Military Madness: Worrying New Clues About the Origins of Covid

How scientists at Wuhan lab helped Chinese army

in secret project to find animal viruses

By IAN BIRRELL FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY

PUBLISHED: 17:01 EDT, 24 April 2021 | UPDATED: 06:42 EDT, 25 April 2021

Scientists studying bat diseases at China's maximum-security laboratory in Wuhan were engaged in a massive project to investigate animal viruses alongside leading military officials – despite their denials of any such links.

Documents obtained by The Mail on Sunday reveal that a nationwide scheme, directed by a leading state body, was launched nine years ago to discover new viruses and detect the 'dark matter' of biology involved in spreading diseases.

One leading Chinese scientist, who published the first genetic sequence of the Covid-19 virus in January last year, found 143 new diseases in the first three years of the project alone.

The fact that such a virus-detection project is led by both civilian and military scientists appears to confirm incendiary claims from the United States alleging collaboration between the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) and the country's 2.1 million-strong armed forces.

The scheme's five team leaders include Shi Zhengli, the WIV virologist nicknamed 'Bat Woman' for her trips to find samples in caves, and Cao Wuchun, a senior army officer and government adviser on bioterrorism.

Prof Shi denied the US allegations last month, saying: 'I don't know of any military work at the WIV. That info is incorrect.'

Yet Colonel Cao is listed on project reports as a researcher from the Academy of Military Medical Sciences of the People's Liberation Army, works closely with other military scientists and is director of the Military Biosafety Expert Committee.

Cao, an epidemiologist who studied at Cambridge University, even sits on the Wuhan Institute of Virology's advisory board. He was second-in-command of the military team sent into the city under Major General Chen Wei, the country's top biodefence expert, to respond to the new virus and develop a vaccine.

The US State Department also raised concerns over risky 'gain of function' experiments to manipulate coronaviruses at the Wuhan lab and suggested researchers fell sick with Covid-like symptoms weeks before the outbreak emerged more widely in the Chinese city.

Last month, Britain, the US and 12 other countries criticised Beijing for refusing to share key data and samples after a joint World Health Organisation and Chinese study into the pandemic's origins dismissed a lab leak as 'extremely unlikely'.

Filippa Lentzos, a biosecurity expert at King's College London, said the latest disclosures fitted 'the pattern of inconsistencies' coming from Beijing.

'They are still not being transparent with us,' she said. 'We have no hard data on the pandemic origins, whether it was a natural spill-over from animals or some kind of accidental research-related leak, yet we're unable to get straight answers and that simply does not inspire confidence.'

The documents obtained by The Mail on Sunday detail a major project called 'the discovery of animal-delivered pathogens carried by wild animals', which set out to find organisms that could infect humans and investigate their evolution. 

It was launched in 2012 and funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. The project was led by Xu Jianguo, who boasted at a conference in 2019 that 'a giant network of infectious disease prevention and control is taking shape'.

The professor also headed the first expert group investigating Covid's emergence in Wuhan. He denied human transmission initially, despite evidence from hospitals, then insisted in mid-January 'this epidemic is limited and will end if there are no new cases next week'.

One review of his virus-hunting project admitted 'a large number of new viruses have been discovered, causing great concern in the international virology community'.

It added that if pathogens spread to humans and livestock, they could cause new infectious diseases 'posing a great threat to human health and life safety and may cause major economic losses, even affect social stability'.

An update in 2018 said that the scientific teams – who published many of their findings in international journals – had found four new pathogens and ten new bacteria while 'more than 1,640 new viruses were discovered using metagenomics technology'. Such research is based on extraction of genetic material from samples such as those collected by Prof Shi from bat faeces and blood in the cave networks of southern China.

Such extensive sampling led to Prof Shi's rapid revelation last year of RaTG13, the closest known relative to the new strain of coronavirus that causes Covid.

It was stored at the Wuhan lab, the biggest repository of bat coronaviruses in Asia.

Pictured: Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, in China's central Hubei province, during a visit by members

of the World Health Organization (WHO) team investigating the origins of the COVID-19 coronavirus

It later emerged she changed its name from another virus identified in a previous paper, thus obscuring its link to three miners who died from a strange respiratory disease they caught clearing bat droppings.

Prof Shi also admitted that eight more unidentified SARS viruses had been collected in the mine. The institute took its database of virus samples offline in September 2019, just a few weeks before Covid cases exploded in Wuhan.

I'm sure that was a coincidence!

A comment was made on social media after Colonel Cao published a paper on a fatal tick bite, saying he and Prof Shi 'can always find a virus that has never been found in humans', adding: 'I suspect this is another so-called 'scientific research' made in the laboratory.'

In recent years, China's military has ramped up its hiring of scientists after President Xi Jinping said this was a key element in the nation's march for global supremacy.

Lianchao Han, a dissident who used to work for the Chinese government, said Cao's involvement raised suspicions that military researchers who are experts in coronaviruses might also be involved in bio-defence operations.

'Many have been working with Western research institutes for years to steal our know-hows but China still refuses to share critical information a year after the pandemic has killed over three million.'

David Asher, an expert on biological, chemical and nuclear proliferation, who led State Department inquiries into the origins of Covid-19, said: 'The Chinese have made it clear they see biotechnology as a big part of the future of hybrid warfare. The big question is whether their work in these fields is offensive or defensive.'

What 'defensive' weapon has never been used offensively? It's really hard for military leaders to resist using a new toy.

