Refugee Review Tribunal AUSTRALIA

RRT RESEARCH RESPONSE

Research Response Number: CHN35450 Country: Date: 25 September 2009

Keywords: China – – Christians – Underground churches

This response was prepared by the Research & Information Services Section of the Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT) after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the RRT within time constraints. This response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. This research response may not, under any circumstance, be cited in a decision or any other document. Anyone wishing to use this information may only cite the primary source material contained herein.

Question

1. Can you tell me about any recent events regarding adverse treatment of Christians or underground churches in Guangdong?

RESPONSE

1. Can you tell me about any recent events regarding adverse treatment of Christians or underground churches in Guangdong?

The information provided in response to this question has been organised into the following three sections: • Liangren Church & Pastor Wang Dao; • Other; and • China.

Liangren Church & Pastor Wang Dao

The China Aid Association reports that on the morning of 14 December 2008, Liangren Church in City, Guangdong was raided during a Sunday Service by more than 50 people from the State Administration of Religious Affairs (SARA) and the Public Security Bureau. During the raid, the officials “took compulsory measures on the persons and properties of the citizens such as registering computers and seizing their property.” For details of the raid please see Attachment 1. Pastor Wang Dao, head of Liangren Church was summoned to Chigang Police Station of Haizhu between 7:30pm and 9:45pm on the same day for investigation. The China Aid Association notes that this is the third time Pastor Wang Dao has been summoned to a police station in Guangzhou in 2008 (China Aid Association 2008, ‘Liangren House Church Speaks Out About Raid’, 18 December http://www.chinaaid.org/qry/page.taf?id=105&_function=detail&sbtblct_uid1=11

1 02&_nc=2dd7f4fb0d49d99189a24d054098ffac – Accessed 22 September 2009 – Attachment 1).

The China Aid Association provides the following background information on Liangren Church:

Liangren Church of Guangzhou was founded on July 17, 2005 after the “Home of College Students” in the college town of Guangzhou was searched and its possessions were confiscated. Since then, it has grown to its present size. It is a house church made up mainly of college students and young intellectuals. We have been adhering to the road of true “Three- Self” ideals -- self-propagation, self-governance and self-support of house churches. We adhere to evangelicalism and are opposed to liberal theology. Little did we know that we would attract the attention of the public security agency after we sent co-workers to the disaster areas in Sichuan following the earthquake in May of this year. The public security agencies investigated us for three or four months, and finally we were raided (China Aid Association 2008, ‘Liangren House Church Speaks Out About Raid’, 18 December http://www.chinaaid.org/qry/page.taf?id=105&_function=detail&sbtblct_uid1=110 2&_nc=2dd7f4fb0d49d99189a24d054098ffac – Accessed 22 September 2009 – Attachment 1).

During the raid a “Notice of Administrative Penalty” was issued:

Because you organized and held religious activities at a site not approved for religious activities (Second floor, No. 11 of Yiyuan Road, Haizhu District) on the morning of December 14, 2008, pursuant to Article 43 of the “Regulations on Religious Affair,” this bureau imposes on you the penalty of ordering you to stop the activities. If you have objections to the penalty from this bureau, you may apply for administrative reconsideration at Haizhu District People’s Government or apply for litigation at the People’s Court within 15 days (China Aid Association 2008, ‘Notification of Administrative Penalty by RAB of Haizhu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong against Liang’, 31 December http://www.chinaaid.org/qry/page.taf?id=105&_function=detail&sbtblct_uid1=111 6&_nc=2dd7f4fb0d49d99189a24d054098ffac – Accessed 22 September 2009 – Attachment 2).

BosNewsLife reports that on 18 December 2008, Pastor Wang Dao filed an administrative lawsuit against SARA. Haizhu District People’s Court accepted the lawsuit. China Aid Association told BosNewsLife that “house church Christians across China, are watching to see how the court will response in this case, which could set a precedent for other cases of persecution.” A press release by the China Aid Association dated 21 September 2009 reports that in “recent months, the court has rejected two appeals for the reinstatement” of Liangren Church (‘China Court Case Against Officials Banning Worship Services’ 2008, BosNewsLife, 31 December http://www.bosnewslife.com/4759-china-court-case-against-officials-banning- worship-services – Accessed 22 September 2009 – Attachment 3; and China Aid Association 2009, ‘Threats Continue Against Pastor of Liangren Church’, 21 September http://www.chinaaid.org/qry/page.taf?id=105&_function=detail&sbtblct_uid1=12 90&month=09&year=2009&_nc=02c9b125df0e4a79dd8c7455425a759b – Accessed 22 September 2009 – Attachment 4).

