Christians get death sentence: China is cracking down harder than ever on Christians, employing new antisect provisions

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Feb 11, 2002 | by Julia Duin

Gong Shengliang, 46, founder of South China Church in the Hubei province 600 miles east of Beijing, recently was found guilty of rape and sentenced to death--although some China analysts say the charges were elicited from women under torture. His niece, Li Ying, 46, another church leader, also received a death sentence for operating an unauthorized church. Li Guangqiang, a Hong Kong resident jailed since May for importing 16,280 Bibles to an underground Christian group called the Shouters, also has been condemned to die.

The death sentences are the first under China's new antisect provisions, passed by a National People's Congress committee in 1999 and aimed chiefly at the Falun Gong. Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) has approached Chinese officials about releasing the Christians.

"We call upon China as a member of the international community to meet international standards on freedom of religious expression and freedom of conscience," says Lantos, who is Jewish. "These are standards embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The negative impact globally for punishing people for importing Bibles, at least in the Christian world, is so powerful that it is counterproductive."

But the Chinese are not in a bargaining mood, notes Carol Hamrin, a former State Department analyst who teaches Asian studies at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. "The Chinese have become more and more concerned how they are going to manage the growing social tensions there and the growing differences between the haves and havenots" she says. "This will escalate now that they've joined the World Trade Organization. As long as they can keep people isolated from each other, they feel they can manage the country."

The Shouters and Gong's 50,000-member church have not registered with the government. Beijing is "going after groups that are getting large in numbers or crossing provincial lines," Hamrin explains. "When these unregistered church movements get foreign support, like Bibles, training and media coverage, the government feels it really has to crack down on them. So they use the charges of being a sect as a mechanism. In Leninist ideology, there are no diverse interest groups, as the Communist Party should represent all interests."

What drives the government to distraction, says Mickey Spiegel, a researcher for Human Rights Watch, is that many of the unregistered churches are decentralized and have elders instead of clergy. To be licensed by the government, a church must have a pastor. "The Chinese government has basically no control over them and sees them as very threatening" she says. "Many of the members are hardworking Chinese farmers, and they worship in a way the Chinese government does not like. But they harm no one."

Hamrin and Spiegel both have sources saying testimony against Gong was extracted through torture. He was arrested months ago, but his secret three-day trial was not held until Dec. 18, 2001.

Numerous members of Gong's church were arrested along with their leader, according to sources. Two members are said to have died under torture, one the mother of a 5-year-old girl.

Rape accusations have been leveled against founders of two religious groups, both of whom were executed in 1995 and 1999. Some China watchers fear this may become a common accusation against church leaders as well.

JULIA DUIN WRITES FOR Insight's SISTER DAILY, THE WASHINGTON TIMES.