War on Christianity - China: Police Arrest Christians Participating in Zoom Easter Worship Service

China is a member of the UN's Human Rights Council

By Leah MarieAnn Klett, Christian Post 

A church is seen beside a laver farm at the Gutong Village of Sansha Township on October 15, 2007

in Xiapu County of Fujian Province, China. | Getty Images/China Photos

Several members of China’s heavily persecuted Early Rain Covenant Church were arrested by communist authorities for participating in an online Easter worship service on Zoom and ordered to cease all religious activity.

Persecution watchdog group International Christian Concern reports that the Christians were participating in a Zoom worship service from their homes on Easter Sunday when six leaders were arrested and detained by the Public Security Bureau. 

The 5,000-member Sichuan house church, led by pastor Wang Yi, has not been able to gather in person since the communist regime shut down the church in 2018 and arrested their pastor and other leaders. Since then, it has opted to gather online.

A member of ERCC told ICC, “At that time I was also in the Zoom call, but there was a long period of time where I did not hear a thing. I thought it’s the network connection issue at first, but I soon heard a quarrel erupt. Our co-worker Wang Jun was questioning some people, [saying], ‘Who are you to do this [to us]?’”

She added that in addition to Wang, other key church leaders including Guo Haigang, Wu Wuqing, Jia Xuewei, Zhang Jianqing and Zhang Xudong were also taken away. One member’s home had its electricity cut off, while others received phone calls that “police [were] coming to visit them soon.”

A supporter of ERCC also shared on Twitter, “Since 8:30 a.m., some security officials have entered these Christian families’ homes and pretended to be chatting with them casually. At 9:30 a.m., the worship began, and they were also invited to participate. Once they realized that the sermon was from ERCC’s imprisoned pastor Wang Yi, they immediately shut it down.”

Her account was corroborated by Zhang Jiangqing, who was warned by the police at his house, saying, “Don’t participate in already banned [religious] activities anymore! Don’t listen to pastor [Wang]’s sermons anymore! If you do this again, we will deal with it seriously and take you away!”

The six Christians have since been released, and their electricity was restored in the afternoon.

Early Rain Covenant Church was first raided during a Sunday evening service in December 2018 after authorities claimed it violated religious regulations because it was not registered with the government. Wang was detained along with his wife, Jiang Rong, and more than 100 members of his congregation.

Pastor Wang was later sentenced to nine years in prison on charges of subversion of power and illegal business operations. 

Gina Goh, ICC’s regional manager for Southeast Asia, condemned the government’s actions, pointing out that local authorities have continued to monitor and harass ERCC members since 2018 “with the hope that the church will disperse itself.”

“In a time when the Chinese people are suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic, the heartless regime chose to inflict more trouble on its citizens,” she said. “The U.N. should immediately suspend China’s appointment to the Human Rights Council for its lack of respect for human rights.”

In China, where the novel coronavirus originated, isolating in place has presented an opportunity for communist authorities to ramp up its campaign against Christianity.

On Easter Sunday, the state-sanctioned Donghu Church in China’s Qinghai province was demolished. According to China Aid, a team from the Xining City Chengxi District Urban and Rural Construction Bureau demolished the church in just two hours, labeling it as illegal while citing “safety concerns.”

On April 2, Bethel Church pastor Zhao Huaiguo was arrested after being criminally detained since March 14 for “inciting subversion of state power.”

According to China Aid, a local Christian shared that the authorities have been hostile toward pastor Zhao since his church refused to join the state-sanctioned church and rejected government officials’ intervention. 

“He was accused of proselytizing and distributing Gospel tracts, which were considered illegal acts. After the Lunar New Year last year, the religious bureau forced the church to disperse, to which it refused. The official ban arrived last April,” said the local Christian.

Religious liberty magazine Bitter Winter reported that in mid-March, crosses were removed from multiple churches in the eastern provinces of Jiangsu and Anhui and in the neighboring Shandong, the prefecture-level city of Linyi.

In February, officials removed a cross from a government-approved Three-Self church in Hexi village. The church was built in 2007 and has complied with state regulations, implementing the four requirements of the government’s religion “sinicization” campaign. Additionally, it had stopped all gatherings during the coronavirus epidemic. Nevertheless, it was not spared in the crackdown. 

“The government does not provide enough help during the epidemic but instead demolishes crosses,” a local believer said.

China is ranked on Open Doors USA’s World Watch List as one of the worst countries in the world when it comes to the persecution of Christians. 

China has also been labeled by the U.S. State Department as a “country of particular concern” for “continuing to engage in particularly severe violations of religious freedom.”

China’s Zhejiang Province Destroying Dozens of Christian Churches

How China Uses Intimidation, Negotiation to Bring Christians Under Its Control

War on Christianity - India, Pakistan, China, Ethiopia, Kenya

Tortured Evangelist Supernaturally Escapes High-Security Chinese Prison by Simply Walking Out

Author: Paul Steven Ghiringhelli

Charisma

 Brother Yun (Vimeo/Back to Jerusalem)

Liu Zhenying fell to the floor convulsing, his frail body coursing with electricity. Prison guards, electric-shock batons in hand, stepped back unashamedly as he lost consciousness.

