Refugee Review Tribunal

AUSTRALIA

RRT RESEARCH RESPONSE

Research Response Number: CHN30550 Country: China Date: 13 September 2006

Keywords: CHN30550 – China – Christians – Christ Church of Lin Lin – Fuzhou City Detention Centre – Fuqing City

This response was prepared by the Country Research 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.

Questions 1. Is there any information on the House of Christ Church of Lin Lin? 2. Is there any information of arrests of Christians around Fuqing on 15 March 2001? 3. Is there any information on the charge ‘preaching cult’? Is there any information on Fuzhou City Detention Centre? 4. Is there any information on a crackdown on Christians in Fuqing City in June 2005? 5. Is there any up to date information on the persecution of non-Catholic Christians in Fuqing?

RESPONSE

(Note: There is a range of transliteral spelling from non-English languages into English. In this RRT Country Research Response the spelling is as per the primary source document).

1. Is there any information on the House of Christ Church of Lin Lin?

No information was found in the sources consulted on the House of Christ Church of Lin Lin. However, this may refer to Ling Ling Jiao (Spirit-Spirit Sect, also called the Spirit Sect or Spiritual Religion) (The Center for Religious Freedom 2002, Report Analyzing Seven Secret Chinese Government Documents, 11 February, p.21 – Attachment 1; Tang, Edmond 2002, ‘True Jesus Church, the “Spirit-Spirit Sect” and other Pentecostal groups’ in ‘“Yellers” and healers – “Pentecostalism” and the study of grassroots Christianity in China’, Churches’ Commission on Mission, 13-15 September, Churches Together in Britain and Ireland website http://www.ctbi.org.uk/index.php?op=modload&name=knowledge&file=kbasepage&LinkID =148 – Accessed 26 May 2005 – Attachment 2).

(Note: According the Center for Religious Freedom website it is a division of Freedom House based in Washington D.C. It reports on religious persecution of individuals and groups abroad and undertakes advocacy on their behalf (‘About the Center for Religious Freedom’ (undated), Center for Religious Freedom website http://www.freedomhouse.org/religion/about/about.htm – Accessed 8 September 2006 – Attachment 3).

The Center for Religious Freedom noted that the Spirit-Spirit Sect was founded in 1983 by Hua Xuehe, a farmer from Huaiyin Prefecture in Jiangsu Province. Tang writes that the sect may have branched off from the True Jesus Church and was formed around 1985 by True Jesus Church leaders’ Hua Xuehe and Li Guiyao (The Center for Religious Freedom 2002, Report Analyzing Seven Secret Chinese Government Documents, 11 February, p.21 – Attachment 1; Tang, Edmond 2002, ‘True Jesus Church, the “Spirit-Spirit Sect” and other Pentecostal groups’ in ‘“Yellers” and healers – “Pentecostalism” and the study of grassroots Christianity in China’, Churches’ Commission on Mission, 13-15 September, Churches Together in Britain and Ireland website http://www.ctbi.org.uk/index.php?op=modload&name=knowledge&file=kbasepage&LinkID =148 – Accessed 26 May 2005 – Attachment 2).

Tang wrote:

The Pentecostal character of the True Jesus Church is evident from both its historical origins and from its patterns of belief and practice. It is also interesting to observe that a group, which may have branched off from the church, has further heightened these Pentecostal features. The Spirit-Spirit Sect, a poor translation of Ling-ling Jiao, was formed around 1985 in Jiangsu by Hua Xuehe and another True Jesus Church leader, Li Guiyao. The first “spirit” in its name refers to the Holy Spirit, and the second “spirit” – a play on Chinese tones – refers to the “spiritual proof” of the work of the Spirit in the Christian. Members of the group perform “spirit dance” and spontaneous “spirit songs”. Like the True Jesus Church, it is also exclusivist in character, believing that all the older denominations are “ineffective”, and only the by joining the sect can a Christian be saved. It became notorious in the mid-90s when the official seminary in Yunan was closed after an open conflict between the teaching staff who became members of the sect and those who were against. It is now on the list of forbidden “cults” of the Chinese government (Tang, Edmond 2002, ‘True Jesus Church, the “Spirit-Spirit Sect” and other Pentecostal groups’ in ‘“Yellers” and healers – “Pentecostalism” and the study of grassroots Christianity in China’, Churches’ Commission on Mission, 13-15 September, Churches Together in Britain and Ireland website http://www.ctbi.org.uk/index.php?op=modload&name=knowledge&file=kba sepage&LinkID=148 – Accessed 26 May 2005 – Attachment 2).

