The Faces of Persecution in China

No longer underground

In Beijing, the 1,000-member Shouwang Church has chosen to publicly oppose the government. The result is that over the last two years, many of its members have been placed under arrest – but released within hours or at most a few days. Few of the leaders have been held longer, however, except for the founder of the church, who remains under house arrest. In the other hand, an estimated 3,000 other such "underground" churches meet throughout Beijing – largely ignored by the government. Are they truly “underground?” “If the police know where you are,” notes Vermeer, “if you have a website and you publicly invite people to come to your meetings, would you still call it an ‘underground’ church? ‘Unregistered’ is a better term.”

No longer underground

Perhaps 60-100 million Christians in such "unregistered" churches refuse to join the government-run protestant Three-Self Patriotic Movement or the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association – which the government says have 23 million members. Because the unregistered churches don't officially exist, in the past, they could not own property and had to meet in private homes. However, this is changing. “There are a number of unregistered ‘mega churches’ throughout China,” says Vermeer, “which have been given land by authorities and built their own church buildings.” In the past, their members and leaders were regularly harassed by local government officials. Such persecution could take the form of a prison sentence, or more commonly, "re-education" through labor. Heavy fines were also not uncommon, with personal effects being confiscated.

No longer underground

Although such persecution in most areas has eased the China Aid Association says the Chinese government is implementing a three-phase plan to shut down such churches on Hainan Island off China's southern coast. More than a dozen churches have been forcibly closed with threats by officials of the Religious Affairs Bureau to close many more. The local government justifies the forced closures as actions to eliminate subversive “cult activity.” “Muslims who convert to Christianity and Tibetans who become Christians are the most fiercely persecuted. They are often caught between a rock and hard place, persecuted by their families and targeted by a government that doesn’t like social unrest. Conversions cause unrest,” says Vermeer, who is also author of a novel, Friends Forever, about the horrors of living in North Korea.

No longer underground

Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, who was sentenced to death in 2002 on charges of "inciting Splittism." Following international pressure, his sentence later was commuted to life. Imprisoned by Chinese authorities for eleven years, he is reported to be in poor health. He is a Tibetan Buddhist Monk who sought to re-establish Buddhist practice in Tibet and worked with the Dalai Lama in exile in India. Following a bombing in the Chinese city of Chengdu, he and another monk were arrested on suspicion of involvement in the bombings. "Splittism" is the idea that Tibet or any other autonomous region should become independent of China.

No longer underground

Gendun Choekyi Nyima, the Panchen Lama, who has been missing and incommunicado for 16 years. On May 14, 1995, the Dalai Lama announced from exile that he had recognized the six-year-old as the 11th reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, the second most prominent lama of the Gelug sect of Tibetan Buddhism. Tibetan Buddhists believe that the position of Panchen Lama is passed down by reincarnation. Chinese officials called the selection "illegal and invalid" and took the boy and his parents into custody. Several months later, authorities installed another child, Gyalsten Norbu, as the Panchen Lama and demanded that the secular and monastic communities accept his legitimacy -- a move that continues to stir widespread resentment

No longer underground

Li Chang, imprisoned in China on charges of "organizing and using a heretical organization to undermine implementation of the law," "organizing and using a heretical organization to cause death" and "illegally obtaining state secrets." He is a former Chinese government official who joined the Falun Gong movement during its period of legality in the 1990’s. When it was declared a cult, he was arrested and tried with several other Falun Gong members, then sentenced to 25 years imprisonment, later commuted to 18 years. He currently is being held in Tianjin Prison in Tianjin City. As part of his sentence, after his release, he may not participate in politics for five years