Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1615936,00.html#ixzz0WlG55PMQ

CAA (Midland, Texas)-June 29, 2005

Nationwide Crackdown on House Churches in China; Numerous Leaders Arrested; Renown Beijing Church Leader Trial Delayed Again

CAA has received several credible reports from China that a nationwide campaign against unregistered house churches is underway. Numerous house churches have been raided in recent weeks, hundreds were arrested and many are still in prison.

At approximately 8am, June 24th, 2005, while house church leader, Pastor Chen Dongming ( 陈东明 ) was leading a church leadership training meeting at his home in Hezhai Village ( 河寨村 ), Xingkou Town ( 邢口镇 ), Qi County ( 淇县 ), Henan Province, more than 50 Chinese police and public security officials raided and searched his house without a search warrant. About 100 pastors from several major cities including Kaifeng( 开封市 ), Xinxiang ( 新乡市 ) and Jiaozuo City ( 焦作市 ) were taken away and detained at Qi County Detention Center. Most of the pastors were released at approximately 6pm the same day after intensive interrogations. Nine of them, including Pastor Chen Dongming, Pastor Wei and Pastor Jin whose first names are not available, are still jailed. According to eyewitnesses, in the early morning of June 24, more than 50 plain clothed security officers from local Public Security offices surrounded the entire village with three large trucks and many police cars and proceeded immediately to Pastor Chen's house. After bursting into the building the security officers conducted thorough body searches of each of the pastors - both men and women. Private property including cash, chairs, TVs, books, blankets and rice were confiscated and carried away by the police trucks. One pastor who was released said they were accused of "engaging in an illegal religious gathering."

Meanwhile, according to China Aid investigators from different areas inside China, June 3rd, 2005, Chinese boarder control guards detained 34 house church Christians at a customs office called Kashi between China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Pakistan. According to one house church leader who is familiar with this team, all of the 34 Christians were holding legitimate passports and visas from Pakistan. They were arrested when one of them revealed they are Christian missionaries. Most of them were released after serving 15-days in administrative detention centers in their respective hometowns - these include Henan, Hebei, Shandong and others. All of the 34 are now on the run for fear of further repercussion from the Chinese authorities. CAA also learned several hundred house church Christians were detained at Xingjiang Construction Military Corps which consists of a number of large paramilitary units. It was sent by the Chinese Communist Party in the 1950’s to suppress the so-called “rebellious Muslims” who resisted the Communist brutal occupation there. After the successful suppression, these units along with their families were ordered to reside there for civilian work. Many have become Christians and secretly hold house church worship services at their homes. According to a representative of one group of house churches there, since 2002 the local authority is increasingly suppressing them with punitive measures such as welfare deduction, arbitrary fines and imprisonment if they are found "believing a religion."

May 24th, three female house church believers were arrested by four PSB officers at Yiyang County, Henan Province while visiting a Christian leader’s home . Ms. Liu Lianying, Ms. Xue Haimiao and Ms. Zhang Xiulan were all released after 10, 28 and 31 hours of intensive interrogation respectively, at Yiyang County Detention center. None of them were given or shown any arrest warrants or release papers. They were accused of “attending a religious black hole” which refers to house churches there. According to an eyewitness report, the three women were brutally beaten. Ms. Liu Lianying was released earlier because the beatings caused her to suffer a heart attack.

May 13th, twenty house church leaders were arrested while conducting a bible training class at Pinglu County, Shanxi Province. Among them, two well-known local house church leaders, Pastor Zhang Guangmin and Elder Li(who is a resident from Yuncheng city. After releasing most of the participants the same day, Pastor Zhang and Elder Li were released after serving a detention term of two weeks and one month respectively at Pinglu County Detention center.

