Religious Liberty Prayer List - No. 156 - Wed 20 Feb 2002

-------------------------------------------- CHINA: SECRET DOCUMENTS LEAKED AT GREAT RISK --------------------------------------------

Top level, top secret documents have been leaked from China by a senior official in China's National Security Ministry. Many of the Chinese who have copied and smuggled documents are at great personal risk and some are in hiding. Because of their courage and sacrifice, world leaders can no longer claim to be ignorant.

The papers were obtained by the New York-based Committee for Investigation on Persecution of Religion in China, and show that communist rulers at the highest levels take an active role in persecuting house-church Christians. The Committee's director, Shixiong Li, had himself been raised in a Chinese labour camp from age seven because his family was labelled 'counter-revolutionary'. During 20 years of imprisonment Li was denied education and beaten by his frustrated and bitter father. A Christian aunt in Taiwan prayed for him daily.

Out of prison, Li supported the pro-democracy movement which was crushed in Tiananmen Square in 1989. In 1997 he applied for political asylum in USA. As Li worked with a US lawyer on asylum cases, he became interested in the issue of religious persecution, especially as it reminded him of a caring pastor in the labour camp. Working with Chinese pastors in New York, Li was gathering information about the persecution of Christians in China, when he too became a committed Christian.

Shixiong Li and Xiqiu (Bob) Fu have now released a 144-page document with most secret, official government directives on persecuting the Church, together with selected testimonies from tortured Christians. In the foreword, Li states, '...the level of persecution aimed against unregistered Christians in China is very high. This campaign against "illegal organizations" is centrally directed, and involves Maoist-style propaganda. [This] fosters Cultural-Revolution levels of surveillance, interference and police abuses including torture.' Revealed are the government strategies for investigating, infiltrating, smashing, crushing and terminating unregistered religious groups ('cults').

The testimonies from Christians include statements such as, "Fengjiu, who is only 15 years old, also had her chest, hands and feet touched and injured by their electric club." ... "Gu was never seen after that. Later it was found that Gu was dead under severe torture." ... "Then they beat Gong Shengliang (founder of the South China Church), kicked him. Fengjuan and others, who were eyewitnesses of the whole event, saw that (Gong's niece) Li's mouth was full of blood lying on the ground. They put them in cuffs."

* For further articles on this story http://www.christianitytoday.com/ctmag

* For the documents 'Religion and National Security in China: Secret documents from China's security sector', edited by Shixiong Li and Xiqiu Fu - http://www.religiousfreedomforchina.org

PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY FOR

* blessing and protection for all those Chinese who courageously have ensured the exposure of these highly sensitive documents.

* the international community to have their conscience pricked and sense of justice stirred to act so that the risks the Chinese believers and informers have taken will not be in vain.

* imprisoned Chinese believers, that their faith and witness will remain strong in the face of the severe cruelty, humiliation and torture they suffer; for protection for them and their families.

* God to bring down Communism in Asia, so that the Chinese people and other Asians under Communism will have religious freedom, and many more millions of them will come to know Christ as Saviour.

"You hear, O Lord, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherlesss and the oppressed, in order that man, who is of the earth, may terrify no more." Psalm 10:17,18

SUMMARY TO USE IN BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN THE WHOLE ARTICLE: ------------------------------------------------------------------- TOP SECRET CHINESE DOCUMENTS LEAKED AT GREAT RISK

Top secret Chinese Government papers have recently been released by the New York-based Committee for Investigation on Persecution of Religion in China. They document the highest official government policy for persecuting the Church in China and detail its strategies for investigating, infiltrating, smashing, crushing and terminating unregistered religious groups ('cults'). Also released are testimonies from persecuted believers, including letters smuggled out of prison that detail beating, torture and deaths in custody. The Chinese who copied, wrote, leaked and smuggled these documents have done so at great personal risk. Pray that their sacrifice will not be in vain. Pray for the faith and witness of imprisoned believers to be strong in the face of severe trial.

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