Refugee Review Tribunal AUSTRALIA RRT RESEARCH RESPONSE Research Response Number: CHN33444 Country: China Date: 4 July 2008 Keywords: China – Fujian Province – Fuqing City – Shouters – Detention procedures 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. Questions 1. What is the current situation (May 2008) regarding the arrest and detention of Shouters in China generally? 2. What is the current situation (May 2008) regarding the arrest and detention of Shouters in Fuqing city and/or Fujian province? 3. What is the usual detention period for arrests regarding illegal religious activity under the relevant Chinese regulations? 4. Is it 15 days detention? 5. Deleted. 6. Deleted. RESPONSE 1. What is the current situation (May 2008) regarding the arrest and detention of Shouters in China generally? There continues to be a paucity of current and specific information concerning the detention of members of the Local Church („Shouters‟) in China. The comments made in a July 2006 research response are representative: Recent information on the Shouters in China is scarce. The responses and reports below indicate that the group remains banned and operate underground although a limited number of Local Churche[s] have registered with local authorities. Sources also indicate that official repression continues (RRT Country Research 2006, Research Response CHN30336, 11 July – Attachment 1). Recent research responses which have attempted to obtain comprehensive, reliable and current information on the numbers, level of activity and treatment by state or local authorities of members of the local church or „Shouters‟ have been forced to rely on often very general accounts of unregistered religious groups. In part this limitation is intrinsic to the difficulty of reliably generalising about any unregistered religious activity in China, the organisational structure and meeting and worship practices of the Shouters more specifically, and in part a broader difficulty relating to the reliability of statistical estimates of religious belief, Christian or otherwise, within China. Thus, for example, in 2004 one source claimed that there were around 500,000 members of Shouter churches in China (“Christian bible „smuggler‟ released after 3 years in prison” 2002, Asia News, 3 September, http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=471 – Accessed 23 June 2008 – Attachment 2 whilst another referred to an unidentified source which put the figure at 800,000 (“Strong opinions surround Lee‟s Local Church” 2002, Orange County Register, 13 October [version inaccessible, but] published on Local Church Information Site http://www.lcinfo.org/?page=writings/media/ocregister1 – Accessed 1 July 2008 – Attachment 3). The latter source was the one used by Jason Kindopp in a detailed study of the Shouter movement submitted as part of a PhD program at George Washington University in 2004 (Jason Kindopp, “The Politics of Protestantism in Contemporary China: State Control, Civil Society, and Social Movement in a Single Party-State” – Attachment 4). The most recent reports from major international agencies in general do not give a high degree of prominence to discussion of Shouter members or leaders, and whilst Shouters are occasionally mentioned, such reference is sometimes made in connection with a range of other outlawed „evil cults‟ („xiejiao‟) as they are generally called. Extrapolation as to both official and unofficial attitudes towards Shouters from discussion of the broader range of Protestant house churches is also found in some reports; Since the banning of Falun Gong in 1999, the Chinese government has conducted a harsh campaign against „evil cults‟ and „heretic sects‟. This campaign against „evil cults‟ has, in recent years, expanded to include leaders of long-established Protestant groups. Over the past year, religious leaders have been imprisoned and followers detained and fined for „illegal cult activity‟… In February 2008, 21 house church leaders were sentenced to terms of one to three years of “re-education through labor” following a raid on a leadership training session in Shandong Province in December 2007, when police arrested 270 church leaders. The leaders were charged with being members of an „illegal cult‟ organization (United States Commission on International Religious Freedom 2008, USCIRF Annual Report 2008 – People’s Republic of China, 1 May – Attachment 5). Human Rights Watch in its annual report for 2007 noted that Reprisals against non-registered religious organizations have primarily focused on arrests of Protestants who attend “house churches,” for Bible study meetings and training sessions. The majority of those arrested are rapidly released, some after paying fines, but leaders of such underground churches are sometimes held on fabricated charges including “illegal business practices.” The freedom of belief of certain groups designated by the government as “evil cults,” including Falungong, continues to be severely restricted. (Human Rights Watch 2008, World Report 2008, 31 January – Attachment 6). The US Department of State observed During the period covered by this report, the Government‟s respect for religious freedom remained poor, especially for members of unregistered religious groups and groups the Government designated as “cults.” The Government tends to perceive unregulated religious gatherings or groups as a potential challenge to its authority, and it attempts to control and regulate religious groups to prevent the rise of sources of authority outside the control of the Government and the CCP. In some regions government supervision of religious activity was minimal, and registered and unregistered churches existed openly side-by-side and were treated similarly by the authorities. In other regions local officials supervised religion strictly, and authorities placed pressure on unregistered churches and their members. Local regulations, provincial work reports, and other government and party documents continued to exhort officials to enforce vigorously government policy regarding unregistered churches (US Department of State, International Religious Freedom Report for 2007 – China, September – Attachment 7). In his 2007 article which gives an overview of Christianity in China today, Joseph Tse-Hei Lee comments that in Guangdong Province, the church leaders have mediated between local authorities and Christians in the region. They take advantage of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement to support unregistered churches. In Shantou, the Three-Self Patriotic Movement church leaders even allow Seventh-Day Adventists to hold Sabbath and followers of Watchman Nee to meet in registered church premises. Elsewhere in the article he also refers to the existence of a four floor unregistered church building next to Xiamen University in Fujian Province, supporting reports referred to above concerning the variation in the level of tolerance of unregistered church activities across China generally (Joseph Tse-Hei Lee 2007, “Christianity in Contemporary China: An Update”, Journal of Church and State, Vol. 49, Spring, pp. 292, 301 – Attachment 8). According to Jason Kindopp, local authorities have also apparently registered Local Churches in some provinces; Local Churches now operate legally in Shanghai, Nanjing, Fuzhou, and a number of rural counties in Zhajiang and Fujian Provinces. The Local Church in Fujian‟s rural Longtian district, for example recently built a massive church complex with a 4,000 person seating capacity and adjoining classrooms for Sunday school. Registration has often occurred in the face of TSPM opposition, although lianghui officials have also found it expedient to forge a modus vivendi with Local Church leaders, particularly in areas where Local Church adherents constitute a sizable minority or even a majority of Protestants (Jason Kindopp, “The Politics of Protestantism in Contemporary China: State Control, Civil Society, and Social Movement in a Single Party-State” – Attachment 4). Other research responses which cover issues relating to the treatment of Shouters in China include: RRT Country Research 2005, Research Response CHN17561, 7 October which provides general information about „Shouters‟ (Attachment 9) RRT Country Research 2004, Research Response CHN16876, 11 August, includes general information and comments by two external experts in the area (Attachment 10). RRT Research & Information Services 2007, Research Response CHN32709, 20 December, includes a later update and comments on Fujian (Attachment 11). RRT Country Research 2006, Research Response CHN30365, 3 August includes DFAT advice (Attachment 12). In its most recent annual report covering the year 2007, the China Aid Association provides an overview of the general situation for Christian house churches within China. Whilst it cautions against assuming that the incidents it has received knowledge of represent all such cases, it does state that the report “covers a majority of provinces and municipalities in China and involves many types of persecution all of which are