but requires that groups register with the government and submit to official oversight.

The Communist Party, increasingly unpopular here, fears that religion could be used as a platform to challenge its already shaky legitimacy.

The recent demolition campaign focused on several areas in Zhejiang Province, particularly Wenzhou, a city of more than 6 million people known for its energetic merchant class and deep religious roots. Protestant and Catholic missionaries began converting people in Wenzhou beginning in the latter part of the 19th century when the city became a treaty port. With more than 700,000 Protestants and several hundred thousand Catholics, it has a higher percentage of Christians than any other municipality in China.

China's state-run media rarely - if ever - publicize demolition campaigns because it only invites international condemnation. This time, though, the government gave some media a green light to report on the demolitions.

Late last month, the Wenzhou Daily reported that thousands of government employees and Communist Party cadres in Zhejiang's Ruian City demolished 28 unapproved "religious sites" and 356 small temples, occasionally using dynamite when needed.

An article in the Wenzhou Qiaoxiang newspaper ran a photo of a piece of heavy machinery tearing the roof off a yellow building that had served as a temple.

The reasons behind religious crackdowns in China are often complex. It is not entirely clear exactly what prompted this one or whether it is part of a coordinated national effort.

Joseph Kung, who chronicles the plight of China's underground Catholic Church for the Connecticut-based Cardinal Kung Foundation, attributes the recent campaign to the coming holiday season. "Every important date on the calendar - Christmas, Easter - there is always some sort of arrest, detention, blowing up of churches," Kung says. "They never fail."

Chan Kim-kwong a religious scholar and researcher in Hong Kong, thinks the demolition springs from various factors, including local officials' desire to curry favor with their provincial bosses before end-of-the-year evaluations.

Local salaries and budgets are based in part on how officials carry out certain policies, such as cracking down on unregistered places of worship. Many local governments ignore these edicts for long stretches while the offending communities operate with great autonomy.

All of the churches that were destroyed in Wenzhou, for example, had been standing for months, if not years.

"They have been turning a blind eye," says Chan. Local officials want "to show the government that they are doing something."

Demolition campaigns are not uncommon in China. Last year, government officials in coastal Fujian Province - just south of Zhejiang - dynamited and bulldozed more than 20 unregistered churches. Some were huge, expensive structures paid for with the wages of overseas Chinese who worked in garment factories and restaurants in the United States and Europe.

One church, situated near the airport outside the provincial capital, Fuzhou, stood about 80 feet high and resembled a redbrick version of the Cathedral of Notre Dame.

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Two more Falungong members reported dead in Chinese police detention

AFP (07.12.2000) / HRWF International Secretariat (08.12.2000) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Two more followers of the Falungong spiritual movement have died after maltreatment in Chinese police detention, a human rights group said Thursday.

The deaths bring to at least 74 the number of group members who are reported to have died in suspicious circumstances while in police custody since the Falungong was banned in July last year, according to the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy.

Wang Huachen, 32, a worker at the Jinhua Group in the city of Huludao in the northeastern province of Liaoning, jumped from a fourth storey window at a public security office on November 18 and later died in hospital, the center said.

Wang had been repeatedly beaten since being arrested on November 7 for his beliefs in the spiritual group in an effort to make him sign a written recantation of his belief in the spiritual group, the center said.

An official at the Jinhua Group confirmed to AFP that Wang had died, but was unaware of the circumstances of his death.

In another incident, Zhao Jing, 19, from Jilin in the northeastern province of Jilin, died after jumping from a police car in Hebei province, the center said.

She had been arrested along with several other Falungong members while travelling to Beijing.

Travelling companions told the center that Zhao only appeared to be slightly injured after she jumped from the car, but after the group was taken to a local police station in Hebei, the group heard Zhao's screams and police beating her in an adjoining room.

Zhao's arrest and attempted escape occurred on November 23, while police told her family on November 26 that she died from serious injuries while jumping from the police car, the center said.

Relatives who saw her body said Zhao appeared to have been beaten, while police cremated the corpse before Zhao's father could view his daughter for the last time, the center said.

A spokesman with the Public Security Bureau of Jilin city denied to AFP that the case of Zhao Jing existed.

China's communist government sees the Falungong as the biggest threat to its one-party rule since the 1989 Tiananmen democracy protests and banned the movement in July 1999.

Members of the spiritual group follow the Buddhist-inspired teachings of their exiled guru Li Hongzhi, who advocates clean living and group morning exercises that involve traditional Chinese breathing routines.

Some 450 members have received prison sentences of up to 18 years, more than 600 have been sent to mental hospitals, 10,000 have been placed in labor camps and another 20,000 locked up in temporary detention centers, according to the rights center.

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Two sect members 'die in custody'

AFP (22.11.2000)/ HRWF International Secretariat (23.11.2000) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Two more members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual group have been beaten to death in police custody, a human rights group and family members said yesterday.

The Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said 70 Falun Gong practitioners had died in police custody since the movement was outlawed as an "evil cult" in July last year.

Li Wenrui, 37, an official at the Foreign Trade Bureau in Harbin, died on November 9 at a detention centre in Beijing, the centre said. Li was arrested three days earlier when he protested against the Government's crackdown on the group at Tiananmen Square.

Police told his family on November 11 that he committed suicide by jumping from the window of the detention centre. Li's family members said they were sure he was tortured to death.

Li's mother-in-law, Gao Sixian, was distraught yesterday.

"My daughter came to Beijing to see the body and his skull had a big hole in it and there were many bruises on his body. He was definitely killed. He was tightly watched. How could he jump out the window?" Ms Gao said.

Police declined to comment.

Another Falun Gong practitioner, Yang Guijin, 40, also died from torture, according to the centre.

A resident of Shandong province, Yang was arrested in October for distributing Falun Gong leaflets. She was beaten severely in the police station and chained to a chair, the group said.

Yang went on a hunger strike for a week to protest against the treatment and was found dead on October 15 in the bathroom of the station, it said.

A policeman at the station, identifying himself as Zhang Zhushun, denied Yang was beaten to death. He said she had a serious heart disease and had refused treatment.

The centre yesterday urged UN Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson, who is visiting Beijing, to step up pressure on China to improve human rights and stop the torture of detainees.

Mrs Robinson has also been asked to press Beijing over the prosecution of sect member Teng Chunyan, 37, who holds a US green card. The woman will tomorrow face court in Beijing accused of spying.

The Government has labelled the Falun Gong the biggest threat to its rule since the 1989 Tiananmen democracy protests.

About 450 Falun Gong members have received prison sentences of up to 18 years and more than 600 have been sent to mental hospitals, the centre says.

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Chinese, foreign scholars discuss "evil cult" problem at Beijing symposium

BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific (13.11.2000)/ HRWF International Secretariat (20.11.2000) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - "Resolute measures must be adopted to solve the problem of evil cults" was the conclusion of an International Symposium on Evil Cults in Beijing, China's official news agency has said. It added that religious freedom and human rights should not get in the way of combating these organizations. It said that although differences in historical and cultural backgrounds lead to differences in understanding of the cults, the common characteristics of evil cults are that they are "anti-humane, anti-society, in violation of human rights, and hazardous to individuals' legitimate rights and interests". The news agency added that dealing "with evil cults according to law is an important measure to respect the international norm of human rights, protect human rights, and protect people from the harms of evil cults" and that those who are under the influence of these cults should be educated and cared for and not discriminated against.

Text of report by Ni Siyi and Wu Liming, carried by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency):

Beijing, 10th November: In view of internationalization of the evil cults and their exploitation of legal loopholes in some countries to carry out trans-national propaganda and commit trans-national crimes, Chinese and foreign experts on evil cults appeal here:

The strength of one country alone is not enough to stop the rampancy of evil cults. In combating them, it is imperative to strengthen international cooperation.

A two-day International Symposium on Evil Cults ended here today [10^th November].

More than 60 experts and scholars from France, the United States, Canada, Russia, Uganda, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and China's Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions and mainland proposed that relevant countries should increase exchange of information and cult control experience and cooperate in action to prevent and combat the evil cult activities.

The experts and scholars discussed such topics as "evil cults and the society", "an introduction to evil cults", "the evil cults in various countries", "the history, tradition and current situation of evil cults", "the harms of evil cults", and "control measures", and expressed their views without any inhibitions. They comprehensively and thoroughly discussed all angles and aspects of the evil cult problems and put forward some creative and enlightening views.

They generally believe: Although the evil cults in various countries are disguised in various forms, their essence is invariably anti-humane, anti-society, in violation of human rights, and hazardous to individuals' legitimate rights and interests and to the overall interests of the general public. The most notorious ones of them are China's "Falun Gong", the "Davidians" of the West, and Japan's Aum Supreme Truth sect. To deal with such evil organizations, we must adopt resolute measures to solve the problem once for all; and we must not sit by idly letting them become rampant in hurting people in the name of "religious freedom" and "human rights."

On how to prevent and deal with the evil cult problem, an American scholar pointed out that if the people know what a genuine religion is, it will be easy for them to distinguish any evil cults under the cloak of religion. A scholar from Japan held that if we do not solve the problem of perplexedness caused by secularization and modernization, we will be unable to stop the spread of the evil cults. A scholar from France made some suggestions on how to stop the infiltration of evil cults into enterprises and eliminate their influence on children. A scholar from Canada made some comments on the activities of opposing evil cults in the United States.

Some Chinese scholars pointed out that it is necessary to establish and improve community organizations that are beneficial to the public, and give full play to their role of providing the necessary service to meet the need of the people's cultural life and to weaken and prevent the influence of evil cults. Both Chinese and foreign scholars generally believe that individual, family, community, mass organization, and government should all do what they can do and cooperate closely with one another to deal with the evil cult problem in an all-round way, and the government should step up organization and coordination of the efforts.

