Today is the 167th day of the Chinese communist regime's campaign of terror waged against my family.
Meng Qinggang, a youth from Xinjiang Province, was abducted 47 days ago by the Beijing Public Security Bureau. We have received no word of his condition. It is the job of the police to protect citizens, but in China, this principle is turned on its head. The police are agents of a corrupt system and operate like a ruthless gang, often abducting innocent citizens.
We are living in a country full of murderous bullies. Our government is nothing but a gang of ruffians.
We are surprised that those Chinese compatriots serving as public servants and holders of public office are willing to be complicit to these cold-blooded crimes against their own people.
We don't understand how the people of China can continue to hear about their fellows being tortured and murdered by the Chinese authorities and still remain silent.
The hunger strike relay is meant to call attention to those who are hurt by tyranny and are isolated. We are discovering more and more that the number of people in our country facing intense persecution by the regime is rapidly increasing.
On Monday, May 1, my "motorcade" had just arrived at the Huairou tour area in a suburb of Beijing, when I received a phone call from a desperate farmer representative who represented more than 100 farmers in Qinzhou City in Guangxi Province. He said, "Attorney Gao, the officials are forcing us to die, we were already worn out. We have no way out and we have no means of subsistence—what we can do? The only way we have left is to hunger strike to maintain our rights…"
On May 2, a Christian in Harbin City in Heilongjiang Province called me and told me that his church has been persecuted by the Harbin Public Security Bureau. He said that the police have arrested and detained hundreds of members of his church in the last year alone. He said they have made it their profession to detain and brutally beat helpless Christians. They also steal money from the detainees and extort their families for ransom payments. Many are sentenced to long jail terms for confusing crimes like "illegal business operations" and "criminal disturbance of the social order."
On May 3, a Christian with last name Lu in Shenyang City called me and told me how he and his son, as well as surrounding family Church members were robbed by police from Harbin Public Security National Security team. He said he and his son are local evangelists. One day last year, at a gathering of the family Church, they suddenly encountered a violent police attack. Everyone present was illegally searched and robbed of their valuables. They were told that they have to pay 30, 000 yuan (US$3,748) per person or they would be indefinitely put in prison. The police told them, "Your crimes are very serious, and you can be sentenced to a few years each." They told the police that they were from Shenyang, and didn't have that kind of money.
He said, "The police accompanied us to Shenyang to make sure that they got their money. Then the next year they had the audacity to return and extort even more money from us." Situations like he describes have become quite common and he is at a loss for what to do.
On May 4, I received a call for help from an appealer named Song Guijia, from Liaoning Province. He and his appeal group had marched to the Great Wall at Badaling in Beijing to appeal for human rights. Upon arrival they were all arrested. He asked, "We didn't even break any laws. How can they arrest us?"
On the morning of May 5, a family member of Liu Yuhua, a Christian in Linshu County, Shandong Province called me for help. The person said that Liu Yuhua had been illegally arrested by the Public Security Bureau in Linshu County on April 26, for selling Christian books. Liu Yuhua's wife who is also a Christian said, "The police not only checked Liu's and my bank accounts, they searched his office as well." Today [May 6], I received more similar messages from Christians around the country, detailing persecution at the hands of local security forces. Lu Changping and Mr. Qin of Ankang City in Shannxi Province were arrested for attending a family church gathering in Shiyan City. People who provided information about their case said to me, "Attorney Gao, they have been arrested for more than seven months in the Second Prison of Shiyan, Hubei Province. When they were arrested, they were beaten really hard to a state where they almost lost their minds. They've been stuck in jail for seven months with who knows what kind of medical care. They are suffering greatly."
That afternoon I received a message saying that Pan Zheng, a Christian from Jingmen City, Hubei Province, had been arrested for attending family church gatherings. He and tens of others have been illegally detained in jail for six months. All of them were beaten and tortured.
The human race is of such great value, yet it is the target of several decades of nonstop tyrannical oppression from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its party followers. From the above mentioned patterns barbaric persecution of the freedom of belief, one can clearly see the complete moral deformity of the CCP. It is getting worse. It's time that the Chinese people woke up.
Just like the eight democratic parties in China, which is controlled by the CCP, the Sanzi Christian Patriot Church, Catholic Patriot Church and other such state-endorsed religious groups are nothing but pawns of the regime. Just as Sanzi Church founder Wu Yaozong said, "God has already given humankind the key to salvation—snatched from the church, it has been delivered to the communist party." This Christian organization has received the Chinese Communist Party as its god, and has become the vase that holds the dust of the persecution. The Chinese Catholic Patriot Church is pretty much the same. Their leader, Ma Yinglin has vigorously advocated for attacks on underground churches. Every brother and sister who truly follows the teachings of Jesus should not only expose the evils of the CCP, but also of its fake religious institutions. These fake churches do a great disservice in trying to convince the outside world that there is religious freedom in China. They help the CCP perpetrate its lie.
Jesus said to the people, "who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels." "For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink. I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me. They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'" (Matthew 25:31-46)
As we Christians all espouse the teachings of Jesus, we should all try to follow them and heed his warnings. Anyone who is doing time in Chinese communist prison because of believing Jesus, even the smallest Christian, we should all watch over him. There are nearly two billion "disciples of Jesus" around the world, if you count up every body from all of the different sects and groups. We have a responsibility to let them know what the CCP is doing to their fellow Christians. This is not a political issue at all. The authority of Jesus transcends all countries and lands. All Christians should unite, regardless of creed, to do something about the horrible persecution of their brothers and sisters in China.
The best thing that we can do for those suffering under this persecution is to do our best to end it. Some Christians have shared that they believe that God is allowing this persecution to happen and therefore they all have endured it. I say to them that the Lord has always given every one of us individuals the freedom to choose. The All Capable and All Knowing Jehovah didn't stop the snake from enticing Eve, nor did Jehovah prevent Adam from eating the "forbidden fruit" that grew on the "tree of good and evil." Yet we cannot say Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit is something that Jehovah permitted.
Looking back in human history we know that the Roman Empire eventually suffered for its persecution of the Christians. They had to endure three great epidemics. Even after Constantine the Great recognized Christianity's status, the Roman Empire still had to assume the consequences of their actions from before. The western Roman Empire was destroyed by barbarian invasion, and the eastern Roman Empire, with the rule of the Byzantine Empire, survived more than a thousand years longer than the west. I believe this was because the Lord blessed Constantine the Great's realm for his decision to recognize Christianity.
You see, stopping the persecution of Christians is having compassion for the persecuters themselves. By keeping them from shedding any more Christian blood, we are attempting to save them from the fires of Hell.
Jesus said, "He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that doth not take his cross and follow after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it; and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." (Matthew 10: 37 – 39). Facing the Chinese Communist Party's persecution of those who believe in Jesus, every Christian should have the courage to "carry the cross," and not merely watch from the sidelines as their brothers and sisters suffer. Currently, 24-hour relay hunger strikes are held continuously in 29 provinces throughout China. We support those persecuted Christians, Falun Gong adherents and everyone who has been persecuted by the CCP for whatever reason, wherever they are. We denounce this barbaric persecution of innocent citizens. It starts from me! It starts from us!