The Center for Religious Freedom report states that despite the sect’s loose organisation, it has a clearly defined division of work. By 1990 the group had spread to over 13 provinces, autonomous regions and metropolises with over 15,000 members (The Center for Religious Freedom 2002, Report Analyzing Seven Secret Chinese Government Documents, 11 February, p.21 – Attachment 1).

The report continued:

Hua Xuehe claimed that he was “the second Jesus, Christ the Lord”, who is “the second incarnation of Jesus” descending [upon him]. He said “Huaiyin is Jerusalem.”

The Sect advocates that “the end of the world is about to come, that the whole human race will be destroyed, and that only by joining the Spirit Sect can escape from the disaster,” and so causing the believing mass to give up farm labors waiting for “the end of the world”. They also spread the idea that when “a person is sick, it is because the devil has possess him/her; as soon as the devil is exorcized, the person will get well.” Thus they practiced exorcism and healing among the believers, whipping the tied patients and forbidding them to take any medicine and so harming the person. Hua Xuehe and others also deceive the people by saying, “the more you offer, the more peace you will receive and the more grace you will get from the family of God,” and thereby they exacted a large sum of money from the believing mass. After Hua Xuehe was arrested and put into the labor education camp, some of the core members gathered 700 believers to protest, and so seriously disturbing social order. Moreover, this organization also stirred up the believers to oppose the Party and the government and attacked the “Three-Self” Patriotic Church, declaring that “the nation must be ruled by the Gospel,” and that “the Ling-ling section should unify the world.” [Researcher’s Note: The Center has footnoted that the correctness of these descriptions need to be ascertained].

In November 1995, the Notice “Regarding the Banning Shouter Sect and Other Cult Organizations…Issued by Ministry of Public Security’” (ting zi [1995] No.50), dispatched by the General Office of the Central Committee of the CCP and by the General Office of the State Council clearly identified “the Spirit Sect” as cult (The Center for Religious Freedom 2002, Report Analyzing Seven Secret Chinese Government Documents, 11 February, pp.21- 22 – Attachment 1).

The US State Department wrote on a general crackdown on cults and referred to “the Spirit Sect” as follows:

The authorities continued a general crackdown on groups considered to be “cults.” These “cults” included not only Falun Gong and various traditional Chinese meditation and exercise groups (known collectively as qigong groups), but also religious groups that authorities accused of preaching beliefs outside the bounds of officially approved doctrine. Groups that the government labeled cults included Eastern Lightning, the Servants of Three Classes, the Shouters, the South China Church, the Association of Disciples, the Full Scope Church, the Spirit Sect, the New Testament Church, the Way of the Goddess of Mercy, the Lord God Sect, the Established King Church, the Unification Church, and the Family of Love. Authorities accused some in these groups of lacking proper theological training, preaching the imminent coming of the apocalypse or holy war, or exploiting the reemergence of religion for personal gain. The Eastern Lightning group was accused by the government and some other unregistered Christian groups of involvement in violence (US Department of State 2006, ‘Freedom of Religion’ in Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2005 – China, 8 March – Attachment 4).

