China Issues Rules for “Foreigners”

Despite comments made two months ago by International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge–who said that free speech would not be infringed upon during the Olympics–China recently released a nine-page list of rules for “foreigners” attending the international event. The document is titled: “A guide to Chinese law for Foreigners coming to, leaving or staying in China during the Olympics.”

Religion is among the 57 topics covered in the document. In this case, Olympic spectators are forbidden from displaying religious banners or shouting religious slogans during the event. The international community has—predictably—responded with outrage at the document, which also bans people with “mental diseases” or contagious conditions. (The document says that people with disabilities “can be stubborn and controlling; they may be sensitive and struggle with trust issues. Sometimes they are overly protective of themselves, especially when they are called ‘crippled’ or ‘paralysed’.”)

But even more outrageous is the fact that the international community is only now reacting to such restrictions. It is outrageous that the international community has only expressed concern now that the restrictions affect them personally.

Chinese Christians and their underground churches have been suffering such restrictions for years, and it has only gotten worse in the lead-up to the Olympics. Through methods such as church raids and the confiscation of Bibles and other forms of Christian literature, Chinese officials have heightened their efforts to subdue and eliminate Christianity. The China Aid Association in March said that more than 700 Christians were arrested and detained in China last year, and persecution against Christians had risen more than 30 percent since 2006. The association also said that many Christians have been beaten and tortured.

One of the most disturbing and frightening forms of punishment has been the use of “labor camps.” Some reports have numbered these camps at over 1,000 and growing. The number of prisoners could total more than one million. Victims in these camps are forced to work as long as 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, and the workers often manufacture the very goods that are exported to the U.S. and other Western nations. Reports that prisoners have been tortured and used for organ harvesting also surfaced last year.

A former prisoner of one of these labor camps told a British journalist that his job was to shovel human waste from a cesspool. He said he smiled each time he was lowered into the pool of waste because “it was the only time I was alone from the prying eyes of the guards. I could now commune with God, praise His name at the top of my voice, and I would also recite scriptures that I had memorized.” See the whole story on Assist News.

In some ways it is easy to see how the publicity surrounding the Olympics has been God-sent. It has brought to light and publicized the horrors taking place in China. But the International community should be ashamed for waiting until the rules affected Westerners before taking action. It should be ashamed for ignoring the horrors in China and supporting and building the Chinese economy, which is itself sustained by the blood and sweat of persecuted Christians.