Inside Nanyang Prison, located in China's Henan Province, 25-year-old Liu was beginning the 75th day of his fast from both food and water. Although he was 5 feet 5 inches, he weighed less than 70 pounds and had to be carried to a room where officials had arranged for his family to see him. The Public Security Bureau (PSB), China's secret police, was hoping Liu's wife and mother would convince him to renounce his "superstitious" beliefs and reveal the identities and locations of his unregistered house-church contacts.

When Liu regained consciousness, his head was in his mother's lap. She was sobbing. His young wife and sister peered at him in horror. He was an unsightly pile of skin and bones, covered in crusty blood and filth. His ears were shriveled like raisins, and portions of his scalp were exposed because the prison guards had ripped his hair out.

Only a birthmark convinced Liu's mother that the man she was holding was her son. Soon they were all crying. Liu broke his fast by sharing communion with his family. Then he cried, "I will see you all in heaven!"

That was April 7, 1984. Liu believed he would soon die for the Lord in that prison, but God had other plans. He was released four years later but imprisoned and tortured twice more before escaping China in 1997.

Today, Liu Zhenying, 49, is known to Christians around the world as Brother Yun (pronounced "Yoon"), a name Chinese believers gave him to protect his identity. Thousands have been inspired by his account of supernatural intervention and miraculous survival, which he detailed in his autobiography, The Heavenly Man (Piquant Editions and Monarch Books).

Co-authored by Paul Hattaway, the book has been translated into 33 languages and has sold more than 800,000 copies. In 2003, it won the United Kingdom's Christian Booksellers' Book of the Year Award.

But more than being a testimony of one man's spiritual journey, The Heavenly Man offers a glimpse inside the Chinese underground house-church movement, a Christian community that is poised to reach the world with the gospel.

China's Christian Awakening

Although the numbers vary, observers estimate between 100 million and 130 million Christians live in China, an indication that nearly 10 percent of the nation's 1.3 billion people may be believers.

Protestant missionary work to South Asia began exactly 200 years ago when Robert Morrison landed in Macao in 1807. The Scottish missionary eventually translated the Bible into Chinese from his base in the coastal city of Guangzhou. Later, missionaries such as Hudson Taylor, who founded the China Inland Mission in 1865, carried the gospel into interior provinces such as Henan.

There were roughly 1 million Christians living in China when Mao Zedong's community army took over in 1949. But Mao's regime looked to turn back the tide. "The first thing Mao did was expel all missionaries, throw pastors in prison or labor camps where most of them died, destroy church buildings and burn Bibles," Yun says. "By the 1970s, it was said the only Bibles left in China were in history museums in Beijing."

Yet when Mao's bloody Cultural Revolution ended with his death in 1976, an underground Christian movement erupted. It was around this time that a proselytizing 17-year-old Yun first became a wanted criminal in China, having led 2,000 people to Christ in his native Henan Province during his first year as a Christian.

He says his zeal came from his mother, a poor and backslidden woman who, while caring for her cancer-stricken husband and near suicide herself, tearfully turned back to God one night in 1974. The prodigal gathered her five children (Yun was the fourth of five) and told them Jesus would save them. They prayed all night for their father, and he was healed. Yun says God then told him to be His witness "to the south and the west."

The young evangelist continued to preach despite the constant threat of arrest. Even after Mao's brutal reign ended, Chinese authorities continued to persecute Christians. In 1983 after a secret house-church meeting in a village, PSB officers arrested Yun.

As he was being kicked and dragged through the snow, Yun feigned insanity to warn other believers to run, shouting, "I am a heavenly man! I live in Gospel Village! My father's name is Abundant Blessing! My mother's name is Faith, Hope and Love!"

One of several Christians to be arrested that night, Yun spent four years in Nanyang Prison. There he rejected numerous enticements to join the government-sanctioned Three-Self Church, as do most Christians in China. Members of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement or the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association face legal restrictions on core Christian practices, including evangelism, youth outreach and home groups.

Because Yun refused to conform, prison officials resorted to beatings and electric shocks in an attempt to penetrate his house-church connections. "They wanted me to reveal names of co-workers and meeting places," Yun told Charisma. "With thick needles they squeezed acids under my nails, and I fainted from the pain. I woke up and told them nothing."

Unlike many Western teachers who equate Christianity with comfort and abundance, Yun preaches a gospel that emphasizes suffering and ruin. He sees affliction as a way to commune with God.

"I did not really suffer for Jesus while in prison—I was with Jesus," he writes in his book. "The ones who really suffer are those who never experience God's presence."

Revivalist Rolland Baker—who with his wife, Heidi, ministers among the poorest of Africa—says Yun's life is one "so totally captured by [Jesus] that no imaginable hardship or persecution can stop him from being more than a conqueror."

Yun says there was a time when he allowed ministry "to become an idol." After being released from Nanyang Prison in 1988, Yun says he temporarily lost sight of God and became overzealous and obstinate. He ministered around China at a breakneck pace, ignoring his wife's pleas to slow down.

Yun later admitted that he had forgotten his "first love." Of his second imprisonment in 1991, he says, "The Lord graciously allowed me to rest in Him behind bars."

Released in 1993, Yun says he soon developed a burden to see unity among China's house churches, a passion he shared with his mentor, Peter Xu Yongze, who at that time led China's large house church, the Born Again Movement.

The unity movement, later named Sinim Fellowship, spread so quickly that by early 1997 word of it reached the office of high-level communist officials in Beijing. Subsequently, the PSB raided a clandestine Sinim meeting in Henan's provincial capital of Zhengzhou.

