(updated
in July 2014)
Patrick
Kar-wai Poon
Committee
Member and Coordinator of China Affairs Group,
Justice
and Peace Commission of the Hong Kong Catholic Diocese
The
Justice and Peace Commission of the Hong Kong Catholic Diocese
submitted a stakeholder’s report1
for the UN Human Rights Council’s second Universal Periodic Review
on China in 2013. The following presentation is roughly based on the
information we included in the report and I have also included some
updates in this presentation.
Catholicism
is one of the five recognized religions in China, the other four
being Protestantism, Buddhism, Taoism and Muslim. Since 1950s, the
Catholic Church in China has been sadly divided into two families –
the officially sanctioned Church registered with the government and
headed by the Catholic Patriotic Association (CPA) and the Bishop
Conference of the Catholic Church in China (BCCCC) and the
underground Church community which refuses to register with the
government. According to Chinese government statistics, there are
about 7 million Catholics in China, while China observers estimate
that the figure should be much higher by including underground Church
members.
While
I would like to concentrate on the situation of Catholics in China, I
would also like to say a few words about the worrying situation of
human rights activists in China as freedom of religion and freedom of
expression are closely connected. Since Xi Jinping became president
of the People’s Republic of China, there have been increasing
crackdowns against human rights defenders, even including the
moderate ones who merely exercised their freedom of expression, in
the excuse of so-called “maintaining social stability”. To name a
few activists who have been recently detained, arrested and
sentenced, for example, the representatives of the New Citizens
Movement who initiated anti-corruption campaigns: Beijing legal
scholar Xu Zhiyong was imprisoned for four years and several other
representatives were also sentenced to 2 – 6.5 years imprisonments.
On 13 June 2014, human rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang was formally
arrested for “picking quarrels and creating trouble” and
“illegally obtaining personal information” after he attended a
gathering together with about a dozen other public intellectuals and
Tiananmen Mothers in early May to commemorate the 25th
anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown. The situation of
Catholics hasn’t improved after Xi Jinping took power as many
bishops and priests of the “underground Church” remain detained.
I will give more details later in my presentation.
Restrictions
on Government-sanctioned Catholic Church
Although
the Catholic Church resumed activities in early 1980s after the
Cultural Revolution ended in 1976 and Beijing initiated the “open
door policy” in 1978, there have been endless disputes among people
who are concerned about the situations of the Catholic Church in
China. Experts on Catholic Church in China, such as Cardinal Joseph
Zen Ze-kun (retired bishop of Hong Kong Diocese) and Belgian scholar
priest Fr. Jeroom Heyndrickx, acting director of Ferdinand Verbiest
Institute of Catholic University of Leuven, have been strongly
debating how the government-sanctioned Catholic communities should
maintain their faith while dealing with the Chinese government’s
various restrictions on the Church in China and how the Vatican
should react. Cardinal Zen reminds Catholics in China and the Vatican
that we should firmly follow the Church’s principles and Canon Law
while Fr. Heyndrickx and some overseas China Church observers and
some clergies belonged to the official Church in China plead for
compromise in some principles for the sake of “development” of
the Church in China. We have to bear in mind that these disputes
actually manifest the effect of the Chinese government’s control of
the Catholic Church in China and it is exactly what the Chinese
government wants to see the splits within the Catholic community in
China and between those who support the Catholic Church in China.
Among
all the disputes, the most controversial issue, however, is the
appointments of bishops. Appointments of bishops can affect a local
diocese’s development for decades. If young clergies in their 40s
who submit to government control become bishops of their dioceses,
the local Church communities will encounter very difficult
situations. In some cases, the clergies and lay Catholics are split
among themselves on whether they should accept these new bishops and
attend Mass liturgies celebrated by them. Between November 2010 and
July 2012, four illicit ordinations occurred in Chengde (承德)
Diocese in Hebei province
(河北省),
Leshan (樂山)
Diocese in Sichuan province (四川省),
Shantou
(汕頭)
Diocese in Guangdong province (廣東省)
and Harbin (哈爾濱)
Apostolic Administration in Heilongjiang province (黑龍江省).
Some bishops of other dioceses were forced to concelebrate the
installation ceremony while some were lured by monetary rewards to
attend it. It also created distrust among the clergies and lay
Catholics in the diocese.
Another
event which created much distrust among Church people of the
government-sanctioned Church was the Eighth National Congress of
Catholic Representatives. Dozens of bishops were forced to attend the
meeting while some were lured to attend it as the government offered
to give them financial assistance to help their dioceses’
development, according to sources. It again created much distrust
within the government-sanctioned Church community, especially among
the bishops, the priests and lay Catholics in their dioceses who felt
very much confused on how to follow Catholic principles. By attending
such a meeting organized by the government-controlled Catholic
Patriotic Association, it sent a very wrong message to the Catholic
Church community in China and the Vatican that the bishops who
attended the meeting recognized the legitimate control of the
Catholic Patriotic Association. Afterall, we need to ask one
question: is it really religious freedom when the government has
exerted so much control on the administration of Church affairs?
