Documents outline ‘draconian’ persecution The Layman Volume 35, Number 2 Posted April 8, 2002 The Presbyterian Church (USA) has long cozied up to the China Christian Council, the government-authorized umbrella organization for Protestants in China, and downplayed reports that China systematically persecutes the non-CCC Protestants and other religious groups. Invariably, PCUSA officials have contended that reports of persecution are inflated and based on past realities, not pertinent for today’s “liberated” Chinese Christians. But The Washington Post published a story Feb. 13 – and provided documentation through its Web site – that suggests that persecution of Christians who do not welcome government oversight is widespread and severe. The Post referred to a set of internal Chinese government documents that describe “in remarkable detail the suppression of unauthorized religious groups, including efforts to crush underground Catholic churches, use of secret agents to infiltrate illegal Protestant congregations and orders for ‘forceful measures’ against the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement.” “The papers were published this week as part of a 141-page report outlining the results of an unusually extensive study on Christians in China,” The Post said. “The committee said it identified more than 23,000 people arrested since 1983 for unauthorized religious activity and collected statements from 5,000 victims of torture and persecution in 22 provinces and 200 cities.” The PCUSA has a partnership agreement with the China Christian Council, which was established by China’s Communist Party overseers and hailed by them as a model of liberality for Chinese who want to practice their religious faith. During a visit to the headquarters of the PCUSA in 2000, representatives of the China Christian Council denied reports of widespread persecution. The PCUSA News Service quoted Rev. Jia-yuan Bao, the CCC’s associate general secretary, as saying, “There is no massive persecution of Christians in China today. A lot of what is being reported as ‘persecution of Christians’ could better be termed ‘religious persecution,’ because it is directed toward cultic groups and activities.” Other stories by the denomination’s official news service and Presbyterians Today, a magazine published by the denomination, have repeatedly described reports of persecution as exaggerated or untrue. To refute accounts of persecution, Presbyterians Today, in a story that was part of a series about China’s Christians, quoted Philip Wickeri, a Presbyterian mission worker in Hong Kong and China since 1979, as saying generalizations about China and its churches can be misleading. He often tells U.S. visitors: “‘Everything you can say about China is true somewhere in the country; nothing is true everywhere,’” the magazine said. The Post quoted Robin Munro, a China specialist in London, who examined the documents about persecution. Munro said the documents “appeared to be authentic and could be among the most significant internal documents on religious persecution in China seen in the West. I’ve never seen anything like it in such quantity. These documents are from all around the country, all consistent, all quite draconian, and all expressing implacable hostility toward these groups and determination to eradicate them. The party sees these groups as a mortal threat, and it’s really going into overdrive now.” The Post reviewed eight documents, which include classified speeches and memos by security officials. The documents were smuggled out of the country by Chinese Christians working with sympathetic local police officers and a former Chinese intelligence official.

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