Trying to avoid arrest, Yun leaped from the second-floor window but fractured his leg. He was met on the ground by the PSB, who beat him and issued electric shocked. Sharing a wall between their cells, Yun and Xu, who also was arrested during the raid, were tortured for several days at Zhengzhou's Number One Maximum Security Prison. Yun's legs were beaten with clubs to rule out an escape attempt.

Yun says torture taught him an important lesson: "Even though God did not speak a word to me, no matter how much I cried; even though God didn't immediately set me free from the pain and terror; I have come to understand that He was there."

CHARISMA is the only magazine dedicated to reporting on what the Holy Spirit is doing in the lives of believers around the world. If you are thirsty for more of God's presence and His Holy Spirit, subscribe to CHARISMA and join a family of believers that choose to live life in the Spirit. CLICK HERE for a special offer.

After six weeks on the prison's third floor, Brother Yun believed God wanted him to escape. So on the morning of May 5, 1997, after his wife in a vision that morning told him to "open the iron door" and after Zu whispered to him that the time had come, Yun asked the guard for permission to use the bathroom.

Although he barely could stand on his battered legs, when the iron door opened, Yun says he suddenly was able to walk on his own, which he did, right past the first guard. On the stairwell he says he grabbed a broom to pretend he was tidying up the place, then proceeded past the second guard, who looked straight through him. Praying with every step, Yun says he reached ground level and found the third iron door open as well. Stepping onto the courtyard and into broad daylight, Yun thought he would be shot in the back at any moment.

But amazingly, when he reached the prison's main gate, it was open too. He walked onto the busy Zhengzhou streets and a taxi pulled up. The driver asked, "Where to?"

Yun later learned that no one had ever escaped from Zhengzhou Prison.

There is much more on this story at Charisma

Chinese Pastor Wang Yi Sentenced to Nine Years in Prison for 'Subversion of State Power'

Subversion of State Power simply means 'Communist Paranoia'

By  Daniel Uria

(UPI) -- The pastor of one of China's most prominent underground Christian churches was sentenced to nine years in prison on Monday, the government said.

The Intermediate People's Court of Chengdu Municipality sentenced Wang Yi, the founder of Early Rain Covenant Church, a Calvinist house church in Chengdu, to serve the nine-year prison sentence in addition to stripping his political rights for three years and seizing about $7,200 of his assets for what the government called subversion of state power and illegal business operations.

Chinese law guarantees freedom of religion, but the country has carried out a crackdown on churches, mosques and temples not registered with the state under President Xi Jinping throughout the past six years.

Wang and 100 members of his congregation, including his wife Jiang Rong, were detained in a raid on his church last year.

The parishioners were eventually released but Wang remained in detention amid speculation he was being tried in secret.

Secret trials are only necessary when truth and justice are denied by the state. No-one has ever accused China of being open, honest, or fair.

In a Facebook post on Monday, the church said Wang had not committed a crime and had always respected the separation of church and state.

"He has taught that even when the church is being persecuted, Christians should be willing to submit to the government's physical restrictions of them as well as to the deprivation of their property," the church said. "He has never said or done anything that amounts to 'inciting to subvert state power.'"

Communist China has always seen Christianity as a form of western influence invading the country. This is typical of communist countries which have always believed that western countries were out to destroy them. Communist paranoia.

A Million People Are Jailed at China's Gulags. I Managed to Escape. Here's What Really Goes on Inside

Rape, torture and human experiments. Sayragul Sauytbay offers firsthand testimony from a Xinjiang 'reeducation' camp

By David Stavrou (Stockholm)

STOCKHOLM – Twenty prisoners live in one small room. They are handcuffed, their heads shaved, every move is monitored by ceiling cameras. A bucket in the corner of the room is their toilet. The daily routine begins at 6 A.M. They are learning Chinese, memorizing propaganda songs and confessing to invented sins. They range in age from teenagers to elderly. Their meals are meager: cloudy soup and a slice of bread.

Torture – metal nails, fingernails pulled out, electric shocks – takes place in the “black room.” Punishment is a constant. The prisoners are forced to take pills and get injections. It’s for disease prevention, the staff tell them, but in reality they are the human subjects of medical experiments. Many of the inmates suffer from cognitive decline. Some of the men become sterile. Women are routinely raped.

Such is life in China’s reeducation camps, as reported in rare testimony provided by Sayragul Sauytbay (pronounced: Say-ra-gul Saut-bay, as in “bye”), a teacher who escaped from China and was granted asylum in Sweden. Few prisoners have succeeded in getting out of the camps and telling their story. Sauytbay’s testimony is even more extraordinary, because during her incarceration she was compelled to be a teacher in the camp. China wants to market its camps to the world as places of educational programs and vocational retraining, but Sauytbay is one of the few people who can offer credible, firsthand testimony about what really goes on in the camps.

Please go to Haaretz.com for the complete article.

Christians Lend Anthem, Pacifist Spirit to Hong Kong Protests

By Alexandra Radu, Religion News Service

More than 15,000 people attend an evening rally in Hong Kong on Friday, the first large-scale political rally

for Christians since the democracy movement started in June. Photo by Alexandra Radu/RNS

HONG KONG, (UPI) -- Since protests began more than 12 weeks ago over an extradition bill that would allow Hong Kong residents to be sent to mainland China for trial, the city's Christian community has taken an active role.