Attached is further information on:

• the True Jesus Church (RRT Country Research 2005, Research Response CHN17352, 7 June, quest.1/pp.2-3 – Attachment 5); and • house churches (Kindopp, Jason 2004, ‘Fragmented yet Defiant: Protestant Resilience under Chinese Communist Party Rule’ in Kindopp, Jason and Hamrin, Carol Lee (eds), God and Caesar in China, Brookings Institution Press, Washington D.C., pp.133-137 – Attachment 6).

2. Is there any information of arrests of Christians around Fuqing on 15 March 2001?

(Note: Fuqing (also known by its local name of Rongcheng – Fuqing is the Mandarin version) is in Fujian province approximately 40kms south of the provincial capital Fuzhou. The attached map shows the location of Rongcheng (‘Rongcheng’ 2000, Microsoft Encarta Interactive Atlas 2000 – Attachment 7)).

No information was found in the sources consulted on arrests of Christians around Fuqing about 15 March 2001.

Information of arrests of Christians in Fujian during 2001 is outlined in the attached RRT Country Research Response CHN15645. The response includes information on the arrest of three people on 31 May 2001 for transporting Bibles to Fuqing (RRT Country Research 2002, Research Response CHN15645, 23 December, quest.2/p.8 – Attachment 8).

3. Is there any information on the charge ‘preaching cult’?

In October 1999 an anti-cult law was passed specifying prison terms of three to seven years for cult members disrupting public order or distributing publications. Leaders and recruiters may be sentenced to seven or more years in prison. Fourteen Christian groups have been declared “evil cults”, including the LingLing Sect. Information on the anti-cult law is in:

• RRT Country Research 2001, Research Response CHN14548, 19 March, pp.4-6 – Attachment 9.

Two documents found refer to “preaching cult”:

• The Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the United States of America states that:

On December 26, 1999, the Intermediate People’s Court of Beijing sentenced four key members of Falun Gong to imprisonment on charges of undermining the law, causing death as a result of preaching cult, and illegally obtaining state secrets (‘Decisive Victory Achieved in Fighting Against Falun Gong’ 2000, Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the United States of America website,14 May http://www.china- embassy.org/eng//sgxx/sggg/sstx/2000/t35059.htm – Accessed 7 September 2006 – Attachment 10.

• The Committee for Investigation on Persecution of Religion in China (CIPRC) reported the arrest and detention of a female evangelist “under the charge of “preaching cult”” (‘A Catholic Evangelist Sentenced to One Year in Labor Camp under the Charge of “Preaching Cult”’ (undated), Committee for Investigation on Persecution of Religion in China website http://www.china21.org/English/News/2004/122704.htm – Accessed 7 September 2006 – Attachment 11). (Note: The CIPRC’s website states that it is a non-profit organisation based in New York consisting of “thousands of Christians called upon by God most of whom are secretly investigating and collecting information on religious persecution in China” (‘Introduction’ (undated), Committee for Investigation on Persecution of Religion in China website http://www.china21.org/English/docs/Intro-final.htm – Accessed 7 September 2006 – Attachment 12).

4. Is there any information on Fuzhou City Detention Centre?

No information was found in the sources consulted on a “Fuzhhou City Detention Centre”. However, a Falun Gong source refers to a “Fuzhou Detention Center” in which a practitioner was detained. No other information was found in the sources consulted on the Fuzhou Detention Center (‘Additional Persecution News from China’ 2006, Clearwisdom.net website, 6 June http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2006/6/23/74725p.html – Accessed 8 September 2006 – Attachment 13).

Of interest is a brief description of detention centres in the Laogai Handbook 2003-2001 which states:

The main purpose of detention centers is to house criminals who have not yet been sentenced. A vast majority of criminals sentenced to terms of less than two years are confined to detention centers. In addition, detention centers are also used to house prisoners who are awaiting execution. All criminals, whether sentenced or not, are required by law to engage in forced labor.

