CHINA: OLYMPIC GAMES POLICE BEAT AND ARREST ELDERLY MOTHER OF IMPRISONED PASTOR |
| Mar 28 2007 |
| Postings >> China |
Concern is growing for the sick and elderly mother of an imprisoned pastor, after Chinese Olympic Games police kicked her, arrested her and imprisoned her. Seven officers based at an Olympic Games police station threw 75-year-old Shuang Shuying to the ground and kicked her. She was later arrested and jailed for two years. Observers say it was to punish her son, who is a human-rights activist and a prominent member of a Beijing underground church. Police have had Pastor Hua Huiqi under surveillance for years. He has a long history of working to help persecuted Christians and the poor. The authorities have detained him for obstruction of justice – and it’s believed he could face up to three years in prison. Hua and his mother were walking near a 2008 Olympics hotel site when seven police threw them to the ground and started kicking them. The police took them to the Olympic Police station for questioning. When Hua appealed to them to let his elderly mother go they beat him repeatedly. They poured cold water over him in the sub-zero temperatures, before taking him freezing and shivering to a detention centre. The next day the police called Hua’s wife to say they had sentenced her husband to a month behind bars. When Hua's elderly mother went to a district office to ask about her son they arrested her, too. They charged her with wilfully damaging a car and a touch-screen computer – both charges she denies. ‘With the Olympic Games round the corner, the world is watching China,’ says Andy Dipper of Release International, which serves the persecuted Church. ‘The beating and arrest of a frail old woman gives a clear and unwelcome signal to the world. If China wants to prove its human rights are improving then it must let this woman - and her son - go free.’ Hua is well-known for helping persecuted Christians and peasants who travel to Beijing to appeal for justice from the central government. He's campaigned against the growing practice of demolishing unregistered house churches. The authorities have been watching him for some time. They staged his mother’s trial on the first working day of the Chinese New Year - making it impossible for her lawyer to collect any evidence to defend her. The hearing was over in an hour. The China Aid Association, which has been monitoring the case, says the charge is baseless and probably comes on the orders of higher government. They say it may be aimed at deterring the family from launching an appeal against Hua's prison sentence. The family is concerned about the health of Hua's elderly mother. She has diabetes, high blood pressure and a weak heart and is in need of daily medicaments. Other members of the family have also come under pressure. They say the police have now also threatened Hua's older brother and slashed his car tyres. China Aid regard the case as a litmus test on whether China is sincerely trying to improve its human rights record ahead of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. The fact that Olympic police are said to be behind the beatings and arrest indicates China is failing that test. Ahead of the Beijing Olympics the authorities have changed their tactics against the underground church to appear more tolerant. Arrests are down. According to China Aid the number of arrests fell from 2000 in 2005 to 600 last year. ‘But behind the scenes the authorities are demolishing more house churches,’ says Andy Dipper of Release International. ‘Instead of arresting church members, they’re interrogating them during raids, and they’re charging Christian leaders with criminal offences, such as running illegal businesses.’ The arrest of another close relative of an imprisoned pastor may point to a worrying new tactic being used by the Chinese authorities to put pressure on the underground Church. According to the China Aid Association, the authorities have also jailed the wife of a prominent house church leader. They arrested 50-year-old Li Huage and sentenced her to ten days for allegedly ‘disturbing public order’. At the time, she was seeking the return of her mobile phone, computer, and bibles which had been confiscated from her home. Her husband, Pastor Dong Quanyu, had just completed a ten-day sentence for holding an ‘illegal religious gathering’. Pastor Dong is the Vice-President of the Chinese House Church Alliance. Public Security Bureau officers beat up Ms. Li while she was waiting outside the detention centre to meet her released husband. The police raided their home in Henan province while Pastor Dong and his wife were hosting a Bible study. They took their phones, computer and Christian books. The following day, they released other pastors who were with them. The incidents suggest a crackdown on the families of arrested pastors. Just prior to these latest arrests, the key official supervising China's religious affairs summoned religious groups and demanded their support in a government clampdown on the underground church. Totalitarian states often see the growth in Christianity as an attempt to undermine and threaten their powerbase. They link the spread of the faith with potentially hostile nations such as the USA. But Chinese Christians argue that their faith actually makes them better citizens. According to official estimates, 100m Chinese have religious beliefs, embracing a wide range of faiths. But government experts indicate the number may be far higher. Some observers say there are 100m Christians alone. The number of unregistered Christians is uncertain – China Aid believes there are upwards of 80 million – but it has long been held that there were more underground Christians in China than Communist Party members. Release International serves the persecuted Church in 30 nations. For video reports download our monthly webcast - World Update - available from the Release International website: www.releaseinternational.org Notes to the Editor Additional sources and photographs: China Aid Association: http://www.chinaaid.org/ Please note: There has been some discrepancy in various reports about the age of Shuang Shuying. According to the China Aid Association, she was born on October 29, 1931. Through our international network of missions RI serves persecuted Christians in 30 countries, supporting pastors and Christian prisoners and their families, supplying Christian literature and Bibles, and working for justice. RI is a member of the UK organisations Global Connections, the Evangelical Alliance and the Micah Network.