CAA also confirms that Beijing House church Pastor Cai Zhuohua’s trial date has been indefinitely postponed after it was originally scheduled for mid-June. According to a reliable source, the presiding judge from the People’s Court of Haidian District, Mr. You Tao, ( telephone number +86-10-62697101) recently informed Pastor Cai’s mother of this decision by telephone. Pastor Cai’s mother has taken care of his 6-year-old son since the arrest of Pastor Cai and his wife and two other relatives last September. According to a copy of the prosecution papers obtained by CAA, Pastor Cai, his wife Ms. Xiao Yunfei and Xiao’s brother will be prosecuted on the grounds of “illegal business management” and for allegedly printing over 200,000 copies of Christian literature. Because of Pastor Cai’s pastoral leadership at a Beijing house church, five prominent lawyers volunteered to defend Pastor Cai. All five lawyers believe this is a case of religious persecution under the pretext of “illegal business management.” Among them, professor Fan Yafeng is currently an associate researcher at the Institute of Studies on Law in China’s Academy of Social Sciences which is the top government think tank. According to a credible source, the government has put mounting pressure on Cai’s lawyers to discourage them from defending Cai.

Because this occurred prior to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, this case has attracted international attention. It’s widely believed that the delay is a tactic that may give the government time to coordinate damage control once a verdict is pronounced. The raided house churches are independent house churches with thousands of believers who choose not to register their Christian activities with the Communist government.

“This is actually just the tip of the iceberg. China has been proclaiming to the international community that Chinese people are enjoying a golden time of religious freedom, this series of nationwide assaults on unregistered house churches does not support this claim.” said Bob Fu, CAA president. “This is also a wakeup call to the world community that it’s time to seriously reconsider its appeasing policies toward the issue of China’s religious freedom.”

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61 Chinese Women Undergo Forced Abortion in 2 Days at Youjiang Hospital

After aid organization publicizes atrocities, security officers surround hospital wing

By Meg Jalsevac

GUANGXI, CHINA, April 20, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Over the course of 24 hours on April 17 and 18, at least 61 mothers were forced to undergo the murder of their unborn baby at the order of China’s infamous Population and Family Planning Commission according to a report by the China Aid Association (CAA).  The involuntary abortions were part of a forced abortion campaign currently taking place in the Chinese province of Guangxi. 

China’s population policy allows couples to bear one child and only permits a second if the first child is a girl or is handicapped.

Despite the China’s government assurance that they do not condone such forceful policies and campaigns, coerced abortion and sterilization are not uncommon in the communist nation, especially in certain rural areas.  Bowing to international pressure in 2002, China claims that violence and coercion is no longer used to implement their family planning policies; the new law states that only financial “incentives” such as monetary fines of up to a year’s wages, can be used to induce compliance.

However, as previously reported in LifeSiteNews.com, Time Magazine published a report in 2005 describing a similar abortion campaign in the Shadong Province as “one of the most brutal sterilization campaigns of recent years.”  The Time report went on to describe, in detail, the killing of a full-term baby against the will of her mother.

Amnesty International also released a report in 2005 stating, “Serious violations against women and girls continued to be reported as a result of the enforcement of the family planning policy, including forced abortions and sterilizations.”

The recent atrocities in Guangxi were reported to CAA by eye-witnesses.  The witnesses explained that throughout the course of the day on April 17, officials from the office of Population and Family Planning Commission dragged 41 pregnant women to the Youjiang District People's Hospital of Baise City to undergo coerced abortions.  The witnesses further reported that at least 20 pregnant women were forced to the same hospital the next day to undergo similar procedures.

One of the women, Ms. Linrong Wei, the wife of a Christian pastor, was 7 months pregnant with a baby that was conceived ‘accidentally’.  Once at the hospital, Ms. Wei was administered an injection to induce delivery followed by two more injections to kill the child.   According to CAA’s sources, Ms. Wei gave birth early the next morning to a dead little boy.    

Two beds down, Ms. He Caigan was nine months pregnant and had also been dragged into the hospital against her will.  Hospital personnel injected her full-term baby’s head and 20 minutes later her baby stopped moving inside her and died. 

A Church leader who was able to visit the women told CAA that the so-called “illegal pregnant women” were forced to wait for the injection by lying in a bed in the hospital hallway.

Family planning officials informed the women’s families that the babies would be delivered and would most likely die within 24 hours of birth.  Faithful across the city were praying that the babies born alive would be removed from the hospital before officials had the opportunity to kill them.  

After CAA released the details of the atrocities taking place in the Guangxi province hospital, witnesses said that Public Security Bureau officers were dispatched to surround and secure the hospital. 

CAA also reported that a pregnant woman in the Shadong Province is similarly experiencing intense pressure from Family Planning officials to abort her unborn child.

