Interviews with Xiqiu "Bob" Fu

I think, before the 1989 student movement, the revival among the house churches pretty much occurred in the rural countryside areas. But after that there is a massive revival among the Chinese intellectuals. Those Christians like myself have been never really seen any such a big revival because the student movement – actually, the massacre happened.

And there are millions and millions of Chinese intellectuals came to Christian faith. And many of them were public intellectuals, as we call it, university professors, student leaders. Especially in the lawyers field. And many human rights campaigners became Christians. So in that sense, within the Christian community, I would say, there already a group of the Chinese intellectuals who are both concerned about the faith and the freedom.

And after all, the religious freedom is the first freedom above every other freedoms, as President Bush repeatedly said. And I think right now in the Chinese Christian community there is a portion of the intellectuals who are like the best-selling author, the most well known human rights lawyers. And even there are private entrepreneurs. And there are movie directors, singers, and there are university educators. In every sector of Chinese society now there are house church Christians. So that’s very phenomenal compared to what had happened in the past.

I would say although the goal for religious freedom is the same for all these different groups, like those Catholics who are loyal to the Holy See, and those Tibetans who are fighting for their freedom, the Uyghur also for their freedom. Yet because of the government, the severe crackdown, and restrictions on the communication and movement, and also the different tactics against the different groups, there’s not much communication among these groups inside China.

Of course in overseas we are in different groups. We have more collaboration among different faith groups than inside China. Because, obviously, we have more freedom here to communicate, to gather together, and to talk about common strategies. But inside China it’s almost impossible because each group even have a hard time to survive themselves.

For instance, if a house church pastor is fighting for their own freedom of gathering in their own area, had any indication of a collaboration with their underground, like Vatican-appointed bishop, and his or her crime would be ten times more severe, you know, than if he’s fighting for that one issue.

And if you join the cause for the Tibetan, Uyghur – my goodness – I mean the sentence if he’s caught would be 100 times more severe and more serious. And the Chinese government would label you as, you know, traitors or damaging the public security or the national security.

But we have been working with the Chinese human rights lawyers who are Christians. They, in their professional level, they have been representing not only the Protestant house church prisoners for their freedom, but also representing the Tibetans, the Uyghur, and Falun Gong spiritual movement victims. So from the conscious side, they choose to advance freedom for all. And so that’s the purpose of our organization China Aid.

Bob Fu was a leader in the student democracy movement at Tiananmen Square in 1989. He later converted to Christianity and became a house church pastor and a founder, along with his wife Heidi, of a Bible school. In 1996, he was arrested and jailed for running a secret bible school. After his release, he and his wife escaped to Hong Kong. They were admitted to the United States as refugees a few days before the handover of Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China in 1997.

Fu founded the China Aid Association (CAA) in 2002. CAA monitors and reports on religious freedom in China, particularly focusing on the fate of believers who belong to banned or unofficial house churches, which encompass 60 to 80 million followers. CAA issues frequent news releases on cases of religious persecution involving Protestant house church congregations and assists victims to assert their right to freedom of conscience and freedom of religious practice in China.

CAA also provides a forum for discussion and information exchange among experts on religion, law, and human rights in China through its bilingual journal, the China Law & Religion Monitor, and a bilingual website. Its headquarters are in Midland, Texas, where Fu now lives and works.

The People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949, after a decades-long civil war between communist and nationalist forces. The communist victory drove the nationalist government to the island of Taiwan. While tensions have eased in recent years, both the nationalist and communist forces still claim to rule all of China. China ranks as the world’s third largest country by area, and the largest by population, with over 1.3 billion people.

Since 1949, China has been ruled by the Chinese Communist Party. Revolutionary leader Mao Zedong led the country until his death in 1976. Mao’s era was marked by dramatic swings in policy, massive crackdowns on perceived opponents of the regime, and harsh repression. Since 1976, the Chinese government has broken with Marxist economic orthodoxy by instituting limited market-based reforms, but the party has retained its monopoly on political power.

Freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly, and religion are severely restricted, and the people of China are denied the right to change their government. The courts are controlled by the Communist Party and do not provide due process of law. Government control extends into every aspect of people’s lives, most notably in the one-child policy in which unauthorized pregnancies often result in forced abortion and sterilization. While technology has spread quickly in recent years, Freedom House ranks China as one of the three most repressive governments in the world in terms of Internet freedom.

While the rapid expansion of the private sector has dramatically changed the Chinese economy, fundamental principles of free market systems are lacking, including property rights and independent labor unions. Official corruption remains a major obstacle to developing a fully free economy.

In 1989, 100,000 people gathered in a peaceful demonstration in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square to protest human rights violations and demand democratic reforms. The protest lasted several weeks and inspired similar nonviolent demonstrations in other cities throughout China. On June 4, 1989, the People’s Liberation Army converged on the area with troops, tanks, and other advanced military weapons. Estimates of the death toll ranged from several hundred to several thousand. The army used similar tactics to suppress demonstrations in other cities and subsequently rounded up and imprisoned many thousands of protestors. The government vigorously defended these actions and instituted a campaign to purge those who had sympathized with protestors from the party and the government.

Although the Tiananmen Square massacre put an end to hopes for a speedy transition to democracy, courageous Chinese citizens have continued to risk imprisonment and worse to demand freedom. These human rights activists have included students, workers, lawyers, artists, and writers; Tibetan Buddhists and Uyghur Muslims who demand respect for their cultures, traditions, and religious practices; members of the spiritual discipline known as Falun Gong; Catholics who insist that their church is headed by the Pope rather than by government-appointed religious officials; and members of the “house church” movement, representing millions of Protestant Christians who are forced to worship in secret because their churches are not authorized by the government. China’s many prisoners of conscience include members of each of these groups.

In 2010, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to imprisoned Chinese writer Liu Xiaobo. His wife was arrested in order to prevent her from attending the award ceremony, and the government employed a range of coercive techniques to prevent other human rights activists from attending. China’s leading human rights lawyer, Gao Zhisheng, disappeared in early 2009 and is presumed to be in government custody.

The most recent Freedom in the World report from Freedom House gave China scores of 6 for civil liberties and 7 for political rights, where 1 is the highest and 7 the lowest possible score. Freedom House categorizes China as a “Not Free” country.