April 14th, 2016 was an unusual day for a middle-aged Christian couple in Henan Province. The cacophonous sound of bulldozers became clearer and clearer to them, while they stood in front of their church. The pastor of the church, Jiangong and his wife Cuimei had refused to hand over their church grounds to a local developer supported by the government. Now, the Communist government authorities were exasperated and ordered the demolition of their church.
The bulldozer finally arrived. The pastor and his wife had decided to try and stop the demolition. They stood firmly in front of the monstrous machine and the bulldozing crew. The crew did not push them away. Instead, they shoved and formed a pit where the couple stood. Without the couple realizing what would happen next, the bulldozer started its engine and they were brutally covered with soil. While the pastor was able to dig his way out and free himself, his wife suffocated before she could be rescued.
Some witnesses said that a member of the demolition team shouted, “Bury them alive for me, (and) I will be responsible for their lives.” Later, it was reported that two members of that demolition team were arrested by the police and are under criminal investigation. The pastor, who survived the tragedy, was warned by government officials to keep quiet about the incident. His wife died, but all he could do was weep and mourn silently.
This tragedy tells us again how human rights in China are constantly violated and the claimed freedom of religion does not exist. During the post-Mao’s time, the debate on political reform in China has been focused on the rule of law. People believe that the rule of law in China could guarantee human rights, such as freedom of speech and freedom of religion. In my opinion, it is a naïve idea. When a country is ruled by only one party, regardless of whether it is a Communist Party or presumably a democratic party, there is no fundamental difference between a false rule of law and the rule of man. Laws are made by men, and the ruling party can make any law in the name of people, “for the people.”
The Constitution of China holds that people have freedom of religion. However, the Communist Party has never changed the system of land tenure by which the state owns all land. Despite the fact that a property law was adopted in 2007, individuals can only possess a land-use right, and this land-use right is a limited right. When the pastor and his wife defended their land-use right, which was ministering people to follow Jesus, tragedy struck.
Under the pressure of the international community, the authorities issued a report that designates the site for religious use on April 25th, 2016. Nothing is worth celebrating, though. A Christian woman was brutally killed in plain daylight. No church can practice their religion freely. Pastors are forced to meet every week with local officials to explain their sermons, while Chinese Christians are demanded to love the Communist Party before loving God. In a recent conference on religious freedom, President Xi Jinping even ordered that “unyielding Marxist atheists” impose communism onto the nation’s religious groups. Protecting human rights, such as religious freedom, is a joke under a Communist regime.
“The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.” (Psalm 10:4)