Established in 2002, CAA is a non-profit organization which, according to its website, was founded “with a mission to explore the truth, to tell the truth and to preserve the truth on the issue of religious freedom in China, particularly focusing on the fate of the unofficial church.” 

CAA is urging individuals in the international community to protest these happenings through letters and phone calls to:
 
Chairman Wei Qing Zhang, National Population and Family Planning Commission of China 
Hotline for complaints: +86-10-8250492
 
Phone line to report criminal activities of family planning officials: +86-10-82504933
Address: No. 14, Zhichun Lu
               Haidian District, Beijing, PRC 100008
      CHINA
Email: gjjsw@chinapop.gov.cn(e-mail address hidden)
 
Youjiang District People's Hospital:
Tel: +86-776-2839393; 2697723(office)
 
Party Secretary of Guangxi Province: Mr. Liu Qibao
Tel: +86-771-5883508
 
Governor of Guangxi Province: Mr. Bing Lu
Tel: +86-771-2807778
 
Party Secretary of Baise City Mr. Liang Chunlu
Tel: +86-776-2834089
Address: No. 13 Xiangyang Street,
    Baise city, Guangxi, CHINA

Read Previous LifeSiteNews Coverage:

Infanticide, Forced Abortions and Sterilizations in China’s Linyi Province
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/sep/05091605.html

Forced Abortion Still A Reality in China Says New Amnesty Report
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/may/05052706.html

Chinese Woman Falls to Her Death Fleeing Forced Abortion of Twins
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/jul/06070405.html

http://www.tibet.org/Activism/Rights/birthcontrol.html

Birth Control Policies In Tibet

The abuse of Tibetan women goes beyond torture and ill-treatment into the sensitive area of birth control. Not only do they face numerous pressures from the Chinese authorities to limit the number of their children, possibly to one, but there is growing evidence that women are being forced to have abortions and sterilisations.

Birth Control Policy

The People's Republic of China (PRC) launched, in the 1970's, its third birth control campaign (after largely unsuccessful efforts in the previous two decades). The goal by 1978 was for China's population to be under 1.2 billion people in the year 2000. This was to be achieved by the "one family, one child policy". This 1.2 billion target was in fact reached in early 1995.

Officially, the "one child" policy covers only "nationalities" in China with over 10 million members. Tibet, with a population of 5 to 6 million, is regarded as a "minority nationality" and is in theory, exempt from the provisions of family planning legislation. In practice, birth control has been actively promoted in Tibetan towns since the early-1980s (Tibet Information Network [TIN] Survey of Birth Control Policies in Tibet; March 1994; p.1). According to the report, the Chinese Government "encourages" the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) to comply with the official Chinese birth planning policy, promoting it through work units and birth control clinics. Since the late-1980s in the TAR and since the mid-1980s in eastern Tibet, the authorities have progressively extended the range and impact of birth control policies (1994 TIN Survey; p.4). An article in China's Population News described the relaxation of family planning on account of "ethnic customs" as an "absolutely untenable proposition". Almost immediately, birth control in Tibet was tightened, imposing on the Tibetans a punitive family planning programme which has led to reports of abortions, sterilisations and infanticide (Tears of Blood: A Cry for Tibet, Mary Craig, 1992; p.308).

Birth control policy was already in force in towns in the TAR in 1985, or three years earlier by some accounts. This was at a time when Beijing claimed such regulations did not apply to minority non-Chinese citizens. The statement was phrased, however, so as not to include Tibetans living outside the TAR, who have certainly been subject to birth controls since around 1982 (1994 TIN Survey; p.3).

In Ganze, a Tibetan Prefecture within Sichuan Province, the birth control regulations show that Tibetan farmers and nomads there had been limited by law since at least 1989, and probably earlier, to a maximum of three children.

In China's White Paper on Tibet, the Government said that the two-child policy had been in force in towns in the TAR since 1984 (1994 TIN Survey; p.3). Sterilisation was also compulsory in certain situations. The May 1992 TAR Birth Control Regulations stated that Tibetans in towns are allowed only two children as long as the mother is at least 22 when she has the first child, and 25 when she has the second. The 1992 regulations, which are much more severe than the 1985 guidelines and imply the use of force, also extend birth control to Tibetans living in the countryside; (the 1985 document only applied to town dwellers). The 1992 regulations state that Tibetans in the TAR who live "in the heart" of the countryside are encouraged not to have more than three children (TIN News Compilation Mar-Sep 1992, 1992; pp.22-23).

