Washington, D.C.—Congressman Thaddeus G. McCotter (R-MI) tried his best to dissuade U.S. Ambassador John V. Hanford from having a meeting with Ye Xiaowan, the Chinese official who has oversight of religious matters in China, just prior to their scheduled meeting.
John V. Hanford is Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom. Ye Xiaowan, is the Chinese communist regime's Director for the State Administrations for Religious Affairs (SARA).
"By deciding to officially meet with Ye, the United States Department of State will be granting a large propaganda victory to the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] at the expense of the Chinese people," writes Rep. McCotter in a letter to Hanford.
Notwithstanding Rep. McCotter's efforts, the meeting did take place on February 19 in Washington, D.C. The communist official also had lunch with retired Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Archbishop Emeritus of Washington, and Vatican ambassador Pietro Sambi, according to Reuters.
Representative McCotter, in the letter, urged the ambassador to insist at the meeting that China's chief religious persecutor cease his country's religious discrimination and persecution.
"As Director of SARA, Ye has implemented, overseen, and assisted authorities in carrying out communist China's policy of discrimination, harassment, imprisonment, torture, and execution of Chinese citizens practicing their faith outside the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) dictates," says the letter.
The letter, co-signed by 12 members of Congress and cc Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, calls for the release of all China's "prisoners of conscience." Several individuals were named who were being held for religious activities such as praying, conducting religious services in private homes, proselytizing, and printing and distributing the Bible.
The letter describes Pastor Zhang Geming who was arrested on April 28, 2007 in Shandong Provence for conducting a worship service. He was charged with "conducting an evil cult to obstruct the law," and sent to a "re-education through labor" camp for one year.
This example illustrates the practice by the communist Chinese of labeling a spiritual group a "cult," which has become commonplace with Christians and the Falun Gong. The letter mentions Li Chang, Wang Zhiwen, and Ji Liewu who are Falun Gong practitioners. They were sentenced to 12-18 years for "organizing" a "cult organization" and "illegally obtaining state secrets." The letter calls for the Ambassador Harford to tell Director Ye to cease "designating religious groups as cults and thus causing them to become targets for government-sponsored violence, torture, and execution."
The letter also asks Ambassador Hanford to tell Director Ye to:
- Stop requiring all house churches to register with the government.
- Stop prohibiting the public expression and practice of religious beliefs.
- Stop restricting the printing and distribution of the Bible and other religious literature.
- Stop restricting religious education for children under the age of 18 years.
The letter notes that the communist Chinese officials will deny they imprison citizens for their religious practices and beliefs, saying they detain persons not for their political or religious views but because they violated the law. Chinese officials continue to deny holding any political prisoners. The letter says not to be fooled by this ruse.
Likewise, the letter says not to accept at face value promises from the communist regime. Simple promises will likely do little to stop state-sponsored discrimination, persecution and torture of the Chinese people for practicing their religious faiths.
Rep. McCotter noted in the letter that under Ye's leadership, persecution of Chinese religious believers has risen, and it cites the conclusions from two official congressional commissions. It states that there is sufficient evidence of violation of international law to bring a case to the International Criminal Court on charges of Crimes Against Humanity
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