Some scholars said it is necessary to increase academic studies and international academic exchange, bring into full play the strength of the academic circles, and carry out a multi-discipline systematic research on the evil cult problem, so as to produce more useful enlightenment for the human society and some constructive opinions and suggestions for all circles of the society to jointly deal with the evil cult problem.

It is reported that after two days of discussion and exchange of experience, Chinese and foreign scholars have basically reached the following consensus on the evil cult problem:

1. Because of different historical and cultural background, different countries have different understanding of the cults. For this reason, in defining whether a cult is evil or not, we should not excessively debate whether it is a genuine religion or not. We should mainly view it from the angle of whether it is harmful to the society.

2. The harms of evil cults are many-sided and evil cults are harmful to various groups, various regions and various trades and professions.

3. In view of the serious threat and great danger caused by evil cults to the human society, we must not ignore the evil cult problem and let it spread. We should take an attitude of being responsible to mankind and actively adopt measures to prevent and deal with the evil cult problem, and we must not let evil cults harm the society.

4. Evil cults should be dealt with according to law. To deal with evil cults according to law is an important measure to respect the international norm of human rights, protect human rights, and protect people from the harms of evil cults. For this reason, we should act according to our law and our actual situation and also learn from the good practices of other countries in doing a good job of solving the evil cult problem, so as to protect the citizen's legitimate rights and interests and the overall interests of the general public. Whoever commits crime in violation of the law must be punished according to law.

5. To deal with the large number of victims who have joined the evil cults by mistake, we should educate and guide them, care for them, and help them restore their normal mentality, learn necessary job skills, completely free themselves from the influence and fetters of evil cults, and return to the society. We must not discriminate against, reject, or attack them. Otherwise, they will sink deeper and deeper into the quagmire of error,
become the sacrificial objects of evil cults, and become anti-social.

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TSPM openly attacks Evangelicals

WEF (06.11.2000)/ HRWF International Secretariat (07.11.2000) Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - The political leadership of China's Three Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) with few exceptions have always espoused liberal theology which has intermeshed with the Marxist ideology of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

However, since the re-opening of China's state churches in 1979 the official 'line' has been to accommodate both liberals and evangelicals in churches and seminaries. Now, however, there is strong evidence that this is changing.

President Jiang Zemin himself in 1993 called for religion to be 'made compatible with socialism'. In late 1998 TSPM leaders held a significant conference in Jinan, Shandong province at which TSPM head Bishop Ting and other leaders outlined plans to modernise Chinese Protestant theology in line with CCP constraints. In May 1999 Ting expelled three evangelical theological students from Nanjing Seminary because of their evangelistic
zeal and refusal to sing CCP political songs on the seminary premises. Soon after three top Nanjing graduates resigned in protest and issued a scorching public denunciation of Ting's liberal theology and a ringing affirmation that Christ was sole head of the Chinese church - not the CCP through the Religious Affairs Bureau and the TSPM.

Since then, Bishop Ting and what is known in Christian circles in China as the 'lao sanzi' (the old Three Self - meaning elderly politicised church leaders usually with a YMCA/YWCA background who espoused liberal theology and even Marxism in the forties and fifties and now occupy controlling positions in the TSPM bureaucracy), have initiated a political campaign to purge seminaries and churches of evangelical influence.

This year staff at Nanjing Seminary were changed. Ji Tai, a young teacher reportedly friendly to the house-churches has been effectively dismissed along with several others. In Shanghai a leading evangelical pastor has been dismissed from his large city church. In many provinces across China pastors and seminary teachers have been forced to attend study sessions based on Bishop Ting's 'Select Works'. This has caused enormous resentment.

Ting's theology is a mixture of Marxism, process theology and liberation theology with a stress on the 'cosmic Christ' which tends to universalism. He states that there is no fundamental difference between faith and unbelief and that atheists are also acceptable to God. He is even on record as stating that God does not mind very much whether people believe in Him or not. There is great stress on the love of God but His other Biblical attributes such as His holiness, omnipotence and omniscience are subtly undermined. The centrality of the atonement, dear to most Chinese Christians, is almost completely ignored.

Most recently articles have appeared in the TSPM monthly magazine 'Tianfeng' casting doubt on evangelical views of the full inspiration of Scripture. A significant seminar on Biblical authority was held this September in Qingdao, Shandong province. The book of the papers at this seminar was speedily published by the TSPM by October. In the preface Bishop Ting openly attacks the doctrine of justification by faith saying that in the Chinese situation it should be 'watered down'. He also states that the Bible has mistakes. The overwhelming majority of Chinese Christians, whether in the TSPM churches or the house-churches, hold a very high view of Biblical inspiration and the Bishop's views are totally unacceptable to the majority and are deeply resented.

One TSPM pastor stated that he believed 90% of the TSPM pastors in the country are against Ting's campaign to impose liberal theology on the church and the seminaries. However, many younger pastors are afraid to speak out because they and their families may lose their financial support. The heads of two major seminaries who are evangelical have stated unofficially that they also oppose Ting's campaign. However, they recognise
the need to deepen Chinese theology - which in many instances is narrowly fundamentalist and dispensationalist - but not in the Marxist direction of Bishop Ting. Rather, they wish to introduce translated books by respected Western evangelicals such as John Stott, who deal with the pressing problems of modernity from a thoroughly Biblical perspective.

If the vast Chinese church in the future is to escape the melancholy fate of so many Western churches which have been devastated by liberal theology over the last century then they need every encouragement to develop a vigorous, contextualised evangelical theology which is both fully Biblical and fully Chinese. It may well be that events taking place now will prove to be a watershed.

If Ting's campaign is unchecked, a large section of younger church leaders may be led into the sterile wasteland of a rationalist, Marxist theology. On the other hand, as young Chinese evangelicals become aware of the crisis and the danger of losing the rich evangelical heritage of the Chinese church, won at great cost over the last half-century, this may prove a catalyst which will awaken them to engage Biblically with their own society and to provide mature leadership for the church faithful to the Word of God.

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China releases bishop Zeng from custody

ZENIT (31.10.2000)/ HRWF International Secretariat (01.11.2000) Website: http://www.hrwf.net -Email: info@hrwf.net - Bishop Thomas Zeng Jingmu, of the underground Church loyal to the Pope, has been released from custody, the MISNA missionary agency reported today.

Bishop Zeng, 80, was arrested Sept. 14 in his town, Hangpu, in the southeastern province of Jiangxi. He was taken by force to the local prison of Linchuan. Every three days, members of the Catholic Patriotic Association, the Communist Party-controlled official church, read him the ruling on freedom of worship in China.

When he was allowed home, the police told the bishop he must not speak with foreigners, MISNA said.

The agency also reported that there is still no news on Auxiliary Bishop Deng Hui and Father Liao Haiqing, who were arrested at the same time as Bishop Zeng. None of them have agreed to register in the Patriotic Association.

Bishop Zeng has suffered 30 years in prison: from 1958-1976, and from 1981-1989. Since then, he has been jailed intermittently, having been deprived of his liberty from 1994 to 1998. To date, he has lived under constant police control.

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Chinese Christian reportedly beat

Associated Press (19.10.2000) / HRWF International Secretariat (23.10.2000) - Website: http://www/hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - A Chinese Protestant arrested while worshipping at an illegal service has died in a central China jail after being beaten and then denied medical care, a rights group reported Thursday.

Police detained Liu Haitong in a raid on a private home serving as an underground church in Henan province's Xiayi county on Sept. 4, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.

Beaten by police and left weakened by the prison's inadequate food and poor hygiene, Liu began vomiting and developed a high fever, the center said. It reported that the 19-year-old died in the county jail on Oct. 16 after police refused to provide medical care.

The report could not be independently verified. A man who answered the phone at the jail refused to comment on the case, saying such information could be given out only in person.

But Chinese authorities have in recent months renewed a 2-year-old campaign against people worshipping outside the state-backed Catholic and non-denominational Protestant churches.

Henan has been at the center of the crackdown. The province is home to thriving Protestant house churches - so called because they are often private homes - and the movement is serviced by evangelical preachers, foreigners among them.

Henan Protestants who informed the Hong Kong group about Liu's death blamed police and demanded a stop to such repression, the report said without identifying its sources.

The crackdown, however, is likely to intensify following decisions made last week at an annual meeting of the ruling Communist Party's elite, the center said.

Immediately after the meeting, Public Security Minister Jia Chunwang ordered police to target members of cults, separatists and "religious extremists.'' The latter phrase, the center said, is code for people worshipping outside official churches.

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2 Falun Gong members reportedly die

by Martin Fackler

The Associated Press (27.09.2000)/ HRWF International Secretariat (28.09.2000) Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Two members of the banned Falun Gong sect have died in custody, the latest deaths in China's crackdown on the spiritual movement, a rights group reported Wednesday.

The deaths bring to at least 52 the number of Falun Gong followers who have died in detention, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy reported. While it has not commented on every case, the government has denied the deaths were the result of mistreatment.

In a letter to President Jiang Zemin, Falun Gong practitioners have threatened to mount more protests if authorities detain sect members ahead of National Day on Sunday.

"All the Falun Gong followers throughout China will go to Tiananmen Square to peacefully petition" for an end to the crackdown on the group, said the letter dated Sept. 20. The letter was faxed to foreign news agencies and posted on the group's U.S.-based Website.

Before it was outlawed in July 1999, Falun Gong attracted millions with its mix of exercise, meditation, Buddhist and Taoist philosophy and the teachings of Li Hongzhi, who fled to the United States two years ago.

