Bob Fu, who runs China Aid, is being brought to the UK by partner organisation Release International, which serves persecuted Christians worldwide. He has been expressing his concerns to the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Mr Fu is available for interview in Cranleigh, Surrey, on the afternoon of Thursday September 29.

 

China has been rounding up its human rights lawyers to silence them and prevent a re-run of the Jasmine revolution. Bob Fu has campaigned on behalf of lawyers abducted by the Chinese authorities for drawing attention to human rights abuses. Those lawyers were silent on their release but are now beginning to speak out about attempts to intimidate them: http://www.chinaaid.org/2011/09/jiang-tianyong-breaks-silence-exposes.html?pfstyle=wp

 

Artist and dissident Ai Weiwei has stated that publicly-enforced disappearance is a crime under international law. Bob Fu has also campaigned for the release of Christian lawyer Gao Zhisheng, who was abducted in 2009 and has not been seen since writing an account of the severe torture and abuse that he suffered.

 

China’s National People’s Congress is debating the proposal for secret detention until the end of September. AFP reports it could become law as early as March: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8302085 

 

Meanwhile Beijing is completing its 4th Forum on Human Rights, which ends today (Friday). China says the Forum demonstrates its willingness to make progress: http://english.cri.cn/6909/2011/09/21/195s659297.htm  But earlier it banned a leading NGO rights group from attending, claiming it was anti-China: http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/9/20633/World/International/Beijing-bars-NGO-expert-from-EUChina-rights-event.aspx  That story concludes: ‘Meanwhile, the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo remains in jail in China for his calls for greater democracy and human rights in the country.’

 

Bob Fu has testified before the House International Relations Committee, U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China and the UN Commission on Human Rights.

 

Another current issue Mr Fu would address is the stand-off at Shouwang Church, Beijing’s largest house church, where worshippers have been barred entry and are routinely arrested as they hold services outside: http://www.sbcbaptistpress.org/BPnews.asp?ID=36069

 

 

 

Release International is hosting a visit by a leading Chinese dissident and human rights campaigner Bob Fu. A media facility is being laid on to interview Mr Fu either over the phone or in person.

 

Bob Fu, who is the head of Release partner China Aid, is visiting Europe to talk about the situation for Christians in China following the recent clampdown on human rights lawyers.

 

Mr Fu was one of the leaders of the Beijing student democracy movement, stamped out by the Chinese military in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

 

He became a pastor in the underground house church movement, and was soon arrested, along with his wife Heidi. They were jailed for two months.

 

They were eventually driven out of China by persecution and settled in Texas, where Mr Fu founded the China Aid Association to campaign for religious freedom. He has been a leading advocate on behalf of the persecuted church in the US and the UN and is a long-term partner of the UK-based Release International.

 

Mr Fu will be speaking about the moves by the Chinese authorities to intimidate and silence human rights lawyers. These include Jiang Tianyong who was abducted by the authorities for two months and brutally treated. This week he described his detention to the South China Morning Post, which reported:

 

‘A combination of physical and mental abuse, relentless brainwashing and threats kept rights lawyer Jiang Tianyong silent after his release from two months' detention.’

 

Follow this link to the story: http://www.scmp.com/portal/site/SCMP/menuitem.2af62ecb329d3d7733492d9253a0a0a0/?vgnextoid=e3dadde177362310VgnVCM100000360a0a0aRCRD&ss=China&s=News

 

Jiang Tianyong was interviewed by Release shortly before his abduction, and predict

ed his imminent arrest. His story is told in the Release DVD Forbidden City, available from the Release International website. A clip can be seen here:

 

To view a press conference given by Bob Fu on China last year, please go to: http://www.releaseinternational.org/pages/downloads/video.php The conference report is the lead item on that page. Audio is in broadcast quality and can be rebroadcast, providing acknowledgement is given to Release International.

 

And for a more detailed biography of Bob Fu, please follow this link: http://chinaaidtemp.29.ncol.ca/qry/page.taf?id=20

 

Mr Fu will be available for interview on September 29 between 1 and 3.45pm. He will be based in Cranleigh, Surrey.

 

To arrange to interview Mr Fu over the phone or in person, please call Andrew Boyd on 07919 311993 or Paul Thomas on 07747 53588.

 

For a country profile on China and news stories on that nation please go to: http://www.releaseinternational.org/pages/country-profiles/china.php

 

For further information, please contact Release International on 01689 823491, or by email at info@releaseinternational.org