Senior House Church Leader Issued Open Letter to Chinese Communist Party Leader for Religious Freedo

China Aid Association
Senior House
Church Leader Issued Open Letter to
Chinese Communist Party Leader for Religious Freedom; Shandong
House Church
Christians Won Legal Battle
against PSB after Being Raided
Nov. 28, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Photo: Pastor Zhang Mingxuan was sharing the Bible with kids on the street
CAA is authorized to release an open letter to Chinese Communist Party leader
President Hu Jintao issued by Pastor Zhang Mingxuan, president of Chinese House
Church Alliance. (CHCA)
In the open letter, after sharing
how he became a House Church Christian and leader of CHCA, pastor Zhang lists
series of severe persecutions including beatings, imprisonments, and tortures. Despite
CHCA’s enormous charitable contributions helping numerous orphans and homeless,
CHCA had been under increasing persecution especially before and after the
CCP’s 17th Congress this year. Pastor Zhang and his family had been
asked by the local police to shut down his house church and his school as well
as an orphanage nearby Beijing.
Pastor Zhang believe that “this persecution is a result of the corruption of
officials subordinate to the central government, failure to enforce the law in
a strict way, distortion of facts, and evildoing and collusion between the
local despots and the officials.” So he calls upon President Hu to listen to the
suffering of the innocent persecuted Christians.
Pastor Zhang in his letter implores President Hu “to seriously consider the
misery of the common people and urge the officials subordinate to you to stop
persecuting Christians and implement their promises in the Constitution on
religious freedom€¦ just as you said, we can have a harmonious society when we
build it on the foundations of love, friendship, fairness and justice.”
Finally, pastor Zhang expresses that the desire of Chinese Christians is “to
win justice for the common people in China so that the Chinese society is full
of love and care and that China can become free, prosperous, and a real
powerful country in the 21st century in both soul and in social
system. We sincerely pray to the Lord to punish the evil and promote the good
so that the common people can receive blessings and that China will have
real religious freedom. I believe this is also the wish of President Hu. I
hereby pray to God to bless you and all the officials in power, to give them
more wisdom in ruling China.”
CAA has also learned the
encouraging news that after a house church in Linyi city, Shandong Province
was raided by police, the house Christians fought back in court and won back their
rights and confiscated property.
The house church in the suburb of Linyi city led by Pastor Gao Wendong was
raided on May 31, 2007 by several dozens of policemen armed with batons. The
police confiscated many objects in the house, including over 300 copies of the
Bible, over 600 other books, three computers, copiers, DVD players, Ping Pong
table and cash. With the help of Pastor Zhang Mingxuan, the Christians,
represented by Beijing Christian attorney Ms. Wu Chenglian, sued the police in
the court at Hedong District Branch of the Public Security Bureau. After some
detours and bumps, the police finally capitulated and returned on November 17,
2007 all they had confiscated from the church.
Click the link for full text of the legal appeal paper can be seen at
https://chinaaid.org/2007/11/28/attorney-wu-chenglian%e2%80%99s-application-for-administrative-reconsideration-for-pastor-gao-wendong-persecution-case-in-linyi-city-shandong-province/
The full text of the open letter by pastor Zhang Mingxuan:
https://chinaaid.org/2007/11/28/a-letter-to-president-hu-jintao-from-pastor-zhang-mingxuan-president-of-chinese-house-church-alliance/
A Letter to President Hu Jintao from Pastor Zhang
Mingxuan, President of Chinese House Church
Alliance
2:50 a.m., November 20, 2007
Dear respectable President Hu Jintao,
How are you?  We appreciate your hard
work.
Greetings from Pastor Zhang Mingxuan, son of God, follower of Jesus Christ
and servant of the Lord!
President Hu, the Holy Spirit has moved me to write this following letter to
you at 23:00 near midnight.  I know you
are sitting far away in the Central Party Committee and I would like to know if
you know what is going on in the rest of China under your leadership, and if
you know the hardship among the common people.
I would also like to know if you know how the subordinate government
officials, at all levels, knowingly violate and defy the laws of the land.
I used to be a barber. After I believed in Jesus Christ, God treated me well
and let me become a pastor. Now I am the president of the Chinese House Church
Alliance and a servant working for God and doing the duty of the sons and
daughters of God.  In such a position, I
am making my contribution to the prosperity, strength and harmony of China.  We do charities and accept homeless orphans
and help Christians in misery.  However,
these good deeds become reasons for your subordinates at all levels of
government to persecute us.   I believe
this is not your idea, but I also believe that China has promised the United
Nations in various policies that Christians at house churches may hold an
assembly without registration and other policies on religious freedom.  It is my belief that this persecution is a
result of the corruption of officials subordinate to the central government,
failure to enforce the law in a strict way, distortion of facts and evildoings
and collusion between the local despots and the officials.
President Hu, are you aware that the officials under you arrest, beat and
drive away the Christians from their homes?
Our brothers and sisters are being detained because they do not bribe
the officials.  Do you not think their
souls will tell God about their sufferings?
Is it true that President Hu has not heard anything about this after you
have made so many overt and covert trips in China?  Are you really apathetic to all of this?