The communist government has mounted a media campaign to discredit the banned sect. An editorial Wednesday by the state-run Xinhua News Agency was typical fare, calling Falun Gong "an evil, treasonous teaching'' and accusing it of causing more than 1,500 deaths.

In the latest case, state media reported Liu Hongfeng, a 36-year-old elementary school vice principal, hanged himself at home in the northern city of Lingwu on Sept. 16. Liu was put into a mental hospital in June after efforts to persuade him to quit the sect failed, and was released in July when his attitude "took a turn for the better," Xinhua said. The writings of the Falun Gong founder were found in the room with Liu's body, said a police officer who confirmed the Xinhua account.

The Hong Kong-based information center said Tao Hongsheng, a 46-year-old former policeman in Hebei province, died Sept. 20 after suffering from diarrhea and other ailments. Sentenced to three years for protesting in Tiananmen Square in December, Tao was held in a detention center in Shijiazhuang, Hebei's capital, the group said.

Officials at the detention center were unavailable for comment. Another sect follower, Shi Bei, died Sept. 10 after being put into a mental hospital in eastern Hangzhou city. During three months there, she was regularly denied food and given unspecified injections, the center said.

An official at the mental hospital refused to comment on the report.

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Catholic bishop held, worshippers beaten in China, foundation says

Reuters and AP (17.09.2000)/ HRWF International Secretariat (19.09.2000) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Chinese authorities arrested an 81-year-old Roman Catholic bishop and beat and detained other worshippers in China's underground Catholic church, an advocacy group said Sunday.

Zeng Jingmu, the frail underground Roman Catholic bishop of Yu Jiang, in eastern China's Jiangxi province, was taken from his home by police Thursday, said the Cardinal Kung Foundation, based in the United States.

China's government is communist and officially atheist.

If confirmed, the arrest would be a particular setback for the Clinton administration and a slap in the face for the Vatican.

In early 1998, as President Clinton prepared to visit China, U.S. officials sought Zeng's early release from a labor camp, where he had been sent in 1995 for holding unauthorized religious services.

When Zeng was freed, in May 1998, six months before his three-year sentence expired, Clinton and other officials called it a hopeful sign that Clinton's policy of constructive engagement with China was "bearing fruit," in the words of James R. Sasser, the U.S. ambassador to China at that time.

In all, Zeng has spent 33 years in prison, the Kung foundation said.

Two other priests, Liao Haiqing and another known only by his surname, Deng, were arrested with Zeng, the foundation said.

The foundation also reported pressure on Catholics by authorities in a neighboring province, Fujian, where an active and growing Catholic community has been subject to strong government repression.

Police contacted Sunday in Fujian and Jiangxi said they had no information on the cases. Government religious- affairs officials could not be contacted.

Joseph Kung, president of the Kung foundation, said the repression should move the U.S. Senate to deny China permanent normal trading status when it votes Tuesday.

He urged a top Vatican official, Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, to protest to Chinese officials.

Etchegaray made a low- profile visit to China last week, creating a rare opportunity for direct contact with Beijing authorities.

Last Monday in Fujian, about 70 police officers surrounded the home of Ye Gongfeng, 82, a priest in Luoyuan county, and tortured him until he fainted, the foundation said.

In Pingtan county, police destroyed the altar of the Yutou Church and chased and beat worshippers when they attempted to flee, it said.

It also said that seven religious teachers, including five nuns, were arrested and held in Fujian for 15 days at different times in August. At least five priests were briefly detained.

The foundation did not provide details about the arrests, but unregistered worship, often in private homes, routinely prompts such crackdowns.

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Falun Followers Die in Detention

Reuters 06.09.2000 / HRWF International Secretariat (07.09.2000) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Three members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement have died after ill treatment during detention in China where the movement is

banned, a Hong Kong-based human rights group said Wednesday.

At least 30 Falun Gong followers had died of ill treatment in custody since July last year, the Information Center for Human Rights & Democracy said in a statement.

One of the latest victims was Liu Yufeng, a 64-year-old retiree in the eastern Shandong province, the group said.

He was detained when taking part in a mass Falun Gong exercise. The detention center notified his family to take him back four days later, when Liu was already unconscious with three broken ribs and other injuries. Liu died on July 23.

In northwestern Gansu province, police detained 52-year-old worker Li Faming on Aug. 10 when Li was suspected of distributing Falun Gong propaganda leaflets.

Police then took Li back to his home for a search, during which they beat up Li who was then seen falling from a window of his apartment, the group said. Li died shortly after being taken to a hospital.

Police declared that Li committed suicide to escape punishment for his crimes, the human rights group said.

In northeastern Heilongjiang province, 29-year-old Zhang Tieyan was detained on April 21.

She was kept in a cramped, poorly ventilated and hot detention center, where she fainted many times. She died after fainting on Aug. 11, the Hong Kong group said.

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US Report Chide China for Crackdown on Religion

AP (05.09.2000) / HRWF International Secretariat (07.09.2000) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - The U.S. State Department chided China and North Korea for repressing religious freedom -- using tactics including torture -- in an annual report card on worldwide religious persecution.

China's "respect for religious freedom deteriorated markedly" in the last six months of 1999, including a crackdown on Catholics and on the Falun Gong spiritual group, the State Department said.

"Genuine religious freedom does not exist," in North Korea, the report says, citing unconfirmed reports of executions of Christian church members.

The State Department report does not impose any trade or arms sanctions. The U.S. Congress is moving toward approving a permanent trade accord with China and the Clinton administration recently eased trade sanctions on North Korea. The U.S. has also moved to increase trade with Vietnam, and is considering allowing more trade with Cuba.

Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Vietnam, Cuba, Burma, and Laos were also cited in the report for repressing religious activity. These governments supported "totalitarian attempts to control religious belief or freedom," the report said.

In Iraq, a decade-long campaign of murder against Shi'a Muslims and more recently, Christians, continues, the report said.

The ruling Taliban in Afghanistan was cited for serious abuses of religious freedom, including persecution and murder of religious dissidents. A spokesman for the Afghanistan mission to the UN -- which represents the exiled Taliban opposition, agreed with the U.S. assessment of Taliban abuses.

U.S. President Bill Clinton will join Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in New York for a United Nations summit on poverty, AIDS and the environment this week, to be attended by many leaders of the governments criticized in the report.

Spillover Effect

The Chinese government's "unremitting campaign against the Falun Gong and other 'heretical cults' plus exhortations by senior leaders to 'strengthen religious work' had an inevitable spillover effect," on treatment of Muslims and Catholics, the report said.

"There were credible reports of religious detainees being beaten and tortured," in China, the report said.

Officials at the Chinese Embassy in Washington were not available for comment.

Human rights advocates pointed to similar abuses during the stormy debate in the U.S on whether to grant China permanent normal trade relations. The Clinton administration points to those same abuses as proof that the trade restrictions are failing.

"It is clearly our hope that granting China permanent trading status will create better conditions for human rights," said Thomas Farr, director of the State Department's Office of Religious Freedom.

Human Rights Abuses

The watchdog group Human Rights Watch wants Clinton to bring up human rights abuses when he meets with Chinese President Jiang Zemin in New York this week at the UN meetings. The group issued a report this week citing a rise in persecution of political dissidents in China.

In June, Clinton eased sanctions on North Korea on trade in food, petroleum, consumers goods and financial services, as well as air travel and mining investment.

The U.S. is eager to ease tensions with the communist North, which in turn is seeking relief from a decade-long economic collapse that has seen its economy shrink about 30 percent.

Officials at both the North Korean and Iraqi missions at the UN were not aware of the report and could not comment on it.

The State Department, under mandates from Congress, issues similar reports on countries' arms exports, drug policies and human rights abuses.

"It's a problem when you start legislating all these things; if everything is important, then nothing is important," said Robert Manning, an Asia scholar at the Council on Foreign Relations. "We are passing judgments on the entire world."

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Bishop Detained in China

The Associated Press (04.09.2000)/ HRWF International Secretariat (05.09.2000) - Website:http://www.hrwf.net - Email : info@hrwf.net - A newly appointed auxiliary bishop in central China has been detained in the government's ongoing crackdown on the underground Roman Catholic Church, the Vatican news agency Fides said Monday.

Fides said there has been no word of Monsignor Jiang Ming Yuan of Hebei province since public security officials took him away Aug. 26. Witnesses confirmed his detention, Fides said.

The news coincides with word of another crackdown by Chinese authorities, who charged 85 members of a banned Christian church with belonging to a cult, a Hong Kong-based human rights group said Monday.

The 85 were among 130 members of the Fangcheng church detained Aug. 23 in central China's Henan province, including three Americans later released following appeals from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.

China's communist leaders forbid worship in all but a state church set up in 1951 to break the Vatican's influence over the country's Catholics.

Two other clerics in Hebei, a bishop and an auxiliary bishop, have been missing since police took them away in 1996, Fides said.

The U.S.-based Cardinal Kung Foundation reported last week that police detained a priest, two nuns and 21 other Roman Catholics in the southeastern province of Fujian. Beatings in police custody had the priest bleeding and spitting blood, the foundation said.

The Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said the 85 Fangcheng church members were charged with "using a cult to sabotage the law of the nation and the enforcement of rules."

The Henan government's religious affairs bureau has denied that any Christians were arrested.

The anti-cult law, tightened in October during the government's crackdown on the Falun Gong spiritual movement, has been used against a variety of Christian and meditation groups that officials view as threats.

The Fangcheng church is one of scores of so-called house churches that operate out of private homes to avoid restrictions on worship. China's communist government forbids organized religious activities outside state-sanctioned churches.

