Unregistered Catholics in Hebei Protest Abuses by Government Officials

Unregistered Catholics in Hebei detailed the human rights abuses that local officials allegedly have been perpetrating against Catholics there in an unusual letter to the Italy-based Catholic publication AsiaNews. The letter identifies the officials as Chen Xiuyun, a provincial vice governor and director of the provincial United Front Work Department office and Wang Zhenguo, director of the county-level Administration of Religious Affairs office in Gaocheng county. The authors of the letter describe Chen and Wang as being nostalgic for the Cultural Revolution and unsuited to building the "harmonious society" that President Hu Jintao has advocated. The writers also claim that the two officials are using an anti-Catholic campaign to distract attention from their failure to develop the local economy.

The letter to AsiaNews is a rare means of protest by unregistered Chinese Catholics, but an expert on Chinese Catholics says that Chen and Wang's behavior is "not really exceptional."

Hebei province has the largest concentration of Catholics in China and is a stronghold of the unregistered Catholic community. The Cardinal Kung Foundation, a U.S.-based NGO that monitors this community, published an updated list of Catholic clergy who are currently prisoners of conscience. As of June 8, 2005, 33 of 44 come from Hebei. Of these, 6 of 33 come from Gaocheng county.