after Chinese church officials appealed to him to help end persecution of Christians in this huge Communist nation.
A Chinese crackdown on dissidents and Christians before Bush arrived has dismayed American officials and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was quoted as saying the US-side would continue to raise the issue "quite vociferously with the Chinese government."
Making a point that China should take religious freedom more seriously, Bush’s first public event was a worship service at Gangwashi Church, one of five officially recognized Protestant churches in Beijing. "It is important that social, political and religious freedoms grow in China," the president said later standing at Chinese President Hu Jintao’s side.
Bush claimed that demanding religious freedom was a good way to ensure that other freedoms follow. "They go hand in hand. A society which recognizes religious freedom is a society which will recognize political freedom as well," he explained. "President Hu is a thoughtful fellow, and he listened to what I had to say."
HOUSE CHURCH
Bush’s talks on religious freedom came as the South China Church (SCC), one of the largest underground house church movements in southern China, asked the president in an open letter to help believers "worship God" in freedom.
"Since 2001, the SCC has suffered unprecedented persecution. About a thousand Gospel ambassadors are hunted down and arrested," the SCC said. "Sister Yu Zhongju, a member of SCC was beaten to death by Zhongxiang Public Security Bureau of Hubei Province."
In the letter, obtained by BosNewsLife, the SCC expressed especially concern about the
situation of its jailed and "tortured" leader, Pastor Gong Shengliang, who was arrested in August 2001 on what the church said were false charges of "rape" and "intentional injury."
PRISON ABUSE
"He had to wear shackles for 411 days designed for a convict sentenced to death," before receiving a life term prison sentence, the SCC said. The CSS stressed the pastor had almost no contact with his family in the Jingzhou Prison of Hubei province where he was allegedly mistreated.
"Two prisoners are assigned to conduct a 24-hour surveillance on him and to report their findings." Although prison rules forbid him to speak with other detainees, Pastor Gong was apparently severely beaten because he did not answer a question of a fellow prisoner.
"He was so beaten that blood appeared in his urine and stool," the SCC stressed in the letter to President Bush. "He has lost his hearing in one of his ears and he still has not received treatment for it." The pastor was later transferred to another detention facility, Hongshan Prison in Wuhan of Hubei Province, where in April 2004 he was "severely tortured both physically and emotionally," CSS claimed.
READING BIBLE
"He fell down while cleaning the windows of the prison and not even a single soul came to ask about his condition." Family members visiting him in prison were allegedly told by officials that "he fell down onto the floor because he read the Bible, prayed every day and worshipped Jesus, so much so that his mind became clouded."
Pastor Gong had a relapse of stomach problems in November 2004 and for two weeks was not able to drink without help, SCC said, adding it was concerned that the pastor may die soon.
Prison officials allegedly confiscated the pastor’s letters of appeal against his sentence and refuse to allow lawyers to see him on grounds he never wrote them. He was told they would "commute" his sentence if he renounces his faith in Christ, "and admit that what he believes in is a cult", the SCC said.
LABOR CAMP
The SCC also expressed worries over the alleged mistreatment of 16 other church members in prison, including women, as well as 63 church missionaries who were arrested and sentenced in 2001 to "Education through Labor and Reformation through Labor."
"Besides praying to our Lord Jesus Christ, we also urge President Bush, God’s ambassador who has always been concerned about the SCC case in China, to give us support", the SCC added in the letter "so that China can become a country of our Lord Jesus Christ as soon as possible."
Among others arrested in recent weeks are Bishop Julius Jia Zhiguo, a leader in the underground Roman Catholic Church, who was detained November 8 for the eighth time in the past two years.
Another underground priest, Yang Jianwei, and 10 seminarians were detained four days later. Earlier this month, Cai Zhuohua, a Protestant pastor who lacks official sanction,was sentenced to three years in prison for printing and distributing Bibles and other Christian books.
CHURCHES CLOSED
China ordered churches across the country closed during the Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s. The ban ended in the late 1970s, but churches have to submit to government regulation.
Human rights groups believe however that most of China’s estimated 80-million Christians worship in underground ‘house churches’ named this way as they are not allowed to gather openly in buildings.
President Bush, known as a ‘born again’ Christian, said Sunday, November 20, he pressed his Chinese counterpart Hu for fairer treatment of non-governmental charity organizations that operate in China and suggested that the Chinese invite the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, and Roman Catholic leaders to China to discuss religious freedom.
"May God Bless the Christians of China," President Bush reportedly wrote in the visitor’s book of Gangwashi Church in Beijing. (With BosNewsLife News Center, BosNewsLife Research and reports from China).