The Fangcheng church said China's official church politicizes religion and places allegiance to the national government above allegiance to God in violation of Christian tenets.

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China to prosecute 85 Christians

Reuters (05.09.2000)/ HRWF International Secretariat (05.09.2000) - Website:http://www.hrwf.net - Email : info@hrwf.net - China has laid criminal charges against 85 members of a banned Christian church who were detained last week, a Hong Kong-based human rights group said on Monday.

The 85 were among 130 members of the China Fang-cheng Church detained on August 23 in the central province of Henan, the Information Centre for Human Rights & Democracy said.

The centre faxed to journalists a copy of a formal arrest notice dated August 25 accusing a Fang-cheng member named Chen Zhouniu of "using an evil cult to obstruct justice'' -- a charge laid against many adherents of the Falun Gong spiritual movement.

The indictments -- all but certain to lead to jail terms -- were a sign the authorities could increasingly use draconian anti-cult legislation created last year to crush Falun Gong against China's many unofficial "house churches", it said.

Local police officials in Henan's Xihua county, where the church members were detained, refused to comment on the case.

Although China's constitution enshrines freedom of religion, worship is banned outside official state-sponsored religious organisations.

Millions worship at home

But millions of Christians meet secretly in prayer groups, for Bible study sessions and services in the house churches rather than join state-run, so-called "patriotic'' churches which require believers to pledge their highest loyalty to the state.

The Christian house churches, illegal in China because they refuse to register with the government, have been bracketed with other groups and banned as "evil cults'' in the wake of last year's crackdown on Falun Gong, diplomats said.

Falun Gong adherents have staged almost daily demonstrations in Beijing since the spiritual group was banned in July 1999.

At least 14 Chinese Christian sects were branded "evil cults'' last year by Communist authorities, the human rights centre said.

Also on Monday, the Cardinal King Foundation, a U.S.-based advocate of the underground Chinese Catholic Church, said 24 Catholics -- a priest, a seminarian, 20 nuns and two laypersons -- were arrested last month in the southeastern province of Fujian.

The priest, Father Liu Shaozhang, was severely beaten, it said. Two of the nuns were released after paying a "large amount'' of cash to the police, the foundation said in a statement.

Believers chafe at state curbs

Henry Chu, an American missionary detained among the 130 Fang-cheng followers last month, told Reuters that the Christian underground were not cults but "Bible-based Christians.''

Chu, detained at a secret worship meeting with his wife, Sandee Lin and her friend Patricia Lan -- all Taiwan-born U.S. citizens -- left China on August 26 after two days in custody.

In an interview from Taipei last week, Chu -- who said he was punched and kicked by police and fined $1,1000 -- called on China to free the detained Fang-cheng Church members.

The Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy estimated Fang-cheng had about 500,000 followers. Chu said the number was much larger, but declined to give a figure.

A Fang-cheng Church statement said its members refused to join the state church because China's rules went against principles in the Bible in many areas.

The document cited government prohibitions against religious activity outside state churches, strict curbs on who can proselytise and a ban on inculcating faith in those under 18 years of age.

Official churches "have the government as their head and are organised and run according to religious policy,'' it said.

"House churches have Christ as their master and and are organised and run according to instructions of the bible.''

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U.S. postpones hearing on Chinese asylum seeker

Reuters (01.09.2000)/ HRWF International Secretariat (05.09.2000) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - The United States has postponed the hearing on the political asylum application made by the Chinese leader of the Zhong Gong meditation group which is banned in China, a Hong Kong human rights group said on Friday.

The hearing on Zhang Hongbao's pursuit for political asylum, scheduled to start at a court in the U.S.-administered island of Guam on Friday morning, was put off for two weeks at the request of the U.S. immigration authority, the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said in a statement.

It was the seventh time the authority had requested postponing the hearing under pressure from China, the Hong Kong group said.

The authority said it was asking for a postponement of the Friday hearing as it had not completed the translation of the relevant documents, according to the human rights group.

Zhang fled China to Guam in February.

Zhong Gong bears similarities to the Falun Gong spiritual movement which China publicly banned and declared an ``evil cult'' after its members staged a bold protest in April 1999 in Beijing.

Both movements incorporate traditional meditation exercises known as "Qigong," but also have philosophical or quasi-religious doctrines that the Communist Party views as a threat to its authority.

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Another Catholic Priest Arrested in China

Cardinal Kung Foundation Releases Details

ZENIT (29.08.2000)/HRWF International Secretariat (31.08.2000) - The Cardinal Kung Foundation, founded by the late Cardinal Ignatius Kung Pin-Mei, reports that Fr. Gao Yi Hua of Fujian province was arrested on the evening of August 19.

Fr. Gao belongs to the underground Catholic Church, which is faithful to the Pope. A group of police officers arrived on the scene of a friend's house, where he was celebrating Mass for the family. His current whereabouts are unknown, and no official charges have been released by the police. The presumable reason for the arrest is his refusal to register with the Patriotic Association, which is controlled by the government.

The 44-year-old priest already spent two years of his 16-year ministry in a forced labor camp. He was released that time in 1991.

Joseph Kung, president of the Cardinal Kung Foundation and nephew of the late Cardinal, said: "The Patriotic Association was founded by the Chinese communist government in 1957. Why should an atheist government like China establish a church, as it was never the agenda of an atheist government to propagate religious faith? The objective of the Communists in creating the Patriotic Association was therefore to replace the Roman Catholic Church and to control the church entirely by the government. The Patriotic Association does not recognize the supremacy of the Pope in the Catholic Church, and is autonomous from and not obedient to the Pope. The Patriotic Association also appoints its own bishops without a mandate from the Pope. There are approximately four million followers in the Patriotic Association. In contrast, the population of the underground Church, in spite of its suffering severe ongoing persecution by the Chinese government for the past 50 years, increased from approximately 3 million in early 1950 to approximately 12 million today. In his speech on December 3, 1996, the Holy Father proudly proclaimed the underground Church as 'a precious jewel of the Catholic Church.'

The Chinese goverment is currently involved in an effort to make underground Church members register with the Patriotic Association. The resistance of its members has led to an escalation of the persecution of the underground Church. According to Kung, "Hundreds of underground bishops, priests, and Catholic faithful are still in prison or labor camp. Fr. Gao is apparently one the latest victims."

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China arrests qigong faith healer

Reuters (28.08.2000) / HRWF International Secretariat (04.09.2000) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net -- Chinese police have arrested the founder of a meditation group who claimed to possess supernatural powers which could cure cancer and other diseases, a Hong Kong-based rights group said on Monday.

Police in the eastern city of Suzhou detained Shen Chang, head of the Shen Chang Body Science group, in July and formally charged him last week with disrupting social order and tax evasion, the Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said. Followers of Shen, 44, protested outside offices of the Worker"s Daily newspaper in 1996 after it ran an article criticising the group, which claims about five million disciples, the Centre said in a statement. The group bears some similarity to the banned Falun Gong and Zhong Gong spiritual movements, targets of an intensive crackdown by Chinese authorities. All three incorporate traditional meditation known as "qigong," but also include quasi-religious philosophical doctrines that the Communist Party views as subversive. China has convicted 151 members of Falun Gong for various crimes since last year"s ban of spiritual movement, state media said last week.

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China Deports U.S. Evangelicals

Associated Press (28.08.2000) / HRWF International Secretariat (04.09.2000) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net -- China has deported three U.S. evangelists after detaining them in a roundup of underground Protestant worshippers in central China, a rights group reported Monday.

The report of their release, however, was accompanied by news that dozens of the Chinese worshippers detained along with them have been sent to jail.

An additional 50 followers of secret Protestant fellowships were arrested in three Chinese provinces, according to the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy.

The evangelists, Henry Chu, Sandee Lin and Patricia Lan, were put on planes Saturday in the coastal city of Shanghai, about 465 miles from where they were detained Aug. 23 in Henan province, the center reported.

Police confiscated about $650 from Chu, claiming it as transportation costs from Henan, the center said.

Chu and Lin, who are married, flew to Taiwan via Hong Kong, while Lan flew to San Francisco, the center said. All three are reportedly residents of California.

They apparently arrived in China on Aug. 14, and were identified by the center as missionaries. During their detention, they were beaten, kicked and restrained by handcuffs so tight their hands were numb for days, the center said.

The U.S. Embassy in Beijing said a consular officer who attempted to see them in Henan was told they were released on Friday after being held for "activities incompatible with the tourist status under which they entered China."

Police and officials in Xihua county refused to confirm the arrests.

Of the 127 Chinese held along with them, 70 have been transferred to a jail and will likely be charged for belonging to a cult, the center said.

All were followers of the Fangcheng church, one of scores of so-called house churches that operate out of private homes in defiance of restrictions on worship.

China's communist government forbids organized religious activities outside state-sanctioned churches.

Chinese religious leaders are currently touring the United States in an attempt to resolve what they describe as "misunderstandings" about religious freedom in China.

China has experienced a religious resurgence in recent years as free-market reforms discredit communist ideology and loosen once-tight social controls. The government last year began cracking down on underground churches and health groups, the Falun Gong foremost among them.

In a separate report, the Information Center, said the leader of another health group, Shen Chang, was arrested last month and formally charged with disturbing social order and tax evasion. The former charge stems from a protest outside the Workers Daily newspaper in 1996, after it ran a report criticizing Shen Chang's Science of the Human Body, the group said.

The Information Center also reported that police in another part of Henan arrested 12 members of a house church during a worship service on August 10.

An official of the public security bureau in Henan's Yucheng county confirmed the arrests, and said the group, the Gospel Fellowship, has been banned as a cult.