Tibetans have spoken of local officials implementing regulations and punishments even more severe than those in the 1992 regulations. A Tibetan doctor has spoken of a one child per woman limit for Tibetans in her Qinghai area.(TIN 2/10/92).

The threat of enforced abortion or sterilisation is heightened by the emphatic tone of the current 'Five Year Plan' for Tibet which calls on local leaders to implement the birth planning quotas' and says that they need 'strength, resources and administrative means' (TIN 2/10/92).

Abortion and Sterilisation

Abortion is common in Tibet not just because of a lack of contraceptive technology but also because the authorities openly prefer the 'combined method' , a policy that deploys contraception or abortion to limit births (1994 TIN Survey; p.17). For urban women, there are strong incentives to have only one child, and to then abort any others or get sterilised. Women who comply receive bonuses which include an initial payment of 50 yuan followed by five yuan every month. Other incentives include priority for goods, job promotions, and free medical treatment for the child until they are 18 (Determination; Tibetan Women and the Struggle for an Independent Tibet, Carol Devine, 1993; p.70). Job penalties apply to uncooperative women. Given these alternatives, women appear to have little choice about abortion.

There are frequent first-hand accounts by refugees of abortions being carried out. Tashi Drolma, whose own second child was forcibly aborted, was one of four Tibetan doctors at an Amdo hospital, all of whom left their jobs in obstetrics in protest against the inhumanity of the birth control policies. A refugee from a village near Shigatse told the Dalai Lama that a Chinese doctor had admitted to her that in order to fulfil his quota of abortions he was forced to kill the new-born (Craig; p.309).

By 1990, 3% of the 600,000 Tibetan women of child-bearing age in the TAR had "volunteered for sterilisation operations"; most if not all of these lived in towns. It is unlikely, however, that all these sterilisations were voluntary (1994 TIN Survey; p19). While the law does not specifically demand abortions or the use of surgical controls, the effect of the law in practice, with its use of fines and other punishments, is that many women may feel forced to accept abortions and sterilisations. There have also been allegations of physical force. Mobile teams have been sent out to countryside areas for abrupt one-off sterilisation and abortion campaigns from as early as 1986. Monks in Amdo have spoken of such a group in 1987 working from a birth-control tent beside their monastery. Women who refused to attend were forcibly operated upon (International Physicians for Human Rights, Tibetan Bulletin July/ August 1991).

In April 1994, five hundred Tibetan women protested in New Delhi against forced sterilisation and abortion programmes launched by the Chinese authorities in their homeland. They claimed sterilisation was practised "under coercion and subterfuge", and that women giving birth to a second or even first child without possessing a "certified to bear children" permit were often liable to have their baby killed at birth by injection.

Human rights groups come to different conclusions about charges of coercive birth control policies in Tibet. The 1994 TIN survey argues that the evidence available is not conclusive. Dr. John Aird ( in "Slaughter of the Innocents" 1990) concludes that 'coercion has been an integral part of Chinese family planning', especially since 1979. Certainly, no Tibetan government cadre has ever been punished for the recognised cases of coercion. There is no express prohibition of forced abortions in provincial family planning regulations and Beijing's delegation of power to 'autonomous' regions like Tibet allows it to disapprove publicly of forced birth control (see China's White Paper on Tibet 1992), while tacitly encouraging it.

Fines and Punishment

The birth control regulations imposed on Tibetans affect both parents and children. Aside from complex regulations controlling how many children Tibetans can have, there are a series of fines and punishments for couples who break the rules and have an unauthorised child.

Ordinary Tibetans are allowed two children, employees of the state only one. In China's White Paper on Tibet, fines and punishments for urban Tibetans who exceeded the birth control quota were extended to all Tibetan residents of towns, whether or not they were government employees. In the May 1992 TAR Birth Control Regulations, an urban Tibetan couple who have an unauthorised child are fined at least 500 yuan - about three months income for a government employee, or a year's income for a farmer. The fine is 300 yuan if one of the couple does not have a "stable profession". Neither partner is then eligible for promotion, wage rises or bonuses for two years. The fine for a second illegal Tibetan child is 1,000 yuan for an employed couple, or 600 yuan for couples with no "stable profession". Families outside the state system who exceed the two-child threshold have to pay heavily. Fines can be as high as 8,000 yuan, about 10 or 15 times the average rural income, for an unauthorised child (1994 TIN Survey; pp.19-20).

