Thank you very much for having me today. My name is Jocelyn Durston, and I am the international policy analyst for the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada. I'm also the coordinator for our Religious Liberty Commission. Unfortunately, as noted, I will have to leave the meeting immediately after my comments, so thank you so much for listening to me, and if you do have any questions that you don't have an opportunity to ask me as a result, I'd be happy to follow up with you afterwards.
The Religious Liberty Commission of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada was established over 10 years ago, in 1997, to promote religious freedom as a fundamental human right, with a particular focus on Christians.
The Religious Liberty Commission works with parliamentarians, civil servants, media, business, and other groups in its efforts on behalf of persecuted Christians around the world. The Religious Liberty Commission works both within the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada's constituency of Evangelical Protestant Christians and beyond to establish effective prayer and advocacy groups on behalf of persecuted minorities.
The Religious Liberty Commission is a round table composed of individuals who have a particular expertise in religious freedom issues and of representatives from Canadian organizations that closely monitor religious freedom abuse cases on a worldwide basis. These organizations include The Voice of the Martyrs (Canada), Open Doors Canada, and Arab World Ministries.
I'm pleased to be here today to discuss the treatment of religious minorities, specifically Protestant Christians in China. This opportunity to speak to you is very timely, as the EFC's Religious Liberty Commission released a report on this very topic exactly one week ago today. The report is entitled “Broken Promises: The Protestant Experience with Religious Freedom in China in Advance of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games”. The report is available to download on our website, which is www.evangelicalfellowship.ca. I do have some hard copies here with me as well if anyone is interested. However, I apologize, as I do not have any translated into French.
Our report is the result of a four-month research process that was conducted under my supervision this spring. The report has been reviewed by all members of the Religious Liberty Commission, and we're pleased to make it available to anyone who is concerned about or wants to learn more about the abuse and pressures faced by Protestant Christians in China today.
Before I give you a summary of the report and our findings, I'd like to share with you a brief account of one Christian in China who has experienced persecution for his faith. Forgive me if I mispronounce his name. Cai Zhouhua is a Chinese Christian who has been targeted under the charge of illegal business practices. Cai was the leader of six house churches in Beijing and a legal business operator. He was discovered to be in possession of over 200,000 religious documents, including bibles that were not state manufactured. On September 11, 2004, he was arrested while at a bus stop. His hands and feet were bound by plain-clothed policemen and he was thrown into a van. From September 2004 until November 8, 2005, Cai was tortured with electric cattle prods to extort a confession of false business practices, and finally in November he was sentenced on the charge of illegally trafficking bibles. For this crime, Cai received a three-year sentence and is now forced to work for 12 to 14 hours a day manufacturing sports equipment for this summer's Olympic games.
This story is one example out of thousands that demonstrate the kinds of persecution that religious minorities in China face today. Many accounts are much worse than this, including those of mental breakdowns and death of those being persecuted, tortured, and imprisoned for their faith. As there has been much recent coverage provided in regard to other religious communities in China, the report focuses on the general extent of persecution faced by the Protestant house church movement in China. It also documents trends that illustrate the continued repression of freedom of religion taking place in advance of this summer's Beijing Olympic Games and supplements similar observations that have been made in regard to other religious groups.
The Religious Liberty Commission undertook the writing of this report for a few reasons. First, and most important, was to communicate to the public, the media, and the Government of Canada detailed information about the plight of the extensive Protestant house church movement in China. Chinese house churches are not members of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement churches in China, which are governed by provincial religious affairs bureaus. A house church in China normally comprises a small group of Christians who secretly meet in private residences or other buildings to practise their Christianity without being subject to the rule of the Communist Party.
Church pastors in China have estimated the number of Christians in China to be 61 million to 64 million, with 16 million as members of state-recognized churches and the rest, another 45 million to 48 million, in underground house churches. Every member of a house church faces the risk of persecution for their faith, and it is very important that their stories are heard and listened to.