Another 31 Christians were arrested near Guangshui city in Hubei province Aug. 2, the center said. It did not identify the name of the group, but said four members had been jailed and would likely serve sentences in a labor camp. Police in the city denied the report.

Seven other Christians were arrested during a service in Shanxi province's Hejin county Aug. 24, the center said. Police refused to comment.

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China detains 50 underground Protestants in three provinces

AFP (27.08.2000)/HRWF International Secretariat (29.08.2000) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - China has detained 50 members of underground Protestant churches in three separate actions over the past month, a Hong Kong-based rights group said on Sunday.

Several of those detained, belonging to organizations in northern and central China, run the risk of lengthy detention or reeducation through labor, according to the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy.

Combined with the news last week of the mass arrest of Protestants in Henan province, this suggests a crackdown is underway, even as Chinese delegates to a religious summit in the US claim there is no religious repression in China.

The center said police detained 31 members of a Protestant church in central Hubei province's Guangshui city on Aug 2, while they were holding a meeting.

Four of those arrested have been transferred to higher-security detention centers, and are likely to be given administrative sentences of reeducation through labor, the center said.

On Aug 10, 12 members of another underground Protestant organization were detained while they were meeting in central Henan province's Yucheng country, the center said.

The organization they belong to, the 500,000-member-strong China Evangelistic Fellowship, has been condemned as an "evil cult" by Ye Xiaowen, director of the Bureau of Religious Affairs.

Finally, seven members of a Protestant church were arrested on Aug 24 in Hejin city of Shanxi province.

The Hong Kong-based center also said on Sunday that police were intensifying efforts to investigate 130 adherents of the China Fangcheng Church, a Protestant organization, detained last week by Henan police.

The 130, including three US citizens who were later released, were taken into custody when 50 police officers descended on a church gathering Wednesday in the village of Dawangzhuang.

Seventy of those arrested have been transferred to the Xihua county jail, and police is still collecting evidence at the scene of the arrest, suggesting they could be sentenced to reeducation through labor, the center said.

Because of the attention triggered by the mass arrest, officials from the Henan provincial police bureau have gone to Xihua to monitor how the case is handled, according to the center.

The reports of fresh detentions come even as leaders of China's officially recognised religions insist there is no faith-based repression in the country and reject claims that Beijing systematically curtails freedom of worship.

"We often hear the same people, the same forces who like to point their finger at the current state of religion in China," Michael Fu Tieshan, bishop of Beijing, said Friday at a press conference in Washingtong D.C.

"But facts speak louder than anything else, there is no religious persecution in China."

China has sent representatives of officially recognized Christian, Buddhist, Taoist and Muslim organizations to the Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders scheduled to take place in New York next week.

But Beijing has prevailed on the United Nations to keep out the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, from the summit, sparking outrage around the world.

China officially estimates it has six million Catholics and 12 million Protestants, but the real figures are believed to be much higher.

According to the Hong Kong-based human rights center, the total number of Chinese Catholics is 10 million and Protestants, 30 million.

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China Expels Tibetan Monks

Associated Press (26.08.2000)/HRWF International Secretariat (29.08.2000) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Officials in Chinese-ruled Tibet have expelled monks from Tibetan Buddhism's holiest shrine and ransacked homes looking for pictures of the Dalai Lama, a monitoring group reported Saturday.

Government teams began house-to-house searches in Tibet's capital, Lhasa, last month and have thrown religious objects and pictures of the Dalai Lama into the Tsangpo River, the London-based Tibetan Information Network reported.

Primarily targeting Communist Party members and government employees, including teachers, the general population has also been ordered to teach children atheism, the group said.

The actions are part of a 4-year-old campaign intended to break the fervently Buddhist Tibetan people's allegiance to the Dalai Lama, Tibet's temporal and spiritual leader who fled to India 41 years ago amid a failed uprising against Chinese rule.

Party and government leaders decided to renew the campaign at a meeting in April in Chengdu, the Sichuan provincial capital, Tibet Information Network said.

It added that they were likely motivated by the escape to India in January of the Karmapa, a high-ranking cleric China hoped to use to win over Tibetans.

In stepping up the campaign, leaders at the meeting pinpointed religion as the main ``element of destruction'' in Tibetan society, the group said, citing sources it did not identify.

The Buddhist clergy, a target of the campaign from the start, appears to have come under renewed pressure. Last month officials expelled 30 monks from the Jokhang Temple in central Lhasa, the group said.

The 1,300-year-old Jokhang is one of Tibetan Buddhism's oldest shrines and its most sacred. The group said the government has set a limit of 120 monks for the temple but is not allowing any who leave to be replaced.

Officials with the Tibetan government and its religious affairs bureau could not be reached by telephone for comment as offices were closed for the weekend.

The renewed campaign has also placed officials under increased scrutiny. A front-page editorial in the government-run Tibet Daily on July 4 threatened officials with fines if they take part in religious activities and listed a telephone number to attract informants, the group said.

Already, families in Lhasa have withdrawn 17 children from schools in India, the group said. With monasteries, the traditional seats of learning, gutted by Chinese rule and under severe limits, many Tibetans go to India to receive a religious education unavailable in Tibet.

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China arrests Christians

AP (23.08.2000)/ HRWF International Secretariat (25.08.2000) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Police in central China arrested 130 members of an underground Christian evangelical group on Wednesday, including three American citizens, a human rights group reported.

The church members were seized in an afternoon raid in Henan province's Xihua county and have been detained at the county jail, the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy reported.

Among those arrested were Henry Chu, Patricia Lan and Sandee Lin, American missionaries who are residents of California, the Hong Kong-based center reported. The report did not give their hometowns.

The report could not be confirmed late Wednesday night.

Those arrested were members of the Fangcheng church, whose founder, Zhang Rongliang, was sentenced to two years in a labor camp in December on charges of leading a cult. Fangcheng church leaders also were reported arrested last year, prompting members to appeal to President Clinton to pressure China for their release.

The group is one of scores of clandestine Christian communities, known as house churches because they are unable to worship in public. The officially atheistic communist government forbids worship outside state-sanctioned churches.

However, foreign missionaries estimate the number of Protestants to be as high as ten times the official figure of 11 million. The unofficial churches tend to be more evangelistic and charismatic than the government-approved non-denominational Protestant church.

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3 U.S. Christians held in central China

Kyodo News Service (24.08.2000)/ HRWF International Secretariat (25.08.2000) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Three Taiwan-born U.S. citizens who were among 130 Christians arrested Wednesday in central China are being held at a police station in Henan Province, a human rights group based in Hong Kong said Thursday.

Henry Chu, 38, Sandy Lin, 28, and Patricia Lan, 25, are being detained in Henan's Xihua County, said Frank Lu, head of the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy in China.

Police arrested 130 members of the Fangcheng Church, a banned Christian evangelical association, the group said late Wednesday.

The U.S. Embassy in Beijing has dispatched a consular official to Henan, said spokesman Joe Bookbinder.

"If Americans were indeed detained, we will insist on our right to consular access to the Americans," he said.

A bilateral agreement stipulates China must notify the U.S. of any detentions of its citizens within 96 hours.

The arrests came hours after Bishop Michael Fu Tieshan, head of the China Patriotic Catholic Association, announced to a group of religious scholars in Los Angeles that China was entering a ''golden age'' of religious expression.

''Religious believers and non-believers respect each other, are united and have a harmonious relationship," the official China Daily quoted Fu as saying.

The Hong Kong group said the Fangcheng Church, which claims 50,000 believers, has been labeled a sect by Beijing. Its founder, Zhang Rongliang, was sentenced to two years of ''re-education through labor'' in December 1999, though he has since been released for medical reasons.

The group noted that Fangcheng was one of 14 Christian groups the central government has branded as sects.

Fu and other Chinese clerics will attend a gathering of world religious leaders at next month's Millennium World Peace Summit at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

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China convicts 151 Falun Gong-related criminals

China Daily (24.08.2000)/HRWF International Secretariat (25.08.2000) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Chinese courts nationwide, by August 15, convicted and meted out criminal penalties to 151 hard-core Falun Gong practitioners who committed crimes, said Ye Xiaowen, director-general of China's State Administration of Religious Affairs, at a press conference in Los Angeles Wednesday.

Of the convicted, 22 were given sentences up to five years in prison, according to Ye, who also serves as an advisor to the visiting Chinese delegation of religious leaders.

He stressed that "the convicted are those who either leaked state secrets, or making use of Falun Gong to create social chaos, or committed other crimes."

Of the 2.1 million people practicing the Falun Gong cult in China, those prosecuted are only a tiny fraction, and the majority, or more than 98 percent, have been converted to normal life after persuasion and education for over a year, according to the most senior official in charge of religious affairs in China.

In response to local reporters' question on the stance of China 's religious circles on the government crackdown upon the Falun Gong cult, Buddhist master Sheng Hui said today that the Falun Gong cult is just as harmful as narcotics, who "has no difference from drug traffickers."

"Due to its strong capability to control the mind of practitioners, more than 1,600 have committed suicide or been killed as a result of indulging in practicing the Falun Gong cult, and 650 people have serious mental problems, of whom 14 perpetrated the felony of homicide," he said.

The Buddhist master, who is vice-president of the China Buddhist Association, said that Buddhists were the first who identified Falun Gong as an evil cult as early as 1996, three years ahead of government crackdown, because the cult "stole" many concepts of Buddhism and distorted them for evil purposes.

Both Ye and the Buddhist master warned the public that Falun Gong is so cunning that it usually takes on different cloaks to cheat people, which is why it fooled so many people both in China and the world at large.

