Top-secret Chinese government documents detailing an official crackdown against underground religious groups have been published by a U.S. human rights group.
Freedom House’s Center for Religious Freedom said the papers were authenticated by renowned expert and exiled former Chinese government journalist Su Xiaokang.
The seven documents confirm that “the campaign against unregistered religious groups has been orchestrated by the very top leaders of the Chinese Communist Party,” China religion specialist Bob Fu told WorldNetDaily.
The documents include a directive from Hu Jin-tao, the designated successor to President Jiang Zemin, noted Fu, executive director of the New York-based Committee for the Investigation on Persecution of Religion in China, the group that originally obtained the goverment papers.
Hu was the “major orchestrator” of the crackdown on Tibet in 1988-92, when he was general secretary of the Tibetan autonomous region, Fu said.
Hu is regarded by many China observers as a member of a younger, more liberal generation of Communist Party leaders, the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Religious Freedom observed.
Issued between April 1999 and October 2001, the papers detail the goals and actions of China’s national, provincial and local security officials to repress groups that choose not to worship under state-controlled bodies.
“These documents provide irrefutable evidence that China remains determined to eradicate all religion it cannot control, using extreme tactics,” said the center’s director Nina Shea.
Several papers focus on measures to “smash” the South China church and the Real God church. Authorities say those groups rival the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement as threats to the state. One document lists 14 religious groups as “evil cults.”
Fu noted that the government has established five characteristics that classify a group as an “evil cult.”
“This is like the U.S. FBI determining whether Billy Graham is orthodox or a heretic,” Fu commented.
Measures to be taken against the banned groups include surveillance, deployment of special undercover agents, gathering of “criminal evidence,” “complete demolition” of a group’s organizational system, interrogation, arrest and confiscation of church property, said the Center for Religious Freedom.
One document repeatedly refers to the use of “secret agents” to infiltrate “cults,” underground Catholics, businesses, joint ventures, people with “complicated political backgrounds,” prestigious colleges and universities and other organizations.
Shea said “normal religious activity is criminalized” in China, noting the December death sentences brought against South China church Pastor Gong Shengliang and several of his co-workers.
Yesterday the Vatican missionary news agency Fides said more than 50 bishops and priests in the underground church have been recently detained or placed under strict police surveillance. The state-sanctioned Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association does not recognize papal authority, and millions of Catholics worship in unregistered groups.
“President Bush, who has repeatedly voiced concern for religious oppression in China, must speak out forcefully and publicly in support of religious freedom during his state visit to China next week,” Shea said.
Several documents indicate Beijing is losing its battle to control religious expression, the Center for Religious Freedom said. “Inner circles” of the Communist Party and government officials have secretly joined the banned Real God church, and documents instruct officials to find out who among them are members of the group.
The documents also reveal “a fundamental misunderstanding or deliberate misinterpretation of the New Testament,” the center said. One uses the Christian doctrine that Christ is in every believer to accuse churches of “deifying” their leaders. The document defines the practice as “cult-like.”
Another document ties public unrest over China’s entry into the World Trade Organization to Western support of democracy movements and religious groupings. It accuses the Vatican of “still waiting for any opportunity to … draw the patriotic religious believers up to them and incite them to rebel.”
A document titled “Praying for world peace” warns of danger from ecumenical relations between churches. It views with alarm ties between the Protestant house-church Real God and the underground Catholic Church.
Fu said these documents should serve as a warning to Washington regarding trade with China.
“This is a signal to the U.S. administration and lawmakers that the Chinese government does not honor its word,” Fu said. “Basic human rights and religious freedom is protected in China’s constitution and in international covenants. So how can there be any hope for this government to deal with trade sincerely?”