The number of criminals in detention centers awaiting sentencing fluctuates greatly, in response to various “political movements” promoted by the Communist government. Most un-sentenced prisoners in detention centers either have already been convicted or are waiting to be sent to a prison, labor reform production battalion or RTL [Reeducation Through Labor] camp, or they are being detained for a certain period of time before being released.

Because detention centers are governed by local cadres and are in few instances subject to any central authority, conditions at the centers vary greatly. In some detention centers detainees are treated humanely and working conditions are manageable. Reports confirm, however, that at some detention centers inmates are tortured and labor conditions remain harsh (Laogai Research Foundation 2004, Laogai Handbook 2003-2004, Part 1, p.27 http://www.laogai.org/news2/book/part-1.pdf – Accessed 25 August 2006 – Attachment 14).

5. Is there any information on a crackdown on Christians in Fuqing City in June 2005?

No information was found in the sources consulted on a crackdown on Christians in Fuqing City in June 2005.

Of interest is that the US State Department reported that, in July 2005, police in Fujian “reportedly detained and abused a priest, Lin Daixian, and 10 other Catholics” (US Department of State 2006, ‘Freedom of Religion’ in Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2005 – China, 8 March – Attachment 4).

6. Is there any up to date information on the persecution of non-Catholic Christians in Fuqing?

No current information was found in the sources consulted on the treatment of non-Catholics in Fuqing.

Research responses on underground Christians, some of which mention Fuqing specifically and in the main refer to Catholics, are outlined in the research response:

• RRT Country Research 2006, Research Response CHN30274, 16 June – Attachment 15.

Of interest is information in the most recent US State Department report on human rights which refers to the treatment of non-Catholic Christians in China; the information does not mention Fujian specifically. The report states:

Local authorities’ handling of unregistered religious groups, especially Protestant “house churches,” varied widely. In certain regions, government supervision of religious activity was minimal and registered and unregistered Protestant and Catholic churches existed openly side-by-side and were treated similarly by the authorities. In such areas many congregants worshipped in both types of churches; congregants in unregistered churches were also able to procure Bibles at official churches. In some parts of the country, unregistered house churches with hundreds of members met openly, with the full knowledge of local authorities, who characterized the meetings as informal gatherings to pray, sing, and study the Bible. In other areas house church meetings of more than a handful of family members and friends were strictly proscribed. House churches often encountered difficulties when their membership grew, when they arranged for the regular use of facilities for the purpose of conducting religious activities, or when they forged links with other unregistered groups.

Leaders of unauthorized groups were sometimes the target of harassment, interrogation, detention, and physical abuse. Police closed “underground” churches and other places of worship, including some with significant memberships, properties, financial resources, and networks. Local officials destroyed several unregistered places of worship around the country. Authorities particularly targeted unofficial religious groups in locations where there were rapidly growing numbers of unregistered churches, or in places of long-seated conflict between official and unofficial churches, such as with Catholics in Baoding, Hebei Province, or with evangelical underground Protestant groups in Henan Province and elsewhere.

Protestant house churches and their leaders were subject to a selective crackdown in many areas. Authorities frequently disrupted house church meetings and retreats and detained leaders and church members. In May authorities reportedly detained hundreds of house church members from different groups in Jilin Province. In June authorities reportedly held approximately 100 pastors at Henan Province’s Qi County detention center after detaining them at religious retreats in the province. On July 1, some 70 Christians were detained administratively in Henan Province’s Sui County. On August 2, authorities reportedly abused some of 40 worshippers detained in Hubei Province’s Zaoyang City. On August 7, a house church in Hejing County, Xinjiang Province, was reportedly raided and several worshippers were detained. In late September security officials reportedly broke a chest bone of Xinjiang businessman Tong Qimiao while interrogating him about the activities of house churches in Xinjiang. A number of leaders detained in previous years, including Henan Province underground church leader Zhang Rongliang and Beijing-based Christian activists Liu Fenggang, Xu Yonghai, and Yan Haibing, remained in prison or in reeducation-through-labor camps. The government refused to confirm Zhang Rongliang’s whereabouts or the charges against him. Xu Yonghai, who had been sentenced to two years in prison, had not been released at year’s end although more than two years had passed since his December 2003 arrest. In September house church historian Zhang Yinan, who was detained in 2003, was released from a reeducation- through-labor camp in Pingdingshan County, Henan Province (US Department of State 2006, ‘Freedom of Religion’ in Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2005 – China, 8 March – Attachment 4).