"When the Chinese Qigong was popular, the master of Falun Gong Li Hongzhi said he was practicing Qigong for the good of health, and seeing that religions were respected in China, he said he was a religious leader," said master Sheng Hui.

"He is a wildcatter," he said.

Commenting on the big advertisements run by the Falun Gong group in major US newspapers, including the New York Times, saying that Falun Gong is Qigong again, Ye said that Li Hongzhi is just playing another trick to fool the public, Ye said.

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U.S. delays asylum hearing for leader of a Chinese sect

By Joseph Kahn

New York Times (19.08.2000) / HRWF International Secretariat (21.08.2000) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Immigration officials have delayed until next month a decision on whether to grant asylum to the leader of a Chinese spiritual movement after Chinese officials appealed for his return and submitted detailed charges that he raped followers, people involved in the case say. The movement's leader, Zhang Hongbao, has been held in detention in Guam since January after arriving in the American territory carrying a false passport, the people said.

Last year, Beijing outlawed Zhong Gong, the quasi-religious group Mr. Zhang founded in 1987, along with several other groups that practice the Chinese meditation and exercise regimen known as qigong.

While human rights groups say that Mr. Zhang has a strong asylum claim, American officials now have the delicate task of assessing the credibility of the Chinese charges.

The Chinese authorities recently provided American officials with a list of alleged crimes, specifying dates and places and including testimony from followers who say that Mr. Zhang sexually assaulted them, people told of the charges said.

The United States recently has tried to elevate cooperation with the Chinese police to fight international drug trafficking, making it difficult to dismiss Beijing's allegations without investigating them. Moreover, Mr. Zhang's group has attracted little international attention and does not fit common definitions of a political or religious movement.

China in the past has brought charges of rape against people whom it considers seditious, and American officials and human rights groups say the charges have in some cases proved unfounded.

Immigration officials requested that an asylum hearing that had been scheduled for today be postponed until American officials weigh the validity of the rape charges. A new hearing is set for early September.

The delay came shortly after Yan Qingxin, who says she is the No. 2 leader of Zhong Gong, was granted asylum. Ms. Yan, who is now in Washington seeking to generate support for Mr. Zhang, said she and Mr. Zhang arrived in Guam early this year to escape a Chinese dragnet and were thrown into detention with suspected smugglers. They waited six months to have their case heard.

"We came to America because we thought that this country protects human rights," Ms. Yan said in an interview. "But we are deeply disappointed to find that American courts do not treat such cases with urgency. I also fear that American officials are subject to pressure from the Chinese government."

Immigration and State Department officials said they do not comment on individual asylum cases. People involved in the case said the State Department was preparing an advisory opinion criticizing Beijing's suppression of Zhong Gong as politically motivated and noting the risk to Mr. Zhang if he returns to China.

China began a crackdown on spiritual groups a year ago after followers of Falun Gong, another qigong group, organized a demonstration outside the Chinese leadership compound in Beijing. The authorities then banned Falun Gong and Zhong Gong, which are rivals.

Unlike Falun Gong, which operates through autonomous cells with no clear hierarchy, Zhong Gong established an extensive organization with schools, healing centers, factories and printing houses.

People who have studied the movement say it raised millions of dollars from school fees and the sale of medical goods, books and clothing.

Mr. Zhang tailored his teachings to the needs of China's poorest people. He said those who practiced Zhong Gong could fight cancer and heart disease more effectively than by taking drugs or undergoing surgery.

Zhong Gong also says its leading practitioners have paranormal powers, including a "thousand-mile eye" that works like an X-ray and a telescope.

Mr. Zhang first went into hiding in 1994 after criticism of his group grew. Ms. Yan said Mr. Zhang decided to seek asylum in the United States late last year after the Chinese authorities shut down Zhong Gong's schools and healing centers and detained staff members. She called the charges against Mr. Zhang "sheer fabrication."

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Another meditation group under Chinese fire

Associated Press/Gannett News Service (16.08.2000) / HRWF International Secretariat (21.08.2000) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - A local leader of banned Chinese meditation group Zhong Gong has been sentenced to two years in prison, and police are questioning more than 20 other members, a human-rights group said yesterday.

Wang Xuemei, a Zhong Gong organizer in the southern city of Guangzhou, was charged with disturbing social order, said the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy. It said Wang appeared in the Tianhe District Court in Guangzhou in late July without a lawyer or relatives.

Chinese leaders launched a crackdown on Zhong Gong shortly after banning the better-known Falun Gong in July 1999. Both groups have attracted millions of followers, including some senior government and military officials, with a mix of exercise and meditation.

Chinese authorities have banned the groups as a threat to communist rule. According to the rights center, about 600 Zhong Gong organizers have been detained, and 3,000 businesses linked to the group have been shut down. State media criticize Falun Gong and Zhong Gong as fraudulent and dangerous.

Last month, Zhong Gong founder Zhang Hongbao escaped to Guam, a U.S. territory, where he is seeking asylum. China has asked for his extradition, accusing him of leaving the country illegally and other crimes.

The Clinton administration is facing a potentially explosive decision on granting political asylum for Zhang.

On June 16, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service indicated it would grant him asylum. But a final decision has been delayed since the Chinese Embassy in Washington requested July 16 that Zhang be denied asylum and returned to China.

Founded in 1987, Zhong Gong is similar to Falun Gong, the Buddhist-style meditation and exercise group that was banned by Chinese officials in July 1999 after a protest in Beijing by 10,000 members. Chinese officials refer to Falun Gong as a cult and have indicated to U.S. officials that the sect may threaten Beijing's ability to govern China.

Zhong Gong, which means "Chinese gymnastics for the cultivation of the body and the spirit," claims 38 million members, while Falun Gong claims 70 million members.

Tens of thousands of Falun Gong supporters have been arrested, according to human-rights groups, and more than 100 sentenced to severe prison terms. At least 27 Falun Gong followers have died in detention in the past year, according to the Hong Kong human-rights group.

U.S. officials want to support religious freedom and freedom of expression in China, particularly since Beijing's crackdown on Falun Gong.

The Clinton administration rejected Chinese requests, for example, to arrest Falun Gong leader Li Hongzhi, who lives in New York. But Li was never accused or suspected of criminal charges unrelated to freedom of speech or religion.

The vehemence of China's insistence that Zhang Hongbao be returned to China also has prompted fears of an overreaction by Beijing if he is allowed to stay in the United States - an overreaction that could complicate passage of the historic U.S.-China trade deal that is still pending before the Senate.

The trade legislation, passed by the House in May, would open China's markets to U.S. goods in exchange for granting Beijing permanent normal trade status with the United States.

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Xu Yongze released from labor camp in China

By Alex Buchan

Global News from the Frontlines (07.08.2000) / HRWF International Secretariat (08.08.2000) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - China's most famous house church prisoner, Mr. Xu Yongze, is free. The 58-year-old founder of the Born Again movement was released on May 16, after serving a three-year "re-education through labor" sentence for establishing an illegal organization in China.

Xu revealed that he was tortured during interrogation sessions. Three weeks after his release, he told a friend in Beijing that once he had each arm handcuffed to an iron gate, and when the gates were opened, he was stretched up off the ground in a gruesome crucifix position.

"I came to feel how Jesus must have felt on the cross," Xu said. He expressed his appreciation for the international pressure that was put on the Chinese government to treat him fairly.

Xu was originally arrested on March 15, 1997, when police raided a meeting of house church leaders in central China. Initially, no word was heard of him, and Christians worldwide began to fear the worst, especially when official church leaders like Dr. Han Wenzao denounced him as a "cult leader" and refused to admit he was a Christian at all.

There were fears he might be executed. Then Chinese authorities intended to give him a 10-year sentence, but international pressure built up to such an extent that he instead received a four-year sentence, which was decreased to three years in December 1997. Xu's wife -- arrested with him -- served a sentence of a year and a half.

Xu said that during the first months of his detention, he was slapped hundreds of times. He was also handcuffed with both arms behind his back and pulled up in mid-air for beating.

He served his sentence in a labor camp where each prisoner had to string 2,500 Christmas tree bulbs every day with a thin wire. Sources say these decorative lights are exported to the United States. Xu said he was not forced to work and was treated fairly well towards the end of his sentence, so he helped a weaker prisoner meet his quota.

Xu is now recovering in Nanyang city, in Henan province.

No stranger to controversy, Xu Yongze shot to international prominence in April 1988 when he was arrested in a Beijing public park en route to see visiting American evangelist Dr. Billy Graham. Ironically, Xu had been dubbed, "The Billy Graham of China," and his arrest shrouded the American evangelist's first visit to China in more controversy than expected.

But Xu's main claim to fame rests on his record as the founder of the hugely successful Born Again movement, a Henan-based house church network whose membership may run into the millions.

Early in the movement's history there was an insistence on copious weeping as an essential evidence of repentance, though in recent years this distinctive has been toned down. Still, this emphasis on emotion is what led to charges of him being called a cult leader, and not only by those in China's official church, but also by some house church leaders.

It was partly to offset this reputation that Xu convened talks in 1997 between rival house church movements to promote greater mutual understanding. Some believe it was these talks -- billed misleadingly in some quarters as "unity" discussions -- that spooked the Chinese government into wholesale arrests, because they fear any large movement that operates outside official control.

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China's Falun Gong obsession

Washington Post (01.08.2000) / HRWF International Secretariat (01.08.2000) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - It has now been just over a year since the government of China began its effort to stamp out the nonviolent spiritual movement known as Falun Gong. Thousands of Chinese followers of the group have been subjected to surveillance, harassment, arrest, torture and, in some two dozen cases, death. The two most recent Falun Gong members to perish in police custody were 44-year-old Li Zaiji and 68-year-old Wang Peisheng, according to the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy. They both died in the first two weeks of July.