Groups of Christians regularly participate in the marches that have coursed through Hong Kong's streets every weekend since June, and their pleas for peaceful protests and their hymns and prayers are often heard along with protest chants. One hymn, "Sing Hallelujah to the Lord," written in 1974, has caught on as an anthem of the protests, sung by believers and nonbelievers alike.

The Christian hymn not only inspires: It grants the protesters some protection under a technicality in Hong Kong law of public assembly that exempts religious gatherings.

The bill that brought the protesters out into the streets has since been suspended, but the demonstrations have continued, turning into a larger campaign for democracy and for maintaining the "one country, two systems" model agreed upon when the former British colony returned to China in 1997.

The protests have sometimes turned violent. While some Hong Kong residents see violence as the only way to obtain their demands, many, including most Christians, choose to support the protests through peaceful means. The city's Christians number about 900,000, or 12 percent of Hong Kong's population of roughly 7.5 million.

Several Christian organizations have officially voiced their concerns over the extradition bill, including the Hong Kong Christian Council, the Catholic Diocese, the Baptist Convention of Hong Kong and the Christian & Missionary Alliance Church Union of Hong Kong. They have also urged the protesters to find a peaceful solution to the crisis.

The protests have provided Christians with an opportunity to voice their concerns about religious freedom. If China ends the "one country, two systems" status quo, they fear, the persecution of religious denominations in mainland China may spread to Hong Kong.

On Friday, tens of thousands of people gathered in Chater Garden for the first large-scale political rally specifically for Christians. With the motto "Salt and light, for justice we walk together," the rally aimed to "provide all Christians a platform to express themselves outside the church, hoping people would safeguard Hong Kong by singing, praying, worshiping God and at the same time speaking up for justice and standing together with all the Hong Kongers in difficult times," said a press release from the rally organizer.

Hong Kong protesters turn out in force for 11th weekend

A massive sea of umbrellas is seen from above as protesters leave an anti-government rally in Hong Kong's Victoria Park

on Sunday. Organizers estimated 1.7 million people turned out for the demonstration. Photo by Thomas Maresca/UPI

Call it the Umbrella Revolution! It's rainy season in Hong Kong, but it hasn't slowed the protest one bit. Although calling it a revolution is not quite accurate as they are not trying to change anything, but rather keep things the same. 

I'm proud of the Christians who stand up for Hong Kong and who do it peacefully. Violence will certainly give China an excuse to invade the city with their army and crush the protesters. They would like to have done so by now but can't figure out how to do it without the violence being instantly relayed around the world. It's not like Tienanmen Square, everyone has a cell phone.

But, while violence is likely to be the trigger for a Chinese takeover, communist paranoia may, in fact, see the growing Christian movement as a worse threat. They have always accused Christians of trying to invade China with western ideology and have used that as an excuse to imprison countless Christians, some of whom were never seen again.

Pray for peace in Hong Kong and for the government in Beijing to back-off and allow Hong Kong to prosper as it has for many decades.

Two Years Later, Chinese Human Rights Lawyer Gao Zhisheng is Still Missing

And Beijing wonders why Hong Kong is making such a stink

Gao Zhisheng's book

(Photo: ChinaAid)

ChinaAid

(Yulin, Shaanxi—Aug. 14, 2019) It has been two years since the brother of the prominent Chinese human rights lawyer and Noble Prize nominee Gao Zhisheng arrived at the attorney’s apartment in Shaanxi province for a visit on Aug. 13, 2017, only to discover him gone. 

For 23 days, his supporters assumed him kidnapped by authorities, much like he had been several times before. In reality, however, the officials were searching relentlessly, finally crossing the border into the neighboring Shanxi province and finding him with two sympathizers, Shao Zhongguo and Li Fawang, who had smuggled him out of his home in order to free him from the watchful eyes of the authorities. He had lived under the surveillance for three years, following his 2014 release from prison.

Human Rights Activist Slowly, Torturously Destroyed by Chinese Government - Aug 2014

Upon discovery, Gao immediately vanished into police custody, and Shao and Li were criminally detained.

Since then, the outside world has heard little information about Gao. Sometime after his disappearance, Beijing officials claimed they had him in secret custody within the Chinese capital, but no one has been able to verify their claim. Likewise, Gao’s family does not know where he is being held, and he has not been allowed to consult with lawyers.

Chinese law dictates that it is illegal for prisoners to be held for more than six months without a charge, and Gao has now been held for four times that amount, constituting a severe violation of rule of law.

Gao’s previous arrests and disappearances all stem from his human rights work, and he describes the horror he faced in his piece “Dark Night, Dark Hood, and Kidnapping by Dark Mafia.”

During the three years Gao lived in his apartment, he secretly penned Unwavering Convictions, a book which describes atrocities committed by the Chinese Communist Party. ChinaAid smuggled the book out of China and published it with the Carolina Academic Press and the American Bar Association. The book, which has been translated into English, can be purchased at the above link.

Because of the mounting pressure against their family, Gao’s wife and children fled to the United States in 2009.

This is why Hong Kong is fighting so hard to refuse China the right to try Hong Kong criminal cases on mainland China. There is no respect of their own laws, legal decisions are more often political, and innocent people just disappear for years. I fear for Hong Kong as I believe China is in crouch mode, ready to spring at the first opportunity. Escalating violence will provide that opportunity. 

How China Uses Intimidation, Negotiation to Bring Christians Under Its Control

War on Christianity - in China. It must be bad for CBC to report on it.