In March 2006 Human Rights Watch reported on a crackdown on the “activities of so-called Christian (Protestant) house churches” after new Regulations on Religious Affairs took effect in March 2005. The information did not refer to either Fujian province or Fuqing city (Human Rights Watch 2006, ‘China: A Year After New Regulations, Religious Rights Still Restricted’, 1 March http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/03/01/china12740_txt.htm – Accessed 17 March 2006 – Attachment 16).

List of Sources Consulted

Internet Sources: Search Engines Google search engine http://www.google.com.au/

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

List of Attachments

1. The Center for Religious Freedom 2002, Report Analyzing Seven Secret Chinese Government Documents, 11 February, pp.21-22

2. Tang, Edmond 2002, ‘True Jesus Church, the “Spirit-Spirit Sect” and other Pentecostal groups’ in ‘“Yellers” and healers – “Pentecostalism” and the study of grassroots Christianity in China’, Churches’ Commission on Mission, 13-15 September, Churches Together in Britain and Ireland website http://www.ctbi.org.uk/index.php?op=modload&name=knowledge&file=kbasepage& LinkID=148 – Accessed 26 May 2005

3. ‘About the Center for Religious Freedom’ (undated), Center for Religious Freedom website http://www.freedomhouse.org/religion/about/about.htm – Accessed 8 September 2006

4. US Department of State 2006, ‘Freedom of Religion’ in Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2005 – China, 8 March

5. RRT Country Research 2005, Research Response CHN17352, 7 June 6. Kindopp, Jason 2004, ‘Fragmented yet Defiant: Protestant Resilience under Chinese Communist Party Rule’ in Kindopp, Jason and Hamrin, Carol Lee (eds), God and Caesar in China, Brookings Institution Press, Washington D.C., pp.133-137 (MRT- RRT Library)

7. ‘Rongcheng’ 2000, Microsoft Encarta Interactive Atlas 2000 (CD ROM)

8. RRT Country Research 2002, Research Response CHN15645, 23 December

9. RRT Country Research 2001, Research Response CHN14548, 19 March

10. ‘Decisive Victory Achieved in Fighting Against Falun Gong’ 2000, Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the United States of America website,14 May http://www.china-embassy.org/eng//sgxx/sggg/sstx/2000/t35059.htm – Accessed 7 September 2006

11. ‘A Catholic Evangelist Sentenced to One Year in Labor Camp under the Charge of “Preaching Cult”’ (undated), Committee for Investigation on Persecution of Religion in China website http://www.china21.org/English/News/2004/122704.htm – Accessed 7 September 2006

12. ‘Introduction’ (undated), Committee for Investigation on Persecution of Religion in China website http://www.china21.org/English/docs/Intro-final.htm – Accessed 7 September 2006

13. ‘Additional Persecution News from China’ 2006, Clearwisdom.net website, 6 June http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2006/6/23/74725p.html – Accessed 8 September 2006

14. Laogai Research Foundation 2004, Laogai Handbook 2003-2004, Part 1, p.27 http://www.laogai.org/news2/book/part-1.pdf – Accessed 25 August 2006

15. RRT Country Research 2006, Research Response CHN30274, 16 June

16. Human Rights Watch 2006, ‘China: A Year After New Regulations, Religious Rights Still Restricted’, 1 March http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/03/01/china12740_txt.htm – Accessed 17 March 2006