Falun Gong adherents nevertheless marked the anniversary of the government crackdown by raising banners and otherwise protesting peacefully in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. Few visitors to the vast square even noticed, because police immediately seized the protesters and hauled them to jail. Hundreds are said to have been detained.

The Communist government portrays its battle against Falun Gong as an effort to protect China from an evil cult bent on destabilizing society. In fact, the authorities are reacting out of instinctive hostility to the growth of an independent organization that appears capable of offering Chinese a spiritual alternative--however obscure--to official ideology.

Yet for all its determination to deny Falun Gong practitioners their right to the free exercise of their beliefs, Beijing has been unable in a year to restore the monochromatic ideological climate its rulers require. The effort to destroy Falun Gong will be a "long-lasting, complicated and acute struggle," a July 20 editorial in the official People's Daily conceded. This backhanded compliment to the undeniable courage and tenacity of Falun

Gong's adherents was also, alas, probably a threat of even greater official violence to come.

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Chinese sect member chokes

Associated Press (26.07.2000)/ HRWF International Secretariat (27.07.2000) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - A follower of the banned Falun Gong spiritual group choked to death while in detention after police forcibly fed her to end her hunger strike, a human rights group said Wednesday.

Elementary school teacher An Xiukun, 50, was arrested June 6 while protesting a ban on the group in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.

An, who was being held at a detention center hear her home in Hengshui in central China's Hebei province, launched a hunger strike to protest being shackled, the group said.

Six days into the protest, guards forced food down her throat, causing her to choke, the center said.

The account could not be immediately confirmed. No telephone number for the detention center was available, but a man who answered the telephone at Hengshui's jail said no Falun Gong followers had been detained in the area.

An is the 25th Falun Gong follower to die in detention since the government banned the sect a year ago, the center said.

While the government has not responded to each accusation of abuse, it denies mistreating detained Falun Gong followers.

Falun Gong attracted millions of followers during the 1990s with its combination of slow-motion exercises and philosophy drawn from Taoism, Buddhism and the often unorthodox ideas of its founder, ex-government grain clerk Li Hongzhi.

Alarmed over the group's popularity and organization, the Communist Party banned Falun Gong and called it a public menace. It has accused Falun Gong of causing the deaths of 1,500 followers.

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Hong Kong detains four Falun Gong members

Reuters (21.07.2000)/HRWF International Secretariat (25.07.2000) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Hong Kong detained on Friday four members of the Falun Gong movement whose visitors' permits had expired, ahead of the first anniversary of Beijing's ban on the spiritual group.

The immigration department said the detentions of the four Chinese nationals who reside in Japan were not targeted at the Falun Gong movement but part of a routine crackdown on overstayers.

It was not immediately clear when the immigration department would deport the four who had overstayed by at least a week.

On Thursday more than 120 Falun Gong practitioners took to the streets of Hong Kong urging China to end its year-long crackdown.

Under a "one country, two systems" formula, Hong Kong has a large degree of autonomy from Beijing and has not followed mainland China in outlawing the quasi-religious movement.

China officially banned the movement, which combines elements of Buddhism, Daoist teachings and meditation, on July 22 last year, branding it an "evil cult," after Falun Gong members demanded official recognition for their faith in a series of protests.

Although the movement is legal in Hong Kong some members said they were being discriminated against and harassed, citing difficulties in booking venues for gatherings.

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China braces for Falun Gong struggle

By Christopher Bodeen

Associated Press (19.07.2000)/HRWF International Secretariat (19.07.2000) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - China's leaders are settling in for a prolonged struggle against the banned Falun Gong sect, acknowledging in an official editorial that a year of arrests, harassment and political campaigns have failed to wipe out the group.

The statement followed a burst of protests Wednesday by scores of sect followers on the eve of the anniversary of a government crackdown on the Falun Gong - proving the group remains a force in China despite being targeted by one of the biggest political campaigns in years.

The group's resilience was grudgingly acknowledged in an editorial to be published Thursday in the Communist Party's flagship People's Daily. Excerpts were carried Wednesday on the official Xinhua News Agency.

"The cult will not voluntarily step down from the historical stage," Xinhua quoted the article as saying.

The fight against Falun Gong will be a "long-lasting, complicated and acute struggle," it said, and pledged to crack down on members with a "firm hand."

In a reference to the group's founder, a former government clerk whose whereabouts are now unknown, Xinhua quoted the editorial as saying: "Li Hongzhi and his followers, like any evil force, have never stopped doing illegal things."

A media smear campaign, the jailings of thousands of members and pressure on followers to renounce ties to the group have thinned Falun Gong's ranks. But the group has continued to launch defiant protests, mounting the most sustained public challenge to the Communist Party in 51 years.

In Beijing on Wednesday, scores of Falun Gong followers raised banners in Tiananmen Square, prompting a frenzied response by police who swarmed on groups of protesters, wresting away banners and knocking them to the ground.

Police dragged protesters by the arms or clothes - middle-aged women and children among them. A uniformed officer locked his arms around a woman's neck, pulling her away.

More than 100 Falun Gong members were detained during the protest, a 10-minute explosion of seemingly coordinated action across the vast plaza.

That the protests happened - and in such numbers - was particularly impressive in the face of police alertness in the days before Thursday's anniversary on the crackdown on Falun Gong.

One year ago Thursday, security agents detained dozens of key Falun Gong organizers. Sect followers, tipped off by fellow members in the upper ranks of the communist government, responded with mass protests. Two days later, Chinese leaders outlawed Falun Gong, declaring it a public menace.

Police have picked up at least 200 practitioners from Tiananmen Square every day for the past week, according to a Communist Party official involved in security work.

Police in Beijing and other cities have watched airports and railroad and bus stations to prevent followers from reaching the capital, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Followers have been put under surveillance or detained, he said.

"Still some have slipped through our net," the official said.

The government has branded Falun Gong an unprecedented threat to communist rule and accused the group of cheating followers and causing 1,500 deaths, mostly of followers it maintains refused medical treatment in accordance with what it claims are the group's teachings.

Founded eight years ago, Falun Gong attracted millions of followers with its blend of slow-motion exercises, meditation and ideas drawn from Buddhism, Taoism and its founder.

Followers arrested in recent days have refused to tell officers their names or hometowns, making it difficult for city police to file the proper arrest forms, the party official said.

Instead, police have commandeered a stadium in western Beijing to hold those detained until their hometowns can be determined and they can be shipped off to local detention centers, the official said.

A human rights group based in Hong Kong, meanwhile, said it has confirmed the

deaths of 24 Falun Gong followers over the past year due to mistreatment while in detention.

Although the government has not responded to each alleged death, it has denied Falun Gong followers are mistreated in custody.

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Two more Falun Gong members die in China custody

REUTERS (19.07.2000)/HRWF International Secretariat (19.07.2000) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Two members of the Falun Gong spiritual group died in police custody this month, bringing to 24 the number of deaths from abuse since China outlawed the group last year, a Hong Kong human rights group said on Wednesday.

The reports came as Chinese police braced for Falun Gong agitation to mark the first anniversary on Saturday of the draconian ban Communist authorities slapped on the group.

The Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said it had confirmed with relatives or fellow adherents the July 7 beating death of 44-year-old Li Zaiji and the July 12 death by apparent suffocation of 68-year-old Wang Peisheng.

Both men ran afoul of the law when they cme to Beijing to petition against the ban on the group - a fate they shared with hundreds if not thousands of other Falun Gong members.

Police told relatives of Li, who came from the northeastern province of Jilin, he had perished because of dysentry in a labour camp, but his body was covered with bruises, the centre said

Shandong resident Wang's death certificate said only ``sudden death,'' but fellow Falun Gong members in the eastern province surmised he suffocated in a densely packed cell in stifling heat, it said.

Falun Gong, which combines meditation with a doctrine rooted loosely in Buddhist and Daoist teachings, was banned in China in July and later declared an ``evil cult.''

Beijing says Falun Gong cheats its followers and blames it for 1,500 deaths by suicide or refusal to accept medical care.

But China moved to suppress the movement only after it shocked the atheist Communist party with a 10,000-member protest in Beijing on April 25, 1999.

China has claimed ``decisive victory'' over the group, but its continued nervousness is evident in a new vilification campaign launched in state media against Li Hongzhi, a Chinese former granary clerk who founded the movement and now lives in exile in New York.

The government, which claims the group had two million members at its peak, says membership has dwindled to roughly 40,000. Falun Gong says it has tens of millions of followers in China and 40 other countries.

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China says Vatican will never replace state church

Reuters (07.07.2000) - HRWF International Secretriat (10.07.2000) Website: http://www.hrwf.net - E-mail: info@hrwf.net - China said on Friday the Vatican would never replace its official state church and that Beijing could have no diplomatic relations

with the Holy See until it renounced its recognition of Taiwan.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue told a briefing during a visit by Prime Minister Zhu Rongji that there had been no contact with the Vatican during the trip.

"Our policy is that China wants to improve relations with the Vatican but two principles must be followed. The Holy See must break diplomatic relations with Taiwan and recognise the People's Republic of China," she said.

She also said the Vatican must avoid "interfering in internal Chinese affairs and exploiting religion to interfere in Chinese affairs."

Asked whether the Vatican could ever replace the state-backed Patriotic Catholic Association, which appoints its own bishops and does not recognise the authority of Pope John Paul, Zhang said:

"I am not an expert on ecclesiastical affairs but I know the Patriotic Association will continue to exist,'' she said.