According to the China Aid Association, “The upcoming 60th Anniversary of the PRC has led to an increasing persecution to house churches in Guangzhou and other provinces.” The China Aid Association provides recent information on the treatment of Pastor Wang Dao:

2 At noon on September 3, 2009, the administrative reconsideration office in notified Pastor Wang Dao of Guangzhou Liangren Church that the Guanzhou court had ruled in favor of his application for reconsideraton on behalf of the church, and requested he come to the office to pick up the award. At 5:00 PM, four public security officials came to his home in Donghai Garden Community, and requested that he join them for an investigation in Luoxi Police station. They claimed they were from Guangzhou Bureau of Public Security, but when Pastor Wang demanded they show him the warrant of investigation, they could not furnish one. Instead, they instructed him to “lighten up,” claiming they just “wanted to talk.” The security officials then took Pastor Wang to the residential police office and “conversed” with him for two hours.

According to Pastor Wang, the men were primarily interested in the details surrounding his signing the Chinese Christians Statement on 20th Anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre, released earlier in June. They further threatened him: as his “friends” they urged him to think about wife and children, “You will have to consider your future and security.” Pastor Wang refused to succumb to the intimidation; he thanked them for their concern, but asserted, “Since I follow Jesus and am determined to be a servant of God, I have prepared myself for those consequences.” The officials did not release him until 8:00 PM that night.

The next day, a government official from Zhuhai called and woke Pastor Wang at 8:00 AM, informing him that the staff needed to reschedule the time for Pastor Wang to pick up the award to the church. She said she would be out of the office and would contact him with a new time in few days. One week later, Wang’s attorney received her note, stating the court had postponed the ruling on the appeal until late September. After two previous rejections, this final delay ironically pushed the appeal back beyond the two-month time limit to legally apply for an administrative reconsideration.

At noon on September 15, 2009, Pastor Wang learned that the Guangzhou police had driven 700 miles to his brother’s home in Guangxi to investigate Wang’s residential identity card, the ID required for all Chinese citizens. Pastor Wang perceives this to be the latest act of revenge against him for irritating the Guangzhou PSB with his appeals on behalf of the church (China Aid Association 2009, ‘Threats Continue Against Pastor of Liangren Church’, 21 September http://www.chinaaid.org/qry/page.taf?id=105&_function=detail&sbtblct_uid1=12 90&month=09&year=2009&_nc=02c9b125df0e4a79dd8c7455425a759b – Accessed 22 September 2009 – Attachment 4).

Other

An article dated 31 July 2008 in the Christian magazine, Charisma reports that Dennis Balcombe, Pastor of ’s Revival Christian Church “tells of a growing church in Guangdong province that now comprises several congregations.” According to Balcombe, “From time to time the group would get too big – 60, 80, 100 people – and the police know what’s going on, so they’d come by and say, ‘You’d better split your group up now’” (Brookes, Adrian 2008, ‘China’s Emerging Church’, Charisma Magazine, 31 July http://www.charismamag.com/index.php/features2/651-revival-in-asia/17478-chinas- emerging-church?format=pdf – Accessed 22 September 2009 – Attachment 5).

Christianity Solidarity Worldwide and the China Aid Association report that on 12 November 2007, Guangzhou Municipal Administrative Bureau for Industry and Commerce revoked the business licence of the Enoch Group. One of the grounds given was the distribution of Christian materials. The owners and a number of staff members were arrested:

3 Daniel and Eliza Ng are naturalised Australians who were born in Hong Kong and are of Chinese descent. As the owners of Enoch Group, Mr and Mrs Ng have worked in China for over twenty years, using business opportunities to serve the Chinese people. A government investigation into their business began on 21 August 2007. On 12 November Guangzhou Municipal Administrative Bureau for Industry and Commerce issued a ‘Notice of Hearing’ announcing that the business licence of the company was revoked. Among the grounds given was that Guangzhou Enoch distributed Christian materials which did not have an approval code from the State. Questioning has focused on religious activities rather than business matters. Interviewees have been beaten. Three members of staff have been detained: Ms Lin Chunmei and Ms Chen Guichan were placed under criminal detention on 29 October and Ms Zhang Qiao was arrested on 7 November. Mr and Mrs. Ng were put under house arrest in Guangzhou on 12 October for 13 days. They were subsequently allowed to travel in China but are not permitted to leave the country. The multimillion dollar company has been closed (Christian Solidarity Worldwide & China Aid Association 2008, China: Persecution of Protestant Christians in the Approach to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, June, pp.9-10 – Attachment 6).

