Filed under: China | Tags: beijing, China, China Aid, christianity, christians, church, communist, Fengtai, freedom, gospel, Hua HuiQi, human rights, Jesus, pastors, police, prayer, prison, registered, religion, Shanxi, Taiyuan, torture, underground, Voice of the Martyrs, VOM
Voice of the Martyrs put out this on their blog a couple of days ago.
This afternoon, we received a report from our partners at Christian Aid Association telling us how Pastor Hua Huiqi had been beaten and detained by Chinese police on June 4. The following is how Pastor Hua described his experience:
My name is Hua Huiqi. Before June 4 of this year, I went to a church outside Beijing and shared the words of God with some brothers and sisters. On the morning of June 5 when I was transferring trains at Taiyuan Railroad Station, I was arrested by the police officers from Shanxi and Fengtai, Beijing who had been laying in ambush there for a long time. I was taken to the hotel where they were staying. A team leader named Dong from Fengtai District Domestic Security Protection Squad of Beijing roughed me up and slapped me in the face over 10 times. My clothes were ripped open and they beat me for nearly half an hour.
In the meantime, they pinched me on the neck and said: “I’m going to strangle you and I’d like to see whether you can still preach the Gospel. If you go outside the town again, I’ll break your legs.” He also threatened me: “I’m beating you because God tells me to do so. I’ll get all the materials ready in three months and arrest both you and your wife for sentencing.”
I asked him: “What law did we break?”
He said: “Just because you believe in Jesus. Our Domestic Security Protection Squad is specially set up here to suppress you Jesus believers. We don’t allow you to stir up troubles and establish contacts everywhere. You must apply at our Domestic Security Protection Squad when you want to go out. We don’t allow you to get out of our sight. Otherwise, whenever you go out, we’ll beat you once and break your legs.”
On that same afternoon, over 10 police officers escorted me back to Beijing from Taiyuan and detained me in a mountain where they kept guard on me day and night. Later, with prayers from brothers and sisters and appeals by ChinaAid, they escorted me back home on the evening of June 7 and I’m still not free at this moment. I hope brothers and sisters the world over can pray for the Chinese police and beg God to show His grace and let them repent and believe in Jesus. I also hope they pray that we may freely preach Gospel and live a free life.
Member in Christ:
Hua Huiqi
Please uphold Pastor Hua in your prayers as he is receiving treatment at home.
Filed under: North Korea | Tags: China, emergency, family, freedom, fund, government, hunger, medicine, North Korea, prison, rescue, torture, visa
Alpha Relief has just set up an “Emergency Rescue Fund”. This is their description of what it is:
Recently we were in China and heard about two teenage brothers who urgently needed to renew their Chinese visas. They have a Chinese father and North Korean mother. Because their dad is Chinese, China will give them a visa that lets them legally stay in China. But the problem is that the boys don’t have the money to pay for the visas. If they’re forced to leave China and go to North Korea, as believers they are at great risk. Their mother is in prison in North Korea because the government found out she is a Christian. So obviously she can’t help pay for her boys’ visas. Right now she’s suffering in North Korea, hungry, malnourished, and of course dealing with horrific prison conditions. She needs medicine, food and her freedom.
This Emergency Rescue Fund will help in situations like this. Our reaction time in stories like this is extremely important. So with the ERF we will be able to immediately impact the lives of people like this family split up because of persecution.
If you would like to get involved with how Alpha Relief is helping the persecuted church in North Korea, go to their Emergency Rescue Fund.
Filed under: North Korea | Tags: Concentration Camp, David Hawk, detention center, execution, freedom, Gulag, handcuffs, human rights, hunger, North Korea, police, prison, rations, starvation, torture
In order to further describe the labor/re-education camps in North Korea, I’ve taken some excerpts from “The Hidden Gulag” by David Hawk of the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea. You can find this report online at their website.
“There were no public executions during this time at Kwan-li-soNo. 14, but many prisoners died of malnutrition and disease, some twenty-five were executed by guards, and even more died from mining accidents. In one execution, a KIM Chul Min was executed for collecting, without authorization, ripe chestnuts that had fallen to the ground from a tree at the mine entrance. Another hunger-crazed prisoner, KAL Li Yong, died after having his mouth smashed by a feces-covered stick for having stolen a leather whip, soaked it in water, and then ate the softened leather. Kwan-li-so No. 14 Kaechon”
“Rations were meager: only some 450 grams (16 ounces) per day of rice mixed with beans. Many prisoners died in the winter from malnutrition, scabies and other skin diseases, and paratyphoid. Prisoners were beaten by guards. Other infractions and mistakes resulted in longer prison sentences. Those who attempted and failed to escape, or who initially succeeded in escaping but were caught, were brought back for public execution, after which their corpses would be displayed for a day.”
“The torture at Moonsu was particularly severe. Accused of deliberately infiltrating the security service, Kim was forced to kneel for long periods with a wooden bar placed behind and between his knees and calves. He was suspended by his handcuffed wrists from his prison-cell bars, and he was submerged up to his waist for long periods in tanks filled with cold water.”
“CHOI Yong Hwa assisted in the delivery of babies, three of whom were promptly killed, at the Sinuiju do-jip-kyul-so(provincial detention center) in mid-2000.
■ Former Detainee #8 witnessed six forced abortions at Chongjin do-jip-kyul-soin mid-2000.
■ Former Detainee #9 witnessed ten forced abortions at Onsong ro-dong-dan-ryeon-dae(labor-training camp) in mid-2000.
■ YOU Chun Sik reported that four pregnant women at the bo-wi-bu (National Security Agency) police station in Sinuiju were subjected to forced abortions in mid-2000.
■ Former Detainee #21 reported two baby killings at the Onsong In-min-bo-an-seong(People’s Safety Agency) police station in late 1999.
■ Former Detainee #24 helped deliver seven babies who were killed at the Backto-ri, South Sinuiju In-min-bo-an-seongpolice detention center in January 2000.
■ Former Detainee #25 witnessed four babies killed at Nongpo In-min-bo-an-seong police detention center in Chongjin in late 1999, and another six pregnant women subjected to forced abortion.
■ Former Detainee #26 witnessed three forced abortions and seven babies killed at the Nongpo jip-kyul-so(detention center), Chongjin City, in May 2000.”
Filed under: China | Tags: China, christianity, freedom, registered, religion, three self, underground
China:
China is a land with relative religious freedom. We’ll go into this more in-depth as time goes on. But as far as the government is concerned, China has legalized Christianity (or at least several versions of it). The reason they can say this, is because they have sanctioned what are known as “Three Self” churches. “Three Self” is the short description of what the government has deemed the purpose of such churches: “Self governance, self-support, and self-propogation”. Basically what this means is the government can control them, they do not rely on funding or money from others or foreigners, and that they grow indigenously.
China also, however, has what is called the ‘underground church’ AKA ‘house churches’. This demographic actually makes up the huge majority of Christians in China. They refuse to participate in the “Three Self” movement because of certain convictions, and therefore choose to remain illegal, and worship and congregate out of private homes and apartments. House churches can really run any size. Most are the size of however many people can fit into an apartment.
These two divisions of believers in China have been known to approach each other at times with a certain degree of hostility or mistrust; due to the fact that Three-Self Christians think the house churches are breaking the law, while the house churches look at the people who are part of the three-self movement as having “sold out” to the government. Although, that being said, there is word of these believers also working very closely together in harmony and helping each other out.
Needless to say, it is a confusing situation. But Chinese Christianity continues to thrive and grow daily, whether through the registered three-self churches, or through underground means.