"The Chinese ecclesiastical situation is based on a compatibility with historical and national conditions. This won't ever change,'' she added, speaking through an interpreter.

She added that the current arrangement reflected "the desire of the mass of Chinese believers" for religious autonomy.

The Vatican has criticised recent Chinese ordinations of bishops, saying they risk torpedoing hopes for better relations.

Despite recent behind-the-scenes negotiations, the Vatican and China have been unable to bridge the gulf created by the Holy See's recognition of Taiwan, which China views as a renegade province.

The Vatican has had no diplomatic ties with China since 1951, but Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano said last year it was willing to transfer its embassy to Beijing from Taipei in order to improve bilateral relations.

China's state-run church says it has more than 70 bishops and four million members. The Vatican says eight million Chinese are loyal to the Pope and worship in secret.

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Elderly Falun Gong members arrested

South China Morning Post (29.06.2000) / HRWF International Secretriat (30.06.2000) - Wbesite: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Police detained 15 members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement at Tiananmen Square yesterday, according to a witness.

The practitioners, mostly elderly women who appeared to be from the countryside, were ordered into police vans between 10.30am and 11.15am, the amateur photographer said.

Two younger practitioners tried to resist police and were pushed into the vans, the witness said.

The protesters had tried to unfurl the Falun Gong's trademark yellow banners to express their support for the movement, which many sect members claim has helped to turn around their lives.

A Falun Gong practitioner in Beijing said the number of arrests in such a short period of time was not unusual. "It's not a special day. Every day there are people out there getting arrested," he said.

A Hong Kong-based human rights group said 100 practitioners, most in Tiananmen Square and at the National People's Congress' complaints bureau, were arrested every day.

"There's no special reason. They just go on their own," said Frank Lu, director of the Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy.

Falun Gong is a traditional mystic belief based on the teachings of exiled master Li Hongzhi, who advocates Confucian and Buddhist moral values and group breathing and meditation exercises.

The Chinese Government banned the movement in July last year after labelling it an "evil cult".

Tens of thousands of practitioners have since been detained and core leaders given jail terms of up to 18 years for protesting and refusing to give up their beliefs.

Meanwhile, the human rights group also reported that a PLA officer had been committed to a psychiatric hospital for refusing to renounce his belief in the Falun Gong.

Lieutenant Colonel Zhao Xinli was sent on May 29 to the army's psychiatric hospital in Beijing, which also is holding at least five other Falun Gong adherents from the military, the centre said.

The group said Zhao was being given daily injections of drugs that are making him extremely weak.

Zhao, dressed in civilian clothes, took part in a New Year's protest by Falun Gong followers in Tiananmen Square.

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1,200 more sect members held

by Vivien Pik-Kwan Chan

South China Post (27.06.2000)/HRWF International Secretariat (04.07.2000) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - More than 1,200 members of the banned Falun Gong group are said to have been detained last week after security officials were mobilised to arrest defiant cult followers across eight provinces. A human rights group alleges many of those detained were tortured, with a university lecturer hospitalised.

The crackdown was ordered after a variety of provincial governments reported to central authorities that the group was organising rallies and demonstrations despite an earlier purge.

"A week-long massive arrest of Falun Gong practitioners took place from June 18 to 25 in provinces including Hebei, Heilongjiang, Liaoning, Jilin, Guangdong, Shandong, Sichuan and Hunan. Over 1,200 followers were detained," the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said.

Zhao Xin, 30, a lecturer at Beijing's Business Management University, was detained on June 19 while taking part in a group practice in a Beijing park, the information centre quoted Falun Gong sources as saying. She was locked up at a detention centre near the Haidian district in the capital. Several vertebrae in her back had been smashed.

The centre said more than 100 people were detained in Beijing's Tiananmen Square on Sunday, while Falun Gong sources said another 100 were detained in Harbin on Saturday after practising Falun Gong in a park. More than 300 had been picked up in a park in Guangzhou on June 18.

Chinese authorities outlawed the spiritual movement last July after labelling it an "evil cult". Beijing accuses Falun Gong - a meditative belief combining Buddhist and Taoist ideas with those of its founder, a former government grain clerk - of anti-scientific thinking and causing thousands of followers' deaths by suicide or refusal of medicine.

Tens of thousands of practitioners have been detained since last July and leaders jailed for up to 18 years. Human rights groups say at least 22 practitioners have been tortured to death.

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China detains 1,200 from Falun Gong

The Associate Press (26.06.2000) / HRWF International Secretariat (27.06.2000) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Falun Gong followers have stepped up public demonstrations of their banned sect's practices, drawing more than 1,200 arrests in one week, a rights group reported Monday.

On June 18, 300 followers practiced their slow-motion exercises in a park in the southeastern city of Guangzhou, and in the seven days following, Beijing and the northeastern provincial capital of Harbin each reported gatherings of 100 people, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy reported.

Arrests were reported in nine Chinese provinces and cities, the center said. The center's report could not be independently verified.

Belief in Falun Gong, much less openly practicing it, has been outlawed since the communist government banned the group 11 months ago. The Chinese government considers the group a threat to public well-being and to the authority of the ruling Communist Party.

Tens of thousands of Falun Gong followers have been ordered to recant and thousands have been sent to labor camps. But group followers still stage periodic demonstrations.

One of those arrested during a Beijing demonstration Thursday, Beijing University of Industrial and Commercial Management professor Zhao Xin, has been hospitalized after an apparent beating by police, the Information Center said.

The government has denied that any Falun Gong practitioners have been mistreated, although the group estimates that more than 20 followers have died in custody.

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News of Detentions and Beatings of Christians
Emerges as U.S. Votes for China Trade Deal

CSW (25.05.2000) / HRWF International Secretariat (29.05.2000) – Website: www.hrwf.net –Email: info@hrwf.net - As the US voted to grant permanent normal trade relations with China, Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) received fresh reports of violations of human rights and religious freedom in Tianjing City and Guangdong Province in China. News was received that Pastor Wang Li Gong, who was 34 yesterday, and Associate Pastor Yang Jing Fu, 36, are being held in labour camps in Tianjing, near Beijing, after being administratively sentenced for organising a Christian meeting. Wang Li Gong is forced to produce hand-sown footballs. The work is very tough physically and his hands are reported to be injured and bleeding every day because of the work. He has to labour for long hours to fulfil a high quota set by camp authorities. He is also reported to be denied sleep and tortured frequently.

Wang and Yang were arrested on 23rd November last year. Nineteen Christians from Inner Mongolia had gathered in Wang's home in Han Ku, Tianjing that morning for fellowship. At 9.00 am the police surrounded the meeting and arrested the nineteen, together with Yang, a local associate pastor, who was also in the meeting. Pastor Wang was away from the house at the time and so was not arrested. However, when he discovered what had happened he went to the police station to enquire about his guests and was then arrested himself.

According to a source close to the situation, 2 of the Inner Mongolians were held for 15 days, 3 for 10 days and the rest were released within 5 days of their arrest. Wang and Yang however were not released. All but one of the detainees were beaten by the police. One woman was beaten very severely by a police officer who was reportedly drunk. The baton with which he beat her snapped and flew off due to the force used to attack her. The police abused, humiliated and threatened the detainees. For example, one of the women was told that if she did not confess she would be given over to the criminals in the detention centre to be raped. A source reporting the incident said: "Only one sister was not beaten. The rest were all beaten cruelly, with various degrees of savagery. All but one of them had obvious black marks and swellings on their faces and bodies." The Inner Mongolian believers were also fined and were accused of disturbing social order.

Wang and Yang on the other hand were accused of being cult leaders. When their families enquired after them they were told that they had conducted illegal meetings, brought in believers from other provinces and been in contact with foreigners, so their crimes were greater than those of the others. Yang and Wang were given administrative sentences of one and one and a half years labour education camp respectively. They have been assigned to different labour camps in Tianjing, where they are forced to labour under difficult circumstances.

During and following the arrests the police conducted extensive searches of the homes of Wang and Yang. They confiscated over 2,000 yuan in cash, cash machine cards, national stock certificates worth 2,000 yuan, bank deposit books, Bibles, books, tracts and audio and video cassettes, as well as personal belongings. They also confiscated valuable electrical equipment and in many cases gave no receipt for the confiscated goods.

As the trade deal went to vote CSW also received news that 13 Christian leaders in Guangdong Province, in southeastern China, have been sentenced to 15 days detention. This is the latest development in an eight month campaign against the unregistered church in the area. The campaign has been primarily focussed on Pastor Li Dexian, who has been arrested 15 times during the period. Last month he was tortured and held in chains with his wrists tied to his ankles, keeping his back in a permanently stooped position for five days, causing severe pain. The campaign has broadened in the last two weeks with multiple arrests across a broader area. The persecution and intimidation appears to have been ordered from high levels and is part of the government's attempt to deny religious practice outside state controlled bodies. The majority of Christians in China are not willing to practice within the confines of the restricted official churches, which ultimately are controlled by the atheist authorities. The campaign to enforce practice within registered bodies is typified by arrests, beatings, detention, forced labour, raids, confiscation of property and heavy fines. Christians have faced increased pressure and classification as cults following the severe crackdown on the Falun Gong.

CSW's International Advocate stated: " Reports of violations of religious freedom have been pouring out of China thick and fast recently. It is critical that such abuses are sternly addressed and that profits are not prioritised over people. Even with the vote in favour of PNTR, ways must be found to convey to China that if she wants to prosper and be a full international player, she needs to attend to the well-being of her people and adhere to international human rights standards."

For further information, including a detailed case description and photographs, please contact CSW in Geneva on + 41 76 383 6611 or in London on + 44 20 8942 8810.

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