www.JRNyquist.com, P.O. Box 4931 Eureka, CA 95502  
Published weekly by J.R. Nyquist © all rights reserved

China’s Persecution of Christians

By J.R. Nyquist
JRNyquist@aol.com

On Jan. 11 Julia Duin of The Washington Times reported that three Christians were sentenced to death in China. Their alleged crimes included Bible smuggling, operating an unauthorized church, "rape and hooliganism."

It is a curious, even incongruous list of crimes. One almost smiles at the inclusion of Bible smuggling and rape in the same set of charges. The Kafkaesque absurdity is here apparent. Chinese officials, demented by decades of lying, no longer see the transparent lunacy of their own utterances. Once upon a time these people may have been human beings. Then they joined the Communist Party and became cockroaches in Mao jackets, sucked dry of sincerity, compassion and largeness of mind.

China is a totalitarian state run by madmen. Millions of human beings in China are subjected to slave labor, brutal punishments, un-edible rations and solitary confinement. Their crimes include "economic crimes" and "political crimes." In his book, "Laogai: The Chinese Gulag," Hongda Harry Wu says that we do not know for certain how many millions are enslaved in China’s labor camp system. It is possible that 20 million persons are enslaved in China. According to Wu, "the use of forced labor to provide wealth has been a major task for many Labor Reform Camps."

Wu was an inmate of the Chinese camps for 19 years. His crime was a serious one. He was a bourgeois Christian. Such people were once considered borderline counter-revolutionaries. As every Communist knows, counter-revolutionaries are to be exterminated. A good Communist does not approve the continued existence of such people. By this same logic the smuggling of Bibles into China is a serious crime. It has counter-revolutionary implications. The thinking in Beijing is very straightforward in this regard. Christians ought to be exterminated. But one cannot kill all Christians immediately without making a mess. Therefore, as an old Chinese saying suggests, "kill the chicken to frighten the monkey."

And that is why three Christians have been sentenced to death in China. They are the chickens whose public execution will frighten the monkeys. This helps to set the tone in a totalitarian society.

According to dissident Harry Wu, of the millions imprisoned in China, about one-tenth are political prisoners or prisoners of conscience. These are "ideological enemies" of the Communist state. Non-political prisoners include many who are imprisoned because they have confessed to crimes under torture. In fact, torture was critical in the case against one of the three condemned Christians. Mr. Gong Shengliang, founder of the South China Church, was found guilty of rape because several women were tortured to assure their testimony.

Try to imagine a country in which the police routinely torture both suspects and witnesses. Whether a person is innocent or guilty, it does not matter. With these methods anyone can be convicted of anything. Under this system Mr. Gong’s niece, Li Ying, was also sentenced to death. Another condemned Christian, Li Guangqiang, was sentenced to death for smuggling over 16,000 Bibles into China. One ought to marvel that the authorities would admit to letting so many Bibles slip through their fingers. No doubt there was a shuffling of officers. Some poor incompetent has earned a cold stretch on the Mongolian frontier.

Do you see how things work in China?

President George W. Bush says he is "troubled" by the sentencing of three Chinese Christians. I wonder, though, if this is the right attitude. One thinks of a burnt dinner, a shakey stock market, a sick relative – all very troubling. But the killing of innocent people should rate as something more. Somehow, I think this whole subject will pass quickly from our president’s mind. After all, Bush granted China permanent favored nation trading status. He thinks we should "do business" with these Christian persecutors – these latter-day Neros.

What do you think?

Did you buy Chinese products during the Christmas shopping season? You could hardly avoid doing so, since every other item says "Made in China" on it. Perhaps the thing to do is attempt a little gentle persuasion on the Chicoms. Congressman Tom Lantos (D-CA) has called upon the Chinese to release the three condemned prisoners. "We call upon China as a member of the international community to meet international standards on freedom of religious expression and freedom of conscience."

Poor Tom doesn’t understand that China’s leaders are at odds with "the international community." China's leaders are not within the blessed circle of our "community." They live in what Andrei Navrozov calls "the zone of militarism." They count their nuclear stockpile and look forward to the day when they can spread their system to distant shores.

I’ve often heard it asked: "What if a madman gets hold of nuclear weapons?"

Ladies and gentlemen, madmen already have control of nuclear weapons. And stupid people, in the White House and in Congress, have facilitated this outfitting of madmen. The same can be said of many in the business community who are getting rich trading with China.

I think of Americans who do business with China as I think of corporate managers who traded with the SS during World War II, buying products made at Auschwitz. Getting rich by dealing with a system of labor camps is the same -- whether we are talking about Europe in 1943 or China in 2002. Collaboration with totalitarianism means collaboration with criminals. It facilitates a system of crime. Of course, such collaboration is legal. All the same, it is immoral. Anyone who cannot see the immorality in trading with China is a lost soul. Set all rationalizations about improving conditions in China aside. Yes, material conditions in China have improved during the last 25 years. But China’s military power has also improved. The police regime shows no signs of repentance. Over time it grows less ideological and more violent, more deceptive and fraudulent. Can we not see how corrupting it is to profit by the suffering of untold innocent millions? We have empowered the generals of the Peoples’ Liberation Army while condemning millions of Christians to what George Orwell described as a boot stamping on a human face forever. The fact is, you cannot make nice with devils and have clean hands.

President Bush is troubled that China has sentenced three Christians to death. I am troubled that he has made China his partner against terrorism. I am angry because he allows technology and money to flow into China; that he does not call the Chinese leaders to account. I am disappointed that he does not break off relations with these people, just as we broke off relations with them once before.

China’s defense minister, Chi Haotian, says that war with America is inevitable. The leaders here in America, in politics and business, don’t want to believe the words of Gen. Chi. We imagine that our enemies are dinky little terrorists with weak kidneys hiding out in caves. In reality they are sitting in positions of authority in Beijing, cutting kidneys out of political prisoners if need be. This month three Christians have been condemned to die. One day millions might be wiped out of existence in a few hours by the unleashing of nuclear rockets.

There is an ancient Chinese saying, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step."