Religious persecution in China. (Insider Report).

Under house arrest, Bishop Mattia Pei Shangde, 83, died Christmas Eve at a hospital near Beijing. For more than 50 years, since the Communist takeover of China in 1949, Bishop Pei had suffered persecution for his faith, including forced labor in Red China's notorious prison camps. Frail and seriously ill from kidney trouble, the bishop had been under house arrest since April 2001 for "illegal" religious practices. Reportedly, kidney failure caused his death. Thousands of people defied Communist authorities to attend Bishop Pei's funeral at his home parish in Zhangjiapu. Officials attempted to keep a very low profile for the funeral by placing a police ban on attendance by all except for village residents. Despite the obvious danger, around 3,000 faithful attended the funeral Mass on January 2nd.

On January 9th, the Voice of the Martyrs (VOM), an evangelical Protestant ministry, reported that Communist China's "Public Security Bureau (PSB) informed family members of sister Zhong Ju Yu last summer that she was beaten to death while imprisoned in Hubei Province." Zhong Ju Yu was arrested during a roundup of South China Church members last May. At that time, 63 church members were jailed. Another 500 are now being monitored closely by the PSB. The jailed leader of the 50,000 member South China Church, Pastor Gong Shengliang, reportedly has received a temporary reprieve from execution. The pastor was reported to have been sentenced to death in December 2001 after a court in Hubei Province declared him guilty of using an "evil cult" to "undermine the enforcement of the law" and of "complicity of rape." VOM reports that "another South China Church member -- Xuequei Gu -- was possibly martyred last fall while imprisoned in Hubei Province. Gu was arrested September 20th 2001 and was last seen being taken away in a prison van on October 10th. Family members haven't heard from him since that day. South China Church leaders say they have received information that Gu was severely beaten and died from injuries sustained during his torture."

Meanwhile, the fate of Christian Hong Kong businessman Li Guangqiang (also spelled Lai Kwong Keung) remains uncertain. The 38-year-old Mr. Li, a member of the evangelical "Church in Hong Kong," was arrested last May by the Chinese authorities for allegedly "using an evil cult to undermine law enforcement." Mr. Li faces a possible death sentence for allegedly smuggling more than 30,000 Bibles into China. "President Bush has asked the State Department to investigate the case of Hong Kong businessman Lai Kwong Keung, but he also needs to inquire about the murder of Zhong Ju Yu and the whereabouts of Xuequei Gu," said VOM spokesman Gary Lane. "We at VOM hope the president expresses as much concern for these Chinese evangelicals as he has for the Hong Kong businessman, Mr. Lai."