Under the regulations, children can be denied residence, food rations or even schooling. Tashi Drolma explained that when her mother's cousin had a third child, the penalty did not stop at a huge fine. "When he [the child] is six, he will be barred from receiving an education and will not be given a food ration card. The family will have to share their own rations with him, and in addition pay 500 yuan a year as a penalty tax". (Craig; p.245) The Chinese working and living in Tibet are normally allowed only one child, so they officially have it worse than Tibetans. The fines are also much higher - 3,000 yuan for the first unauthorised child, 5,000 yuan for the second. Administrative punishments such as bans on promotion and salary cuts are greater, and there is compulsory sterilisation. Fines must be looked at though in the context of higher Chinese wages. Also, the Chinese may have greater access to officials who will interpret favourably the complex rules (1994 TIN Survey; pp.19-20).

Ideology of Birth Control: Eugenics

Underpinning China's birth control policy is an ideological conviction that national minorities are "racially inferior". Since 1988 its controversial eugenics plan to raise 'population quality' has been particularly directed at national minorities, including Tibetans. The presentation of the Draft National Law on Eugenics in December 1993, combined with the unsubstantiated announcement of high numbers of mentally defective Tibetans, indicates China's strong intention to apply eugenic controls on Tibetans in the future. It is also likely that there will be even more limits on the number of children. In a ministerial statement the minorities were identified as one of the groups responsible for the "inferior quality births" which China aims to stop. This new law, if implemented, is likely to lead to stricter and possibly more discriminatory birth control regulations in Tibet (1994 TIN Survey; pp.3-4).

FURTHER READING: Tibet Facts 2 (Chinese Population Transfer)
Tibet Facts 13 (Role of Women in Protest Movement)

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All attempts to discuss Tibet are bedevilled by the Chinese redefinition of the country's borders since 1949. Tibet Support Group UK uses the term Tibet to refer to the three original provinces of U Tsang, Kham and Amdo (sometimes called Greater Tibet). When the Chinese refer to Tibet they invariably mean the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) which includes only one province, U Tsang (the TAR was formally inaugurated in 1965). In 1949 the other two provinces, Amdo and Kham, were renamed by the Chinese as parts of China proper and became the province of Qinghai and parts of Sichuan, Gansu and Yunnan provinces.

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Tibet Support Group UK campaigns for the right of the Tibetan people to decide their own future and for an end to violation of their fundamental rights and freedoms. It is independent of all governments and is funded solely by its members and supporters.

Tibet Support Group UK publishes a series of information sheets under three headings:
Tibet Facts: TSG-authored documents on history, politics etc.,
Tibet File: Source Documents such as government resolutions, official declarations and expert essays,
Tibet Action: Campaign advice.

For a full list of these sheets and other information about our publications please do not hesitate to contact us.

Tibet Support Group UK
9 Islington Green
London N1 2XH
Telephone +44 (0)171 359 7573
Fax +44 (0)171 354 1026
e.mail: tibetsupport@gn.apc.org

http://www.zenit.org/article-19726?l=english

ZE07052417 - 2007-05-24
Permalink: http://www.zenit.org/article-19726?l=english

Chinese Birth-Control Foes Arrested

BEIJING, MAY 24, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Dozens of people in China have been arrested on charges of instigating protests against birth-control measures, a news agency said.

In seven towns in Bobai County, in the Guangxi region, angry protests broke out because of excessive fines and alleged violence against those not in conformity with China's one-child policy, reported www.AsiaNews.it. Twenty-eight people have been arrested, it said.

The Xinhua news agency reported those arrested are charged with "networking, persuading and being involved in damaging properties," saying that they would be punished for the "obvious violation of the law."

In March, local government leaders in Bobai demanded family-planning officials enforce the one-child policy on penalty of jeopardizing their careers.

Officials agree that part of their enforcement included excessive fines that may have triggered the protests, but denied allegations of any forced abortions and violence.

Eyewitnesses maintain that police ransacked homes in order to force people to pay the fines and that forced abortions took place.