Crackdowns on Protestants, deals with the Vatican

part of realities for the religious

Saša Petricic · CBC News

Protestant Christians gather for prayer at Holy Love house church in Beijing. They have had to change their

schedule and their meeting places to avoid China’s crackdown on 'illegal gatherings.' (Saša Petricic/CBC)

The officials at the gate were expecting us — a dozen guards with armbands marked "local safety committee". The door has always been open on our other visits. This time, they seemed determined not to let a CBC reporter into the Beijing apartment building.

"For security reasons, no foreigner," said the man in charge. "No cameras. It's closed," he said.

That is, until our host arrived to argue with the guards.

"Why are you wearing the local committee badge?" Pastor Xu Yonghai asked the guard. "You're with the national security agency." The order to stop us from seeing him came from higher up, he suggested.

Fastest-growing Christian movement in the world

The pastor escorted us up to his apartment. With a cross on one wall and a row of Bibles on a bookshelf, his one-room home doubles as a church once a week.

Pastor Xu Yonghai, centre, leads a weekly sermon in his small apartment, which doubles as the Holy Love church in Beijing. (Saša Petricic/CBC)

There are thousands of these so-called house churches in China, a way for the fastest-growing Christian movement in the world to remain low-key and try to avoid a clampdown from government officials.

China's constitution guarantees religious freedom, but since President Xi Jinping took office six years ago the government has tightened restrictions on churches it cannot control. Religion is seen as a challenge to the Communist Party's power, especially now that Christians likely outnumber the party's 82 million members.

A recent poll determined there were about 31 million Christians in China. However, those are only the ones who were willing to admit it. The real number may well be several times that. So it is understandable that the government is concerned. It is the nature of Communism to be paranoid. Most Communist countries have believed that Christianity is a western plot to overthrow communism.

"The political pressure on us is growing," Xu said, over tea at his kitchen table. "The room for free belief has shrunk."

Like the pastor, many of his 30 or so parishioners at the Holy Love house church consider themselves dissidents, fiercely opposed to the government's attempts to restrict religious movements in China. And like the pastor, most of them have served time in jail for their protests.

He's convinced his phone is tapped and worse is yet to come.

"Just like you were obstructed today, police have stopped our people from attending the service," Xu said. "We had to move our meetings from Fridays to another day, and we frequently change locations."

Violent and aggressive raids

Religious groups have long played this kind of cat and mouse with Chinese authorities, but in recent weeks Beijing has asserted control. 

Protestants have seen churches closed and their crosses torn down under new laws. 

Catholics have seen a controversial agreement between China and the Vatican, with Beijing apparently formalizing its power over church leaders.

In China's southern Christian heartland, dozens of house churches have been raided, sometimes "violently and aggressively", said Pastor Zhang Chunlei from Guizhou province.

He said police removed crosses and other religious material from his church in the city of Guiyang and told him the gatherings are illegal.

"We never accepted that law," said Zhang. "To attend the prayer session is a right bestowed onto us by God."

"The authorities are very powerful," he said. "We cannot confront them, but we will find other ways to pray."

Protestant churches in southern China have had crosses removed over the past two months. On the left, a man

yells in protest at crews removing a cross from a church in Xingyang, Henan province, in September.

On the right, a cross being removed from a church in Zhejiang province, in October. (Names withheld by request)

One of the country's largest unofficial churches, Beijing's Zion Protestant church, was recently ordered shut after city authorities said it didn't have permission for "mass gatherings" or to distribute "illegal promotional material."

Cranes removing crosses

The Zion church had for years operated with relative freedom, hosting hundreds of worshippers every weekend in a large, specially renovated hall in north Beijing. But in April, it rejected official demands that it install surveillance cameras inside. The order to close came soon after.

"I fear that there is no way for us to resolve this issue with the authorities," Zion's pastor, Jin Mingri, said.

His followers received a notice from the local religious affairs bureau. Believers, it said, "must respect the rules and regulations and attend events in legally registered places of religious activity."

Even government-sanctioned churches have been ordered to reduce their visible presence. Cranes have shown up at many to remove the large red crosses from rooftops, as parishioners pray, sing hymns and watch.

In one video circulated on China's internet, a man is shown yelling at workers dismantling a cross in Xingyang, Henan province, in September. "Religious people are not bad people," he shouted. "Why are you treating us like this? You will be punished."

Cutting deals with the Vatican

Beijing has taken a different approach with the country's 10 to 12 million Catholics: negotiations with the Vatican.

Last month it came to terms with the Holy See, ending a 67-year dispute over who has the final say in choosing Chinese bishops. Since 1951, Beijing has insisted it has to approve them, while the church maintained the ultimate decision is up to the pope.

Pope Francis declared the agreement a "new phase" in his relationship with the Communist leadership, "which helps to heal the wounds of the past and maintain the full communion of all Chinese Catholics."

For decades the split forced the country's Catholics to choose between worship in state-sanctioned churches — under Beijing's control — or going to underground services with clergy loyal to the Vatican.

Pope Francis, pictured in April greeting Chinese Catholics at the Vatican, hopes a new agreement with Beijing

will 'heal the wounds of the past.' (Gregorio Borgia, File/Associated Press)

Details of the new agreement have not been made public, but observers in Rome say it will likely allow Beijing to vet a pool of potential candidates for bishops, leaving the Pope to choose among them.

'The churches will still be torn down'

Pope Francis has asked Chinese Catholics to support the Vatican's co-operation with Beijing, but given the Communist Party's opposition to religion — and its history of persecuting church leaders and followers who don't toe the line — the deal has been controversial.

