Whether they’re buried alive in a churchyard or buried away in a Chinese labor camp, it’s time for their American brothers and sisters in Christ to stand up.
(Originally published on The Stream, May 15, 2016 and reprinted in part with permission. For full article click here)
The recent murder of a Chinese church leader’s wife and the nineteen-year imprisonment of iconic Chinese freedom fighter Harry Wu who died recently demonstrate the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Communist regime’s long legacy of repression and persecution. But advocacy by ordinary Americans could make a difference right now in the fate of another victim of the PRC – an imprisoned house church pastor falsely charged with “divulging state secrets.”
On Thursday, April 14, Ding Cuimei, the wife of Chinese Christian church leader Li Jiangong, was buried at the Beitou Church in Henan Province.
Ding Cuimei was buried alive at the church.
In an act of unbelievable callousness, members of a demolition team sent by the Chinese government to raze Beitou Church used a bulldozer to push both Ding and her husband, Pastor Li Jiangong into a pit and cover them with soil and rubbish. Advocacy organization China Aid reported that Li was able to dig himself out. But before he and others could rescue his wife, she died of suffocation.
According to China Aid, a local developer wanted the church’s land and Chinese authorities were facilitating the takeover. Like those who stood in the paths of tanks at Tiananmen Square, Li and Ding stood in the path of the demolition crew. And just as the Tiananmen tanks ran down some of those protesters, Pastor Li and his wife were no obstruction to demolition. China Aid says that the bulldozer operator was instructed by his superior, “Bury them alive for me. I will be responsible for their lives.”
Because of the international outcry over Ding’s shocking death, local authorities reneged on their promise to the developer and ruled “that the land belonged to the church and its pastor for use as a religious site.” It was a costly price for the church to pay.
China Aid is demanding justice. “We appeal to the Chinese authorities to hold those criminal perpetrators accountable with a fair investigation and standard judicial process with full justice and unhindered legal representation by Beijing based human rights lawyer Li Dunyong,” said China Aid founder and president, Bob Fu. In recent years, Chinese Christians and democracy activists have begun demanding their legal rights in a way that has taken the PRC by surprise.
The Passing and Suffering of Freedom Fighter Harry Wu
Freedom fighter and human rights activist Harry Wu who died on April 26th at the age of 79 was not literally buried alive like Ding Cuimei, but he spent 19 years in prison for his dissent against the Chinese Communist government. Like millions of other Chinese citizens, he was buried alive in the laogai, China’s system of labor camps. Wu was charged with being a “counterrevolutionary rightist” for doing nothing more than speaking his mind. But he later transformed that injustice into 28 years of anti-Communist activity, striving to bring more freedom to the Chinese people.
(Continued here)
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