Second, we wrote the report to strategically bring attention to the plight of Protestant house church Christians in China in advance of this summer's Olympic Games. As everyone knows, the games have brought a fresh focus to China and presented new opportunities for many to highlight human rights abuses in China. The Chinese government's promises to improve its human rights record have given all of us a significant opportunity to hold it accountable for its commitments and for its actions.
And third, we wrote the report to lend credibility to and share concerns with all minority faith groups in China that experience harsh treatment because of their beliefs. When improvements begin to be made for one group, improvements for other groups will follow. Our hope is that all religious groups would come to know freedom of religion in China and that the Chinese government would see the wisdom in allowing people to practise their beliefs freely and peacefully.
Unfortunately, the research for this report has revealed that the persecution of Protestants in China seems to have worsened rather than improved since China won the bid to host this summer's Olympic Games. The report highlights trends in persecution cases that reveal strategic policy changes the Communist Party has made in order to deliberately harass and intimidate Christians while attempting to avoid attention from human rights watchdog groups. For example, the Communist Party has moved from a strategy of arresting all house church members, when discovered, to a strategy of arresting only the leaders and leaders in training within house church congregations and the broader house church movement.
The report examines persecution trends that include those related to the arrests of house church leaders on criminal charges, the use of torture to extract false confessions, the closure of house churches, the persecution of foreign missionaries and the denial of visas, and the persecution of children and students.
Some of the Communist Party's strategic policy changes have been introduced because of fears associated with China's image during the Olympics. In order to remove evidence of human rights abuse that could damage Beijing's image on the world stage, the Communist Party of China has initiated a crackdown on all forms of opposition to government practices. This has included an increased volume of everything from the arrests to the executions of Protestant Christians and other religious and political groups that find fault with the Communist Party.
An example of this, which we highlight in the report, is one of the most significant pieces of evidence of a pre-Olympic crackdown. In 2004, a secret document entitled “Notice on Further Strengthening Marxist Atheism Research, Propaganda and Education” was leaked to an outside watchdog group. The document was issued by the Department of Propaganda of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and circulated among top party officials. It refers to religions as “pseudo-science and superstition” and accuses religion of being “the new trend of Western hostile forces' attempt to 'westernize' and 'disintegrate' China in the name of religion”. The purpose of the document is to encourage party members to aim ”at the elimination of fatuity and superstition”. Attempts to undertake this have seen the adoption of numerous different strategies on how to oppress and intimidate religious groups while avoiding public scrutiny.
The fact that this document was produced not only after the Olympic pledges and promises, but also just two months before the new Religious Affairs Provisions, which was yet another public promise to improve religious freedom, is a sign of the discontinuity between how the government tries to portray itself and how it actually acts behind closed doors.
The report also lists articles that the Communist Party of China has committed to in writing relating to human rights and examples where they have broken their promises in relation to Protestant Christians in each and every case.
The information in the report comes from secondary sources that have direct access to primary sources. It is for reasons of protection that we do not name the primary sources in the report, but all information found in the report has been cross-checked with numerous sources, each identified as reliable in its own right, to ensure validity.
In conclusion, it is no secret that many Chinese citizens, particularly those from minority faith groups, suffer severe abuse for their beliefs. It is our hope that the information in this report will be helpful to those in China and those bringing attention to their plight as we continue to work together to find ways to ease the suffering of religious groups and defenders of human rights in China.
The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada's Religious Liberty Commission feels it is important that Canadian representatives communicate concern to the Communist Party of China regarding the lack of religious freedom afforded to China's Protestant Christian community.
We respectfully request that you take whatever steps you deem appropriate and necessary to call on the Chinese government to develop and commit to meaningful benchmarks for improvement in religious liberty and to back up the promises it has made regarding human rights with concrete action that demonstrates a commitment to promoting religious freedom. Such concrete actions include release of religious prisoners of conscience; fair and just trials for prisoners, including access to personal lawyers and family visitations; media access to human rights cases to promote transparency and legitimacy; the disuse of torture; freedom for house churches to operate freely and openly; allowing foreign missionaries to enter and reside in China; and freedom for children to have open access to bibles and Christian teaching.
Thank you very much.