China Aid Association
![ChinaAid Logo with Characters[2]](https://lh5.ggpht.com/-Hc8MnVTp7-8/UIVkxSmir6I/AAAAAAAABwY/yqzIsk55oVA/s1600-h/ChinaAid%252520Logo%252520with%252520Characters%25255B2%25255D%25255B2%25255D.png "ChinaAid Logo with Characters[2]")
Founding: In 2001, an incidence of religious persecution in south China shocked the world. In early 2002, the God Bless China Foundation headed by Xiong Yan and Pastor Bob Fu held a “Symposium on Christian Culture and the Future of China” at the U.S. Congressional retreat center in Maryland. In attendance were Dr. Wang Bingzhang, Mr. Peng Ming, many overseas [Chinese] pro-democracy leaders and many leaders from U.S. academia, media and churches. During the symposium, the news came [from China] of the December 25, 2001 sentencing by the Jingmen Intermediate Court of 17 leaders of the South China Church, five of them to death. The symposium discussed ways to help and American churches started collecting donations for this purpose, but there was no Christian organization that would help remit the funds. So Pastor Bob Fu was compelled to establish China Aid Association (ChinaAid) in Philadelphia to help China’s persecuted churches by speaking out through the media, engaging in high-level diplomacy, using the law to defend rights, etc., so as to promote religious freedom, human rights and establishment of the rule of law in China.
On October 10, 2002, because of the appeals by ChinaAid and others around the world, the South China Church religious persecution case was remanded back for a new trial and the sentences were commuted. All the death sentences were overturned.
In October 2004, ChinaAid moved from Philadelphia to Midland, Texas.
On August 6, 2004, ChinaAid exposed the Xiaoshan religious persecution case to the media and provided aid.
On September 11, 2004, Cai Zhuohua, a Beijing house church pastor, was arrested for printing Bibles. ChinaAid hired Zhang Xingshui of the Beijing Jingding Law Firm to be his defense lawyer.
In the fall of 2005, ChinaAid brought Chinese house church leaders to Washington, D.C. for a “summit” meeting. First-generation leaders from churches in Wenzhou and Henan province’s Fangcheng, and from the Tanghe group and others attended the meeting.
In 2005, Gao Zhisheng’s license to practice law was revoked because he had been the defense lawyer for some Falun Gong practitioners and because of his involvement in other sensitive cases. On August 15, 2006, he was kidnapped. ChinaAid made extensive appeals in the international community for Gao’s release.
In April 2005, ChinaAid invited the first delegation of Chinese Christian lawyers to visit the United States. Delegates included Fan Yafeng, Zhang Qianjin, Li Heping, Teng Biao, Chen Huili, Zhang Xingshui, Wu Lingling.
On October 20, 2005, Zhang Mingxuan founded the Chinese House Church Alliance in Baoding, Hebei province. Since then, ChinaAid has provided long-term support to this move to unify China’s churches.
In 2005, ChinaAid rescued from out of China Liu Xianzhi, one of the 17 church leaders in the South China Church religious persecution case, and two key lay leaders from the Chinese for Christ Church in Henan province.
On January 20, 2006, with ChinaAid’s support, Christian Human Rights Lawyers of China was founded. Its key members were Gao Zhisheng, Wang Yi, Li Baiguang, Teng Biao and Fan Yafeng.
On May 11, 2006, ChinaAid held a symposium on religious freedom and the legal system and invited a second delegation of Chinese Christian human rights lawyers to visit the United States, including Guo Feixiong, Li Baiguang, Wang Yi, Yu Jie, Gao Zhisheng, Fan Yafeng and Zhang Xingshui (the last three were barred from leaving China). Yu Jie, Wang Yi and Li Baiguang met with President George W. Bush.
On June 26, 2006, ChinaAid published its “Annual Report on Persecution of Chinese House Churches (May 2005-May 2006).”
