China Expands Crackdown on Religions Not Recognized by State

Washington Post / September 4, 2000
By John Pomfret

BEIJING, Sept. 4 -- A Hong-Kong based human rights group said today that China has indicted 85 members of a Christian sect, the China Fang-Cheng Church, in a follow-up to the recent detention of 130 of its members and the expulsion of three American missionaries.

The indictments, which almost guarantee a prison sentence, were seen as a sign that the crackdown on the Buddhist-like Falun Gong spiritual movement is being widened to suppress other kinds of unofficial religious activity throughout China as well.

The Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy in Hong Kong said that of the 130 Fang-Cheng members detained on Aug. 23 in the central Chinese province of Henan 85 were indicted two days later. The Hong Kong center provided a copy of the indictment of one Fang-Cheng member named Chen Zhouniu, who was charged with "using an evil cult to obstruct justice."

The "evil cult" law was passed last year as part of the crackdown on Falun Gong, during which thousands of Chinese were sent to labor camps or jail. When the law was announced in October, officials said they would not use the "evil cult" regulations to suppress China's "house churches," a movement involving millions of Catholics and Protestants that is technically illegal.

China's constitution protects freedom of religion but allows Chinese to practice only five state-sanctioned faiths--Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam, Buddhism and Taoism--at state-sanctioned facilities.

But in recent months, the government has seemed intent on expanding the boundaries of the Falun Gong crackdown. Since last year, the state has branded 14 Christian sects "evil cults" and arrested several sect leaders.

It has shuttered a massive monastery in western Sichuan province where thousands of monks had flocked to follow a charismatic Buddhist lama and intensified suppression of Catholics loyal to Rome.

The Cardinal Kung Foundation, a U.S.-based advocate of the underground Chinese Catholic Church, said today that 24 Catholics--a priest, a seminarian, 20 nuns and two laypersons--were arrested last month in the southeastern province of Fujian. The priest, the Rev. Liu Shaozhang, was severely beaten, it said.

The latest Christian "house church" crackdown is occurring in Xihua county, in Henan. There, a powerful Christian movement has been sweeping across parts of the province, fueled by the collapse of faith in communism and economic woes that turn many people's attention toward spiritual issues.

Three Americans--Henry Chu; his wife, Sandy Lin; and her friend, Patricia Lan, all Taiwan-born U.S. citizens--were detained with the 130 Fang-Cheng followers. They were expelled from China on Aug. 26 after two days in custody.