NEWS STORY: Christian activists mark Tiananmen Square massacre

c. 1997 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ Christian activists marked the eighth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre Wednesday (June 4) by urging Congress to reject Most Favored Nation (MFN) status for China and threatening protests in Hong Kong to coincide with Beijing’s assumption of sovereignty there.”We must make sure that trade is not that […]

c. 1997 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ Christian activists marked the eighth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre Wednesday (June 4) by urging Congress to reject Most Favored Nation (MFN) status for China and threatening protests in Hong Kong to coincide with Beijing’s assumption of sovereignty there.”We must make sure that trade is not that highest value in American foreign policy,”said Gary Bauer, president of the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian group and leading opponent of MFN status for China.”Human rights and freedom of religion must be the highest value.” Randall Terry, the Operation Rescue anti-abortion activist, said he will lead a group of unnamed pastors who will surreptitiously enter Hong Kong just prior to China’s July 1 takeover of the British colony to lead protests against the Beijing government’s anti-religious policies.”Chinese pastors are hanging between life and death simply because of their faith,”said Terry.”They’re asking us, `Have you American Christians forgotten us?'” Religious activists _ led by evangelical Christians _ have increasingly injected themselves into this year’s debate over renewing MFN status to China for another year. President Clinton favors it and Congress has until Sept. 3 to go along with or try to override the president’s position.

MFN status carries trade benefits and has been extended by the United States to all but a half-dozen or so pariah nations. The religious activists contend China should be denied MFN status because of its poor record on human rights, including its persecution of religious believers.


While the religious activists are careful also to include Beijing’s persecution of Buddhists in Tibet and Muslims in northwest China, their main concern is China’s estimated 40 million Protestant and Catholic Christians.

In addition to their opposition to MFN, the religious activists are behind efforts to pass legislation that would establish a senior White House position to monitor religious persecution abroad and tie such findings to U.S. trade policy.

The anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre _ the 1989 military attack on pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing in which hundreds, if not thousands, were killed _ afforded religious activists another opportunity to hold news conferences and briefings for media and congressional representatives to push their message.

Speaking at a Family Research Council briefing on the issue, Nina Shea, director of Freedom House’s Puebla Program on Religious Freedom, said Beijing has targeted China’s underground Christian movements because they”constitute the only civic grouping that has survived outside of government control …” Shea said Chinese officials”cannot abide someone who dares pledge allegiance to God and not the state.” Of China’s estimated 40 million Christians, about 17 million belong to state-sanctioned Protestant and Catholic churches. The rest attend”house churches”_ groups of Chinese who worship privately and illegally. Christian activists say the house churches are China’s prime target.

Catherine Ho, who said she spent 21 years in Chinese labor camps because she refused to renounce her Catholic faith, told the Family Research Council briefing of seeing another imprisoned Christian woman beaten to death for refusing to work on Sunday and saying prayers instead of singing songs praising communist leader Mao Zedong.

At a news conference with Terry outside the Embassy of China, the Rev. Patrick Mahoney, an Evangelical Presbyterian Church minister who leads the Christian Defense Coalition, criticized Clinton as well as”pro-life”Republicans, such as House Speaker Newt Gingrich, for supporting MFN status for China.

Noting reports of forced abortions in China, Mahoney said”It is impossible to call oneself pro-life, pro-family and support MFN for China.” Terry said the pastors who will organize unspecified protests in Hong Kong will attempt to enter the territory while it is still under British control, flying in separately on different airlines and dates.”Getting in shouldn’t be the problem,”said Terry.”Getting out may be another matter. We’re hoping that by going public in this limited way international pressure will protect us.”


MJP END RIFKIN

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