Oppression
of the “Underground” Catholic Church
Since
bishops and priests of the “Underground” Catholic Church refuse
to be controlled by the government by refusing to register with the
Catholic Patriotic Association, many bishops and priests have been
subjected to crackdowns and harassments over the years. According to
information collected by the Justice and Peace Commission of the Hong
Kong Catholic Diocese, nearly 20 clergies in Hebei province have been
illegally detained, tortured or forced to join political “classes”.
The
horrible cases of torture and ill-treatment include: 1) In September
2007, Father Yu Zhongxun (宇中勛)
was hanged to a basketball stand overnight and he was subjected to
various torture, including being tied to a “Tigar Chair” (老虎櫈)
for more than 10 days, hurt by cigarette butts, forced to drink chili
water (灌辣椒水);
2) in June 2009, during the last six days of his six-month detention,
Father Liu Jianzhong (劉建忠)
was not allowed to sleep and he was made to stand in a pose a
soldier, squat and push up for more than 10 hours every day.
Hebei
province is traditionally a stronghold of the Catholic community in
China, especially “underground” Catholics, probably due to the
fact that many European missionaries preached in the area during Ming
and Qing Dynasties. 1) One of the most famous cases is Bishop Su
Zhemin (alias Su Zhimin) (蘇哲民)
of Baoding Diocese in Hebei province, who is now 82 years old. Bishop
Su was arrested at a lay Catholic’s house in Xinji city, near
Shijiazhuang on 8 October 1997. After the arrest, he was held in
detention in Qingyuan County, Baoding. For years, nothing was heard
of him. Bishop Su had previously been arrested for at least five
times and imprisoned for nearly 27 years.
2)
Another example is Father Lu Genjun (鹿根君)
of the same diocese. Father Lu and another priest Father Guo Yanli
were arrested when they were receiving a friend at Baoding railroad
station on 17 February 2006. Father Guo was sent to Xushui detention
center in Hebei and his current situation was not clear. Father Lu’s
whereabouts are still unknown.
3)
Bishop Shi Enxiang (師恩祥)
of Yixian (易縣)
diocese in Hebei, who is now 93 years old, had tried to hide himself
from being detained since 1996 but he disappeared after he was seen
in Beijing on Good Friday on 13 April 2001. Nothing was heard of him
since then. He has previously spent 30 years in prison.
4)
Bishop Zhao Kexun (趙克勛)
of Xuanhua (宣化)
diocese in Hebei, who is over 80 years old, has been hiding in
various places and cannot exercise his duty as a bishop publicly.
5)
In August 2004, Father Ma Yongwu (馬勇武)
of Baoding (保定)
diocese in Hebei was taken away when he was celebrating the first
anniversary of his ordination as a priest. He was later released but
was detained again when he took part in Father Chen Baidu’s (陳百都)
funeral. He has since been detained in Qingyuan county (青苑縣)
in Hebei.
6)
On 27 December 2006, Father Liu Honggen (劉紅更)
of Baoding (保定)
diocese in Hebei was taken away together with six other priests in
Xinanzuo village (西南佐村)
in Qingyuan county (青苑縣)
in Hebei. The other priests were later released by Father Liu remains
being detained.
7)
In 2011, three young priests in Hebei were taken away. In mid-March
2011, Father Wang Lifang (王立芳)
of Zhengding (正定)
diocese was cheated by plainclothes officers to perform sacraments
for the sick and he was then taken away. Another 40-year-old priest
Father Zhang Guangjun (張廣軍)
was taken away in mid-January 2011 and he was not allowed to sleep
for five days during detention and had been subjected to
ill-treatment and insult. He was briefly released during the Chinese
New Year in 2011 and then was taken away again on 8 March 2011. It
was believed that he was tortured again. His whereabouts remain
unknown. Father Chen Hailong (陳海龍),
a 32-year-old priest who was ordained in 2009, of Xuanhua (宣化)
diocese was taken away on 8 April 2011 by plainclothes when he was
travelling with two young people to visit Catholics.
8)
Auxiliary Bishop Thaddeus Ma Daqin of Shanghai diocese announced at
the installation ceremony in July 2012 that he resigned from all his
positions at the Catholic Patriotic Association. He was taken away
that afternoon and disappeared for some time. He was later “arranged”
to stay at Sheshan Seminary in Shanghai. Until now, he still cannot
publicly and freely exercise his duty as an auxiliary bishop.
Support
needed
The
above-mentioned situations and cases are only the tip of the iceberg.
There might be more unknown situations of control on the
government-sanctioned Church and more unknown cases of harassments of
underground Church people. We, the Justice and Peace Commission,
together with other organisations and individuals will continue to
call for more attention and support to the Catholic Church in China,
both the open and underground Church communities. At the same time,
we also pay attention to the harassments of protestant house church
members and other faith communities.
________________________________________________
1
See the Commission’s report:
https://uprdoc.ohchr.org/uprweb/downloadfile.aspx?filename=121&file=EnglishTranslation
