Release International is calling on the UK government to make the issue of religious rights a clear priority as it negotiates a multi-billion pound post-Brexit trade deal with China. This follows the latest jailing of another Chinese church leader for so-called subversion.
Hu Shigen, an elder of an unregistered church in Jinhua, has been
sentenced to seven and a half years, accused of damaging national
security.
He is the latest in a series of lawyers and
pastors to be jailed following the roundup of 300 Christians and human
rights activists more than a year ago. Others are set to follow.
67-year-old Hu has been accused of leading an organisation that
masqueraded as a church to mask anti-government activities linked to
'foreign anti-China forces'.
'Once again China is accusing
Christians who speak up for justice of being enemies of the state,'
says Paul Robinson, the chief executive of Release International,
which supports persecuted Christians around the world.
Christians and lawyers who mounted legal challenges against moves to
tear down crosses from church buildings in Zhejiang Province have
faced charges tantamount to espionage.
Release is calling
on the UK government to link the multi-billion pound trade deal with
China currently under discussion with progress on religious rights.
Paul Robinson says: 'Release's message to the UK government
in seeking new deals with China is you can't - you mustn't - separate
basic human rights from trade. Britain must use all of our influence
in this emerging relationship with China to press for religious rights
reform, otherwise whatever we build will be built on repression.
'China has already embraced economic freedom, which is a huge
step. Now this emerging superpower must embrace the most fundamental
freedoms of all - freedom of belief, and the freedom to speak openly,
freedom of speech.
'This is the hallmark of a mature state - a willingness to countenance constructive criticism and to learn from it, without looking upon its critics as enemies.
'Our message to the Chinese government is Christians are not your
enemies. The Chinese Christians known to Release pray for the
Communist Party, not against it. They seek to serve their country by
working for justice.
'China has so much progress to
celebrate. It is time to bury that Cold War mind-set and entrust its
citizens with human freedoms. China - believe in your people!'
Release is calling on UK Christians to learn from their Chinese
counterparts and to make the best use of the freedoms we have.
'Chinese Christians like Hu Shigen are being jailed for freedoms
we all take for granted. If they could, they would ask us to use our
freedom to the full, to cherish that freedom and protect it.
'Release asks Christians in the UK and Ireland to stand with our
brothers and sisters in China and to pray for them, and to join them
in their prayers for freedom of belief and speech in that land. And we
call on the UK government to press for that freedom.'