The head of the Catholic Church in Hong Kong, Bishop Michael Yeung, called the agreement a betrayal that won't protect religious rights.

The deal "could not stop the suppression," he said. "The churches will still be torn down.… The young folks will not be allowed to go to church."

He worries priests who run afoul of the government will continue to be punished. "There will still be times when they are made to disappear," Yeung said.

On a recent Sunday at Beijing's Church of the Saviour, the service went ahead as usual. The choir sang, people prayed. The ornate church in the city's north end looks a lot like historic Catholic cathedrals the world over, but this one is run under the supervision of Chinese authorities.

And the talk on this Sunday was about potential changes for China's Catholics. Many parishioners didn't want their names used or their views published. A few did.

St. Joseph’s Wangfujing Catholic Church in central Beijing is one of several government-authorized Catholic churches in China, where the authorities have been negotiating with the Vatican for more control over religion. (Saša Petricic/CBC)

"I really don't want the church to have too much contact with politics," said university student Liu Haotian, but he said he hopes the deal will guarantee the rights of Catholics to pray.

Han Yu, a 37-year-old travel company manager, was hesitant. "For us Catholics, there will be some loss, regrets and even some feelings of helplessness," she said. But in the long term in China, "there may be more people who will be able to become Christians."

Those numbers of followers are growing quickly. But so is Beijing's determination to control which religious leaders they follow.

China demolishes hundreds of churches and confiscates Bibles during a crackdown on Christianity

War On Christianity - Communist Chinese Style

By ASSOCIATED PRESS and KELSEY CHENG FOR MAILONLINE

Concerns have been raised over China's apparent crackdown on Christianity as the ruling Community party continues to intensify its control over religious freedom in the country.

Churches were raided and demolished, Bibles and holy books were confiscated and new laws were established to monitor religious activities in the country's province of Henan, which has one of the largest Christian populations in China.

Under President Xi Jinping, China's most powerful leader since Mao Zedong, believers are seeing their freedoms shrink dramatically even as the country undergoes a religious revival. 

Experts and activists say that as Xi consolidates his power, he is waging the most severe systematic suppression of Christianity in the country since religious freedom was written into the Chinese constitution in 1982.

A demolished house church is seen in the city of Zhengzhou in central China's Henan province. Under President

Xi Jinping, China's most powerful leader since Mao Zedong, believers are seeing their freedoms shrink dramatically

A painting of the Last Supper is seen next to posters quoting China's constitution on religious freedom in a house church shut down by authorities near the city of Nanyang in central China's Henan province, the country's Christian heartland

A Chinese national flag flies over a church near the city of Pingdingshan in Henan province. Experts say that

President Xi Jinping is waging the most severe systematic suppression of Christianity in the country since 1982

Guo, a 62-year-old Chinese shopkeeper had waited nearly his entire adult life to see his dream of building a church come true - a brick house with a sunny courtyard and spacious hall with room for 200 believers.

But in March, about a dozen police officers and local officials suddenly showed up at the church on his property and made the frightened congregants disperse. 

They ordered that the cross, a painting of the Last Supper and Bible verse calligraphy be taken down. And they demanded that all services stop until each person along with the church itself was registered with the government, said Guo, who gave his last name only from fear of retribution.

Without warning, Guo and his neighbors in central Henan had found themselves on the front lines of an ambitious new effort by the officially atheist ruling Communist Party to dictate - and in some cases displace - the practice of faith in the country.

The crackdown on Christianity is part of a broader push by Xi to 'Sinicise' all the nation's religions by infusing them with 'Chinese characteristics' such as loyalty to the Communist Party. Over the last several months, local governments across the country have shut down hundreds of private Christian 'house churches'. A statement last week from 47 in Beijing alone said they had faced 'unprecedented' harassment since February. A

A pastor, Jin Minri, leads a class on Christian beliefs at the Zion Church in Beijing. After Jin refused authorities' request to install surveillance cameras in his house church, police questioned hundreds of members of the 1,500-person congregation

A slogan outside a church reads 'Educate the believers with excellent Chinese traditional culture' near Pingdingshan, Henan

Chinese calligraphy reads 'All nations belong to the Lord arising to shine' at left and 'Jesus's salvation spreads to the whole world' at right are displayed below a crucifix in a house church shut down by authorities near the city of Nanyang, Henan

A dozen Chinese Protestants interviewed by the Associated Press described gatherings that were raided, interrogations and surveillance, and one pastor said hundreds of his congregants were questioned individually about their faith. Like Guo, the majority requested that their names be partly or fully withheld because they feared punishment from authorities.

'Chinese leaders have always been suspicious of the political challenge or threat that Christianity poses to the Communist regime,' said Xi Lian, a scholar of Christianity in China at Duke University. 'Under Xi, this fear of Western infiltration has intensified and gained a prominence that we haven't seen for a long time.'

Suspicion is a very mild way of putting it. Communism has always had an inherent paranoia.

Officials once largely tolerated the unregistered Protestant house churches that sprang up independent of the official Christian Council, clamping down on some while allowing others to grow. But this year they have taken a tougher approach that relies partly on 'thought reform' - a phrase for political indoctrination. 

Last November, Christian residents of a rural township in south-east Jiangxi province were persuaded to replace posters of the cross and Jesus Christ inside their homes with portraits of Xi, a local official said. 