China

For recent, general information on the situation of Christians in China please see: • US Commission on International Religious Freedom 2009, ‘China’, Annual Report 2009, May, pp.73-74 & 77-79 – Attachment 7:

In the year leading up to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the Chinese government placed severe restrictions on the peaceful religious activity of Uighur Muslims and increased the number of arrests and detentions of unregistered Protestants, Catholics, Tibetan Buddhist, and Falun Gong adherents. These restrictions have not been lifted in the months following the Olympics.

• US Congressional-Executive Commission on China 2008, Annual Report 2008, 31 October, p.73, Catholicism pp.77-79 & Protestantism pp.82-84 – Attachment 8:

Religious repression and persecution as detailed by the Commission in all previous Annual Reports persisted during this reporting year and intensified in the run-up to and during the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games. In the past year, religious adherents remained subject to tight controls over their religious activities, and some citizens met with harassment, detention, imprisonment, and other abuses because of their religious or spiritual practices.

• US Department of State 2008, International Religious Freedom Report 2008 – China, 19 September – Attachment 9:

During the period covered by this report, officials continued to scrutinize, and in some cases, harass unregistered religious and spiritual groups. In some areas government officials abused the rights of members of unregistered Protestant and Catholic groups…

List of Sources Consulted

Internet Sources: Government Information & Reports Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada http://www.irb-cisr.gc.ca/en/ UK Home Office http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/ US Commission on International Freedom http://www.uscirf.gov/

4 US Congressional-Executive Commission on China http://www.cecc.gov/ US Department of State http://www.state.gov/ United Nations (UN) UNHCR Refworld http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/rsd Non-Government Organisations Amnesty International http://www.amnesty.org/ Human Rights Watch http://www.hrw.org/ Topic Specific Links Aid to the Church in Need http://www.aidtochurch.org/ Amity News Service http://www.amitynewsservice.org/ AsiaNews http://www.asianews.it/ BosNewsLife http://www.bosnewslife.com/ Cardinal Kung Foundation http://www.cardinalkungfoundation.org/ Catholic Citizens http://www.catholiccitizens.org/ China Aid Association http://chinaaid.org/ Christian Science Monitor http://www.csmonitor.com/ Christian Solidarity Worldwide http://www.csw.org.uk/ Forum 18 http://www.forum18.org/ Holy Spirit Study Centre http://www.hsstudyc.org.hk/ International Christian Concern http://www.persecution.org/ UCA News http://www.ucanews.com/ Voice of the Martyrs, Australia http://www.persecution.com.au/ Worthy News http://worthynews.com/ Zenit http://www.zenit.org/ Search Engines Google http://www.google.com.au/

Databases: FACTIVA (news database) BACIS (DIAC Country Information database) REFINFO (IRBDC (Canada) Country Information database) ISYS (RRT Research & Information database, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, US Department of State Reports) RRT Library Catalogue

List of Attachments

1. China Aid Association 2008, ‘Liangren House Church Speaks Out About Raid’, 18 December http://www.chinaaid.org/qry/page.taf?id=105&_function=detail&sbtblct_uid1 =1102&_nc=2dd7f4fb0d49d99189a24d054098ffac – Accessed 22 September 2009.

2. China Aid Association 2008, ‘Notification of Administrative Penalty by RAB of Haizhu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong against Liang’, 31 December http://www.chinaaid.org/qry/page.taf?id=105&_function=detail&sbtblct_uid1 =1116&_nc=2dd7f4fb0d49d99189a24d054098ffac – Accessed 22 September 2009.

3. ‘China Court Case Against Officials Banning Worship Services’ 2008, BosNewsLife, 31 December http://www.bosnewslife.com/4759-china-court-case-against-officials-banning- worship-services – Accessed 22 September 2009.

5 4. China Aid Association 2009, ‘Threats Continue Against Pastor of Liangren Church’, 21 September http://www.chinaaid.org/qry/page.taf?id=105&_function=detail&sbtblct_uid1 =1290&month=09&year=2009&_nc=02c9b125df0e4a79dd8c7455425a759b – Accessed 22 September 2009.

5. Brookes, Adrian 2008, ‘China’s Emerging Church’, Charisma Magazine, 31 July http://www.charismamag.com/index.php/features2/651-revival-in-asia/17478-chinas- emerging-church?format=pdf – Accessed 22 September 2009.

6. Christian Solidarity Worldwide & China Aid Association 2008, China: Persecution of Protestant Christians in the Approach to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, June.

7. US Commission on International Religious Freedom 2009, ‘China’, Annual Report 2009, May.

8. US Congressional-Executive Commission on China 2008, Annual Report 2008, 31 October.

9. US Department of State 2008, International Religious Freedom Report 2008 – China, 19 September.

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