In the fall of 2006, ChinaAid invited a third delegation of Chinese Christian human rights lawyers to visit the United States: Yu Jie, Wang Yi, Li Baiguang, Li Jingsong, Li Subin, Li Jianqiang and Zan Aizong (a reporter from China Ocean News).
In 2006, ChinaAid launched campaigns for the release of Gao Zhisheng and Chen Guangcheng.
In 2007, ChinaAid helped Chinese human rights lawyers to get involved in a large number of religious persecution cases, in particular Xiaoshan case (in which Zhang Shengqi, Xu Yonghai, Liu Fenggang were sentenced for “supplying intelligence to foreign organizations”), the death of Jiang Zhongxiu while being held at a local police station for preaching the Gospel, the labor camp case involving a church in Anhui province, and the arrest of Pastor Li Ning in Sichuan province.
On December 6, 2007, Shi Weihan, a Christian businessman was arrested and imprisoned for printing Bibles. ChinaAid hired Zhang Xingshui and Zhou Min from Beijing’s Jingding Law Firm to be his defense lawyers.
On January 12, 2008, Xinjiang authorities criminally detained Alimujiang on “suspicion of inciting separatism” and “illegally providing state secrets overseas.” ChinaAid hired Zhang Kai of Beijing’s Yijia Law Firm to defend Alimujiang’s rights and later launched a release Alimujiang campaign.
On February 7, 2008, ChinaAid published its “Annual Report of Persecution by the Government on Christian House Churches within Mainland China (2007).”
In the spring of 2008, ChinaAid organized a delegation of human rights defenders from China to go to South Korea where they visited the Parliament and met legislative leaders and former president Kim Young-sam. They discussed religious freedom, democracy and the rule of law with lawyers from the Korean Bar Association and professors from Handong International Law School. Human rights lawyers Zhuang Daohe and Li Dunyong and leaders from house churches in several cities took part in the discussion.
On February 7, 2008, Southern Baptists of America awarded ChinaAid’s Pastor Bob Fu its 2007 John Leland Religious Liberty Award.
On July 29, 2008, President Bush met ChinaAid president Bob Fu and four other human rights activists—Wu Hongda, Wei Jingsheng, Sasha Gong and Rebiya Kadeer—in the White House Diplomatic Reception Room.
In the fall of 2008, ChinaAid funded 11 Chinese human rights lawyers to attend Advocacy International’s 5th World Conference in Washington DC.
In the winter of 2008, ChinaAid’s Pastor Bob Fu and lawyer Li Baiguang were invited to the European Union headquarters in Brussels, as well as to London and Northern Ireland. They met many important people of the European Parliament, the EU and the Parliament of Northern Ireland, and in London they held a joint press conference with the heads of two British human rights groups on the ongoing attacks on lawyer Gao Zhisheng and the persecution of Alimujiang.
On February 5, 2009, ChinaAid published its “Annual Report of Persecution by the Government on Christian House Churches within Mainland China (2008).”
On March 12, 2009, ChinaAid’s Pastor Bob Fu went in person to Thailand to help Gao Zhisheng’s wife Geng He and their two children get refugee asylum and come to the United States.
At the beginning of April 2009, ChinaAid’s Pastor Bob Fu went in person to Thailand to rescue Guo Feixiong’s wife Zhang Qing, daughter Tianjiao and son Tiance and brought them to the United States where they were granted political asylum.
On April 23, 2009, ChinaAid presented to the U.S. Senate, the Chinese embassy in Washington and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a “Free Gao Zhisheng” petition signed by more than 50,000 people.
On August 7, 2009, ChinaAid helped Doctor Gao Yaojie escape from China and to get political asylum once she arrived in the United States. ChinaAid also coordinated the completion of the editing of the updated edition of her book China’s AIDS Plague: 10,000 Letters by the Hong Kong publisher Open Books.