'Through our thought reform, they've voluntarily done it,' Qi Yan, a member of the township party committee, told the AP by phone. 'The move is aimed at Christian families in poverty, and we educated them to believe in science and not in superstition, making them believe in the party.' 

Voluntarily! Right!

Children play near the entrance of a church with a sign reading 'Notice: Minors prohibited from entry' near Lushan, Henan

A slogan reading 'Religious activities should not interfere with social order and order of life' is displayed in Pingdingshan city

Pastor Jin Minri  said police previously individually questioned hundreds of members of the 1,500-person congregation

The poster campaign appears to symbolise what analysts see as the underlying force driving the change in the party's approach to religion: the ascendance of Xi.

'Xi is a closet Maoist - he is very anxious about thought control,' said Willy Lam, a Chinese politics expert at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. 'He definitely does not want people to be faithful members of the church, because then people would profess their allegiance to the church rather than to the party, or more exactly, to Xi himself.'

Various state and local officials declined repeated requests to comment. But in 2016, Xi explicitly warned against the perceived foreign threats tied to faith, telling a religion conference: 'We must resolutely guard against overseas infiltrations via religious means.'

This is the manifestation of Chinese communist paranoia - they see religion as a threat from western countries. The Soviet Union also saw religion as a threat. They saw everything as a threat. The KGB and its predecessor made sure of that stoking the fears of Stalin and others as they were spectacular at empire building - the KGB empire.

I recommend reading 'The Persecutor' by Sergei Khordakov. Amazing expose of the KGB which resulted in Khordakov's murder after his amazing defection. Great read.

Those who resist pay the price. 

After Jin Mingri, a prominent pastor who leads Zion Church in Beijing, refused local authorities' request to install surveillance cameras inside his house church, police individually questioned hundreds of members of the 1,500-person congregation, he said. 

The congregants faced veiled threats, Jin said, and many were asked to sign a pledge promising to leave Zion, which the government agents called illegal, politically incorrect and a cult. Some people lost their jobs or were evicted from rented apartments because police intimidated their bosses and landlords. 

A poster of Chinese President Xi Jinping and part of the slogan which reads 'Actively play the leading role of party building and comprehensively implement the plan for poverty alleviation' near Pingdingshan city in central China's Henan province

A woman hangs laundry near a church in the city of Pingdingshan in central China's Henan province

Xu Shijuan, a 63-year-old Seventh-Day Adventist sings gospel songs at her home in Zhengzhou in Henan province

'A lot of our flock are terrified by the pressure that the government is putting on them,' he said. 'It's painful to think that in our own country's capital, we must pay so dearly just to practice our faith.'

In Zhengzhou, Henan's capital, all that is left of one house church is shattered glass, tangled wires and torn hymnbooks, strewn among the rubble of a knocked-down wall. Pegged to another wall is a single wooden cross, still intact.

The church inside a commercial building had served about 100 believers for years. But in late January, nearly 60 officials from the local religion department and police station appeared without warning. Armed with electric saws, they demolished the church, confiscated Bibles and computers and held a handful of young worshippers - including a 14-year-old girl - at a police station for more than 10 hours, according to a church leader.

Even Protestant churches already registered with the state have not been spared greater restrictions. 

When reporters visited five such churches in Henan this June, all bore notices at their entrances stating that minors and party members were not allowed inside. A banner above one church door exhorted members to 'implement the basic direction of the party's religious work.' Another church erected a Chinese flag at the foot of its steps. 

A child stands near a slogan that reads 'Communist party members cannot take part in religious activities'

A photo of President Xi Jinping is seen near the Christian poster with the word 'Grace' outside a house church near Nanyang

Locals in Henan province stated concerns of a move by the atheist ruling Community Party to control Christianity  

Guo's brick house was largely deserted this summer. Around the door frame, tattered red outlines remained of a scroll that once read 'God's love is as deep as the sea.'

Inside, Guo has refused to remove the cross and other decorations, telling authorities they are within his private property.

Among them, pinned to a wall in the nave, is a bright blue poster that quotes China's constitutional promise of religious freedom.

Elsewhere in China, religious practices and activities remain strictly controlled. 

In Xinjiang, a Muslim-majority region in the country's far west, millions of ethnic Uighurs face repression and torture as authorities claimed to rule out potential separatist movements. 

Former inmates have told of the horror after being detained in what the Chinese government calls 'political re-education camps', where they were physically and mentally tortured and as punishment, were forced to eat pork and drink alcohol. 

A resident walks past a government billboard citing core values of the Communist Party near a church in Pingdingshan

The character for 'love' is displayed at the gated entrance of a church near Pingdingshan city in Henan province

A man drives past the slogans for 'Patriotism and Love for the church, Glorifying God and serving human beings' in Henan

In late July, children in traditionally Buddhist Tibet were required to sign an agreement to 'not take part in any form of religious activity' during the summer holidays, according to the Global Times.

The policy appears to reflect increasingly harsh restrictions on the Himalayan region's traditional Buddhist culture, largely aimed at reducing the influence of the region's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in India.

On Tuesday, state media announced that all religious institutions across the country are now required to fly the national flag, in a move to assimilate religions into the socialist society.

The rule is necessary to strengthen awareness of respect for the flag - a symbol of the country's embrace of communism in 1949 - and preserve the flag's dignity, Xinhua claimed, adding that the practice can enhance the public's national consciousness and civic awareness.