China's Olympic blacklist

A man who escaped from China after being imprisoned for teaching Bible classes and now runs an organization to help persecuted Christians is confirming that nation will target 43 types of people with investigations – and possibly bans – when the 2008 Olympics are held in Beijing.

And those targeted will include "religious infiltrators," employees of media organizations, those tied to "illegal" religious organizations and others, the report said.

Chinese Christian reading the Bible

China Aid Association, run by Bob Fu, says the information comes from a "secretly issued" notice from China's Ministry of Public Security that went to security officials and departments throughout the nation.

"CAA learned from reliable internal Chinese government sources that in April of 2007, the Ministry of Public Security of the Chinese government issued a general nation-wide order, requiring strict examinations on all people both in China and overseas who will participate in the Olympic Games," the organization said. "These include members of the Olympic Committee, athletes, media and sponsors. With this, they also provide a list of 43 types of people in 11 categories to be barred from attending the Olympic Games."

The document, a "Notice on Strict Background Check on Applicants for the Olympic Games and the Test Events," targets those who are considered "antagonistic elements," followers of Falun Gong and other "cults," as well as "religious extremists and religious infiltrators."

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Other categories include media employees "who can harm the Olympic Games," non-government organizations that "pose a real threat to the Olympic Games," those with grievances against the communist party, those under investigation by Chinese authorities, as well as "terrorists" and "members of illegal organizations."

The report, China Aid Association said, further breaks down the categories to identify and target "frequent traffic violators in running red lights and j-walking," anyone who has had "close contact" with anyone considered suspect in "counter-revolutionary activities or other crimes of endangering the security of the state," anyone who belongs to an independent house church in China, which are identified as "illegal religious organizations" and those who have given "illegal sermons."

Also targeted and banned will be "people who illegally distribute religious publications and video-audio materials" and "people who have illegally established both in China and abroad religious organizations, institutions, schools, sermon sites and other religious entities."

Media workers employed by "institutions and organizations hostile to China" as well as "media employees who persist on a long-term basis in their anti-Party attitudes and maliciously vilify the Party and the government" are being targeted as well.

Also any non-government organization who "engages in infiltration, subversion and sabotage against our Party and government will be denied permission to be at the Games," the document said.

"While CAA understands the legitimate security concern during Olympics, nevertheless we urge the Chinese government to be more transparent regarding the preparation of [the] 2008 Beijing Olympics," CAA said. "We call upon the Chinese government not to use Olympics as a cover to engage [in a] crackdown on peaceful people of faith both in China and abroad."

Fu, who attended People's University and was a leader in the student democracy movement that ended in the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, and his wife were imprisoned when they got caught teaching Bible classes.

"God opened a way for them to travel to Hong Kong as tourists at the end of 1996," CAA said. "With the help and prayers of many brothers and sisters … the Fu family arrived as refugees in the United States … just three days before Hong Kong once again became part of Communist China."

The China Aid Association was started in 2002 and since then he's been summoned to testify before the House International Relations Committee, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China and the U.N. Commission on Human Rights.

The group now is a window for the world to the "oppression, imprisonment and torture of Christians" in China.

The warning about the investigations comes just a day after China heatedly repudiated a media report that Bibles were being banned from the housing complexes for athletes during the 2008 Games.

The officials, who have expelled dozens for Christian missionaries in an apparent crackdown on Christianity in advance of the 2008 Beijing Games, called the report a "total rumor."

"The Chinese government has not come up with any such rule," said spokesman Liu Jianchao.

However, the official website for the 2008 Games does warn that visitors should not bring more than a single Bible with them.

WND previously has reported on China's apparent crackdown on Christians and Christianity in advance of the 2008 Games, including the expulsion of more than 100 foreign Christians in China in just a 90-day period, the biggest assault on the presence of Christianity in China since 1954.

That report, from the Voice of the Martyrs, said most of those who have been expelled are from the United States, South Korea, Singapore, Canada, Australia or Israel, and had been working in or visiting Zinjiang, Beijing, Tibet and Shandong.

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