Two days before US President George W. Bush’s meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao, four human rights and church institutions have teamed up to release the 2005 report on torture and abuse against independent Chinese House church members and leaders.

|TOP|China Aid Association, the Institute of Religion and Public Policy, Jubilee Campaign, USA and Midland Ministerial Alliance helped compile the report that highlights cases of state-sponsored torture of Evangelical Christians during 2005. The report, released on Tuesday, includes photo evidence and video interviews of 19 believers from five different provinces.

“Since this report only deals with some cases of the torture and abuse against evangelical House Church movement, it only reflects the tip of the iceberg and is by no means an exhaustive report,” said Bob Fu, president of CAA and the report’s primary author, in a statement released by the Christian organisation. “Rather, it is meant to provide clear and concise details of what occurs on a regular basis within the PRC’s borders.”

International laws condemning torture exist and China is among the nations that ratified these laws, including adopting its own laws forbidding torture in 1996, according to CAA.

Among the testimonies included in the report is Zhao Yan, 23, who recalls how she was treated by her interrogator after she was arrested for having a Bible study with two American seminary students at Zaoyang city, Hubei province, on Aug. 2, 2005.

|AD|After a few words he slapped me in the face and kicked me to the ground. He ordered me to kneel on the ground and cuffed my two thumbs. He then let me raise my arms and keep them level. He again slapped me across the ears. He also hit me with a leather belt on my mouth. He took the drinking glass on the table and smashed it on my arm...He then kicked my cuffed hands. I rolled around on the floor; the cuffs were eating into my flesh. When the cuff on my right thumb became loose he put it on my two forefingers. Again he wanted me to hold up my hands. Whenever I lower my arms he burned me with a cigarette butt. The head of the Security Bureau, Zhang Xujin, also entered the room. He scolded me and severely kicked my left leg. He also severely kicked my two hands around on the muddy floor. Afterwards he wanted me to raise my hands up. He grabbed the cuffs and dragged me forward and up. My fingers simply wanted to break. I was continually tortured like this.

Zhao was later pressured into signing false documents before she was released.

China Aid Association concluded by calling on the international community to hold officials involved in torture and abuse accountable for their actions and to consider torture an “extremely serious matter” that deserves concern and attention.

“Despite the condemnation of torture nationally and internationally, the implementation of torture remains widespread in China today,” stated CAA. “This demonstrates the sharp contrast between how arbitrarily justice is administered in the PRC as compared to their own written laws and how inconsistent the PRC’s government authorities are in obeying their own written laws.”






Michelle Vu
Christian Today Correspondent