President Hu, I was selected by God 21 years ago.  Belief in Jesus has changed my life.  A sinner became the son of God and I no
longer sinned.  All the glory in this
belongs to our Lord Christ.  Two months
and three days after I accepted the Lord, I was illegally beaten by Tanghe
County Public Security Bureau of Nanyang Municipality, Henan Province.  I was imprisoned for 185 days.  I had very good lessons in law in the prison
for over half a year.  Finally, I was released
on no charges on March 22, 1987.  After I
went to Beijing,
I sued director of the court for Tanghe County Public Security Bureau and I was
recompensed for the wrongs I suffered. From that time on, I went all over China in 1998, on a bike, to preach the Gospel,
save the people, help the people and pray for China.  In a period of four months, I traveled over
30,000 li of distance through cold winters and hot summers.  After I came back, I sold all my properties
to preach the Gospel and arrived in Beijing
on January 20, 1999.
In the ten years I lived in Beijing,
I preached the Gospel and built churches, for which I was arrested, beaten,
robbed and driven away by the public security agencies. I then realized that
the change of this country not only needs external reform, but the key is the
updating of the soul as “the result of a lifetime comes from the heart.”  In 1999, I was again taken to a mental
hospital and was confined there for 13 days because of preaching the Bible.
On February 21, 2002, we had a meeting of testimonies at the residence of
Beiqi in Changping.  At the time, US President Bush was visiting China for the first time.  Changping Public Security Bureau took away 47
of us Christians, including three of whom were blind (two of whom were over 80
and one whom was only seven.)
After that, I resided in a rental house in Dongbai Township
in Chaoyang District where I was often threatened by the public security people
who tried to scare me away. Since they could not find any fault with me, they threatened
my landlord and told him to make me move.
As a result, they made it impossible for me to earn a livelihood.  So, I moved with my family five times in half
a month.  Later, we moved back to the
suburb of Sanheyan in Hebei
Province where we lived
for over two years.
On May 20, 2005, the Chinese House Church Alliance was established. Our
hopes were to help the Christians and Churches in China. We did not have any
political goals. In a tavern deep in the mountains of Gezhuang, Laishuigou in Baoding, over 40 of us
Christians were arrested by Bureau of Religious Affairs and the police. They
interrogated me for over five hours. Again, I was released with no charges.
During President Bush’s visit to China, he invited several of us
Christians in a morning prayer.  On
November 18, 2005, as soon as my son and I arrived at the West Railroad Station
of Beijing, we were taken away by the police for no apparent reason. We were
escorted to Sheqi County in Henan
Province where we stayed
for four days.  For no apparent reason,
they refused to let me process my passport and prohibited me from processing
entry and exit papers for two years, claiming that I was prohibited by law from
leaving the country. They deprived me of my freedom as a citizen. Petitions on
several occasions produced no results. In the meantime, they also unreasonably
seized our identification cards and detained them for a year and a half.
The 17th National Congress of your party was held on October 15, but we did
not know your date at all beforehand. Your congress was held on the same day as
the ordination service of our Chinese House Church Alliance. Again, because of
this, we attracted a high level of attention from government officials at all
levels subordinate to you who want to ensure your peace and the delegates of
central government officials. To achieve this, they stalked us Christians and
placed us under their supervision and control. They raided our orphanage and
school at Yanjiao Village in Hebei
Province and threatened
the students there. They also persecuted the brigade in the village and
threatened by saying that if we did not move in three days, they would cut off
our water, electricity and road access. They said I was illegally adopting
orphans and now they make threats to two of my sons and want them to move. The
public security bureau has driven us to desperation of homelessness and the
orphans will be driven to the street. Do we still call this a sign of a
harmonious society?  You are high above
there and have you really not heard of these: corruption, bribery, collusion
between the officials and the local despots in doing evil deeds, cheating their
superiors and covering up from their subordinates and currying favor with their
superiors?  I implore you to seriously
consider the misery of the common people and urge the officials subordinate to
you to stop persecuting Christians and implement their promises in the
constitution on religious freedom. I also implore you to bring about a
government that keeps its promises and initiate a new period of harmony between
the government and the masses. The reason for this is because just as you said,
we can have a harmonious society when we build it on the foundations of love,
friendship, fairness and justice.
President Hu, please forgive me if I offended your dignity. At the time I
began to write this open letter to you, I had already fully prepared to die
because of this. However, I believe both my life and your heart are in the
hands of God Jehovah and He will bring peace both to you and me. Our desire is
to win justice for the common people in China so that the Chinese society is
full of love and care and that China can become free and prosperous and a real
powerful country in the 21st century in soul and in social system.
We sincerely pray to the Lord to punish the evil and promote the good so that
the common people can receive blessings and that China will have real religious
freedom. I believe this is also the wish of President Hu. I hereby pray to God
to bless you and all the officials in power, to give them more wisdom in ruling
China.
I sincerely invite Christians both in China
and abroad to pray with me and may the kingdom of God
come to us soon!
Pastor Zhang Mingxuan
Pastor Xie Fenglan
Chinese House
Church Alliance
China Aid encourages all house church members persecuted by the Chinese
government officials to fight back the abuses through the Chinese law, the
international law and seek help from the international community.
© Issued by CAA on November 28,
2007.