Paper Tigers

THE cases begin to blur together. Dai Guillang, sentenced to labor camp by the Chinese government for the crime of propagating the Book of Genesis. Zheng Musheng, arrested, tortured, and killed by the Bureau of Public Security for being an evangelical Christian. Catholic Bishop Su Chimin, beaten with a board until it was reduced to splinters and then with a wooden door frame until it, too, splintered; placed in a tiny room for days hip-deep in water; beaten while hanging by his wrists.

While the Chinese regime’s hostility to the rights of political dissidents is well known, only recently has its systematic persecution of Christians drawn attention. (Credit the Hudson Institute’s Michael Horowitz and Freedom House’s Nina Shea, whose In the Lion’s Den documents persecution of Christians.) On Easter Sunday, some American critics of the regime released an open letter imploring Vice President Al Gore to champion religious freedom in China. That letter finally moved the Administration to issue a denunciation-of the critics. Signatories, including former Pennsylvania Gov. Bob Casey (D.), Southern Baptist leader Richard Land, and academics John Dilulio, Robert George, and Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, were labeled “right-wing extremists” by Gore staffer Ginny Terzano. (She has since apologized to Casey.)

About the Author

Ramesh Ponnuru

Ramesh Ponnuru is the editor of National Review, a columnist for the Washington Post, and a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

Featured Tags

Religious Persecution

THE cases begin to blur together. Dai Guillang, sentenced to labor camp by the Chinese government for the crime of propagating the Book of Genesis. Zheng Musheng, arrested, tortured, and killed by the Bureau of Public Security for being an evangelical Christian. Catholic Bishop Su Chimin, beaten with a board until it was reduced to splinters and then with a wooden door frame until it, too, splintered; placed in a tiny room for days hip-deep in water; beaten while hanging by his wrists.

While the Chinese regime’s hostility to the rights of political dissidents is well known, only recently has its systematic persecution of Christians drawn attention. (Credit the Hudson Institute’s Michael Horowitz and Freedom House’s Nina Shea, whose In the Lion’s Den documents persecution of Christians.) On Easter Sunday, some American critics of the regime released an open letter imploring Vice President Al Gore to champion religious freedom in China. That letter finally moved the Administration to issue a denunciation-of the critics. Signatories, including former Pennsylvania Gov. Bob Casey (D.), Southern Baptist leader Richard Land, and academics John Dilulio, Robert George, and Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, were labeled “right-wing extremists” by Gore staffer Ginny Terzano. (She has since apologized to Casey.)