Chinese Christian Rights Activist Gao Zhisheng Released

Christian human
rights activist Gao Zhisheng, kidnapped by state security agents on Feb. 4,
2009, has been released, though he appears unable to move or speak
freely.

On April 6, Gao told Bob Fu, president of the U.S.-based China Aid Association (CAA), by
telephone that he had just returned to his Beijing apartment from his guarded
location in Shanxi Province.

“Gao Zhisheng and
his family have suffered deeply from the long separation,” Fu stated on CAA’s
website. “Despite the persecution, he continues to trust the
Lord.”

On Jan. 9, 2009, less than a month
before Gao was abducted in his home village in Shaanxi Province, his family
members began their escape from China. His wife, Geng He, along with then
16-year-old daughter Geng Ge and then 5-year-old son Gao Tianyu, arrived on foot
to Thailand and eventually reached New York City on March 14, 2009.

With Fu and with
reporters from The Associated Press (AP) this week, Gao declined to discuss his
physical condition or how he was treated during his captivity. He told the AP
that by leaving his role as a critic of human rights violations in China, he
hopes to be re-united with his family.

“Gao is still not able to
speak or move freely,” Fu said on the CAA website. “We urge the Chinese
government now to allow Gao Zhisheng to be reunited with his family. It is his
right, according the Chinese law, to be able to see them, since he has broken no
laws during his time of probation.”

Gao’s disappearance had drawn protests
from international human rights groups, U.S. and British officials and the
United Nations. He had defended house church Christians and coal miners as well
as members of the banned Falun Gong, which fuses Buddhist-inspired teachings
with forms of meditation. In 1999 Beijing banned it as an “evil
cult.”

Early in 2009, Gao
authorized CAA to release his account of 50 days of torture by state-sponsored
thugs in September and October of 2007. Gao had written the account in November
2007 while under house arrest in Beijing after prolonged beatings and electric
shocks on his mouth and genitals.

Gao’s suffering in the
fall of 2007 followed an open letter he wrote to the U.S. Congress describing
China’s torture of Falun Gong members and other human rights abuses.

Another Harsh Year
Expected

Chinese Christians can expect more
attacks on large urban churches, more harsh punishments for house church leaders
and tighter control of registered churches this year, according to
CAA.

In a report summarizing
persecution it monitored in 2009, CAA identified five key trends in China’s
management of Protestant Christianity.

Authorities last year
specifically targeted house church leaders, sometimes handing out harsh
sentences and fines; carried out violent raids on large urban churches;
attempted to disrupt regular worship meetings and tightened control of churches
registered with the government-approved Three-Self Protestant Movement (TSPM).

In response, some urban
churches engaged in a “power encounter” with local governments, refusing to
quietly allow officials to close or destroy their meeting places, CAA noted. For
example, almost 1,000 members of Beijing Shouwang church on Nov. 1 worshiped in
Haidian Park during a snowstorm after officials pressured Huajie Plaza managers
not to renew the church rental contract.

These trends were
confirmed by a Chinese House Church Alliance (CHCA) report, released in
December, which described harassment and arrest of church leaders, violent raids
on house churches and the oppression of TSPM churches.

While CAA reported only
77 incidents in 2009, these occurred throughout China, giving a broad indication
of the status of Protestant Christians, particularly those in unregistered
churches. A total of 2,935 people were affected in these incidents, a 44.8
percent increase from 2008. Of these, 389 were arrested, a decrease in arrests
of 49 percent; and 23 were sentenced to prison, a decline of 34 percent.

Of the 389 people
arrested, 211 were church leaders. Several received harsh prison sentences and
fines, including Beijing bookstore owner and church leader Shi Weihan, who on
June 12 was sentenced to three years in prison and fined 150,000 RMB
(US$21,945).
Xinjiang officials on Aug. 6 sentenced Uyghur church leader Alimjan Yimit
(Alimujiang Yimiti in Chinese) to 15 years in prison, while a day later,
officials in Inner Mongolia sentenced church leaders Li Ming-shun and Zhang
Yong-hu to 10 and seven years respectively, with fines of 30,000
(US$4,390) and
20,000 (US$2,925)
RMB.

A court in Shanxi
Province in November awarded five Linfen church pastors sentences ranging from
three to seven years, with fines ranging from 10,000 to 50,000 RMB
(US$1,462
to US$7,315). A
further five pastors were sentenced to two years in labor
camp.

At least 400
paramilitary police violently raided the Fushan county branch of Linfen church
on Sept. 13, injuring a few dozen church members, confiscating Bibles and money
and damaging church property. A similar raid was carried out on another large
church in Shanxi Province in November.

Authorities also sealed
or destroyed both house church and TSPM church buildings. In one prominent case
last June, officials in Chengdu city, Sichuan Province declared Quiyu church to
be an illegal organization, forcing the church to close and confiscating church
property.

Officials in Rizhao
city, Shandong province, raided a training event at a TSPM church and
de-registered two church meeting places, CAA reported, while CHCA reported that
officials tore down the meeting place of Changchun church in Ninan city,
Shandong Province, giving only token compensation.

Churches in ‘Grey’
Zone

Chinese scholar and former policy writer
Liu Peng believes the government is attempting to remove the “grey” zone in
Protestant Christianity, where some churches operate openly without legal
status.

China now permits
churches to bypass joining the TSPM when registering, but many house church
groups reject this solution. Leaders would prefer churches to be in one camp or
the other, Liu said in a December interview with the
China Daily.

In predicting harsher
treatment this year, CAA quoted Wang Zuoan, head of the State Administration for
Religious Affairs, who in January told
Oriental Outlook that the “reluctance, intimidation and inability” of
local governments to deal with religious issues must be
addressed.

If these words
represent China’s religious policy direction in 2010, churches are likely to be
targets of greater persecution, CAA concluded.