Still Laughing in China

By John Davies
Special to the Herald
(From the issue of 4/10/03)

People in the United States frequently take our religious freedom for granted. We never even have to think about ability to worship as we please. We can sit in our living rooms with a few friends and neighbors and pray, or we can go the largest church in town.

Freedom of religion has always been one of the basic reasons our nation exists. Even our money bears the words "In God We Trust."

But across the globe in the People’s Republic of China, the arrest and torture of Catholic priests and laity happens every day. These human rights abuses are punishment for exercising a right most of us take for granted.

The Communist Party ruling class that runs China consists of old-fashioned Marxist-Leninists of the kind not seen since Josef Stalin. They truly believe that all power belongs to the Communist Party and the State. The rights of the individual simply do not matter. Furthermore, they consider Christianity a threat to their authority and have therefore spared a few in attempts to stamp out all religious activity.

Thousands of Church members in China are arrested yearly and sent to prison labor camps. They toil 12-16 hours a day under back-breaking conditions to produce products the government sells to overseas markets — including the United States. Psychological pressure — what we used to call "brainwashing" — is used to promote an atmosphere of fear.

In 1989, then National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft went on a secret diplomatic mission to China as the personal representative of then-President George Bush. While he was at an official state dinner in his honor, Chinese security police were methodically arresting eight Roman Catholic bishops. Many of the bishops were in their 70s and 80s. Some were ordained before the Communist took over in 1949.

The arrest of the bishops during Scowcroft’s diplomatic mission was a deliberate slap in the face of President Bush and the American people. Sadly, President Bush did nothing. Some of those same bishops are still in prison today.

It’s popular in the Washington foreign policy establishment to say that China has "changed." How then do they explain the arrest of Father Dong Yingmu, 37, on Christmas Day of 2002?

Father Dong was seized outside his church as he was preparing to celebrate Christmas Mass in the city of Baoding, Hebei Province. He is still in prison today. The Catholic bishop of Baoding, Bishop Su Zhimin, 70, was arrested in 1997. The Chinese authorities have refused to release any information about Bishop Su ever since. Not even his family has been told where he is — or even if he is still alive.

Americans in the religious community must raise the level of knowledge, awareness and outrage over how the Chinese government continues to persecute people of religious faith.

We must demand that our government stop ignoring the dismal human rights policies of China. We did not ignore the plight of Soviet Jews in the old Soviet Union; and we must not ignore the persecution of Christians in China. Tough diplomacy and trade sanctions were used in the 1970s to help the Soviet Jews and we can use the same methods with China today.

President Bush and the State Department must stop pretending that their policy towards China has brought about any human rights improvements. There have been none. In fact, the persecution of Catholics and other Christians has continued to get worse and worse.

The Chinese dictators laughed at President George W. Bush’s father in 1989 when he ignored the arrest of eight Catholic bishops. No doubt they are still laughing today.

Davies is president of Free the Fathers, an international human rights group based in Atlanta that works to free Chinese Catholic priests imprisoned for their faith. 

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