On September 13, 2009, the world was shocked by the Linfen religious persecution case in Shanxi province. ChinaAid immediately launched a rescue operation and hired several Christian human rights lawyers to defend the arrested church leaders.
On October 29, 2009, the U.S. Congress’ Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission held a special hearing on Capitol Hill. ChinaAid arranged for Jiang Tianyong, Zhang Kai and Dai Jinbo, part of a delegation of Chinese Christian human rights lawyers, to testify on “The Current Situation of Freedom of Religion and the Law in China.” In early November, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China held a special hearing on China’s forced family planning practices, and Jiang Tianyong and other lawyers testified again.
In November 2009, Beijing Shouwang Church began to hold its worship services outdoors in its fight for the right of freedom of worship. The outdoor worship continues today. ChinaAid has long been calling on the international community to show concern for and pray for Shouwang Church in its tribulation.
On May 9, 2010, Guangzhou’s Liangren House Church was forced to hold its worship service outdoors, and Pastor Wang Dao was placed under criminal detention. ChinaAid hired Li Baiguang and Liu Peifu to defend him and called on the international community to pay attention. Thirty-seven days later, Wang Dao was set free on bail pending trial.
On July 15, 2010, ChinaAid’s Pastor Bob Fu went with Wu Chenglian, a Christian human rights defense legal worker, and lawyer Li Subin, head of Chinese Human Rights Lawyers Association, to the European Parliament’s Human Rights Commission in Brussels to attend a special hearing on human rights in China.
On December 10, 2010, ChinaAid’s Pastor Bob Fu and his entourage went to Norway to attend the Liu Xiaobo’s Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony.
From November 8 to 10, 2010, a non-governmental delegation of Chinese Christians organized by ChinaAid visited the United States as observers of the Congressional mid-term elections. Li Baiguang, Ran Liang and Sun Haiping visited Congress and other agencies.
On February 10, 2011, ChinaAid released a video showing the house arrest [conditions] of the blind human rights defense lawyer Cheng Guangcheng. His situation once again attracted the scrutiny of international opinion.
On March 25, 2011, Liu Xianbin, Chinese dissident, writer, Christian and human rights defender from Sichuan province, was sentenced by Sichuan’s Suining Municipal Intermediate Court to a heavy 10-year jail term for “inciting subversion of state power.” ChinaAid called on the international community to call for Liu’s release and to pay attention to his case.
In May 2011, ChinaAid and the British group Christian Solidarity Worldwide nominated the imprisoned Christian human rights lawyer Ms. Ni Yulan for the 2011 Human Rights Defenders Tulip Award, which was awarded to her.
On March 31, 2011, ChinaAid released its “ 2010Annual Report: Chinese Government Persecution of Christians and Churches in Mainland China.”
On October 23, 2011, ChinaAid opened its Los Angeles branch, headed by Pastor E. Perez Romero.
On November 30, 2011, at the invitation of the European Union, ChinaAid organized a delegation to attend an EU human rights forum in Holland on December 1. Pastor Bob Fu and other members of the delegation testified about the deterioration of human rights, religious freedom and the rule of law.
On April 20, 2012, Chen Guangcheng escaped from Dongshigu Village in Linyi, Shandong province where he had long been held under house arrest and made his way to Beijing. ChinaAid contacted human rights defenders who helped Chen seek refuge in the U.S. embassy. On May 3, Pastor Bob Fu was invited to testify at a Congressional hearing on Chen’s case, following which ChinaAid helped Chen to come to the United States.
On June 10, 2012, ChinaAid was the first to expose the cruel case of Ms. Cao Ruyi of Changsha, Hunan province forcibly and violently taken by family planning officials to a hospital and forced to have an abortion. The news aroused strong condemnation from the international community.
China Aid Contacts
Rachel Ritchie, English Media Director
Cell: (432) 553-1080 | Office: 1+ (888) 889-7757 | Other: (432) 689-6985
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.chinaaid.org
