On November 8, 2017, organized and incited by Wu, the representative of a religious website in South Korea, several family members of the CAG Christians from China staged a farce at the gate of Jeju courthouse in South Korea. They invited the media to hold a press conference, requiring the court to reject the asylum applications of their families in South Korea and declaring, “We want our families to go back home.” On November 9, Wu organized several family members to hold a press conference at the Seoul Press Center building, alleging that the proper asylum application of the CAG Christians was a misuse of the refugee law. On November 10, at the entrance of the Seoul Immigration Office, the family members of a Christian held a banner protesting against the collective refugee applications from the CAG. From November 11 to 13, they held the banner to protest outside several churches of the CAG, wantonly slandering and defaming the CAG, with the focus of objecting to the CAG Christians seeking asylum and applying for refugee status in South Korea.

Right of seeking asylum is one of the fundamental human rights. It is expressly stipulated in Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.” So then, what is the background of the CAG Christians coming to South Korea to seek asylum? Are they qualified to apply for refugee status? If they have the qualification, why do their family members violate their right of seeking asylum and obstruct them in applying for refugee status abroad? Who manipulates and instigates the family members of the Christians to interfere in their freedom of belief and attempt to have them repatriated to China? Who is the real arch-criminal that forces the CAG Christians to leave their family and flee abroad? All these are the focus of the issue. In August, 2016, Tian, the wife of the CAG Christian Zhang, came to South Korea. Incited by Wu, she put on a “miserable play” of “looking for my husband in the foreign country” to discredit the CAG. In November, 2017, organized by Wu, Tian and the others hindered the CAG Christians from applying for refugee status again under the cover of familial affection. As to this, what do the Christians who have escaped to South Korea to seek asylum think of it? What is the true fact behind the “family trap” set by Wu? Next, we’ll reveal the truth of the fact in three aspects: Firstly, the true background of the Christians coming to South Korea to seek asylum. Secondly, is it in accordance with the teachings of the Bible for the Christians to believe in God and leave home to work hard and sacrifice for God?Thirdly, what is the true intention of Tian and the others coming to South Korea to “look for their family” and who is the invisible hand behind it?

1. The True Background of the Christians of the House Churches in China Coming to South Korea to Seek Asylum

Tian and the others said that their family were not refugees and that the asylum application of the CAG was a cheat. So then, have the CAG Christians suffered persecution? What is the true background of their going abroad to seek asylum? As is known to all, China is a country ruled by the dictatorial Communist Party. The CCP has always attacked and condemned religious belief. After holding power, it has declared the Bible as an evil cult book and designated Protestantism and Catholicism as evil cults and wantonly suppressed and persecuted underground house churches. According to statistics, only before 1957, at least tens of thousands of Christians and preachers were persecuted to death and countless Christians were imprisoned in labor camps and fined, which caused a lot of families to be torn apart and destroyed. Since Almighty God, Christ of the last days appeared and did His work in 1991, the CCP has never stopped its persecution of the CAG. On May 8, 1991, the CCP dispatched the armed police force in coordination with the police to conduct a large-scale suppression and arrest operation against the church and pursue the arrest of church leaders. In 1995, the CCP declared Christian house churches such as Shouters and the CAG as cult organizations and subjected them to oppression and persecution.

On April 29, and on May 1, 2000, the Supreme People’s Court and Supreme People’s Procuratorate of China separately convened meetings of No.1174 and No.87. By issuing interpretation, the so-called legal basis is provided for the CCP to suppress, arrest, and ban the house churches and the CAG. And Article 300 of the Criminal Law is the Miscellaneous Provisions. After the Christians are arrested, even if they are innocent of a crime, as long as they believe in God, they will be imprisoned in labor camp and be persecuted to death with no one to answer for it. According to rough statistics, in the short span of two years between 2011 and 2013, there were up to 380,380 CAG Christians arrested and detained by the CCP government, of whom 111,740 people were fined or extorted, 43,640 people suffered various tortures and cruel treatment, and 35,330 people had their houses searched. Along with its sins of persecuting the Christians being constantly exposed to the world, the CCP was red-eyed with fury. In 2014, in order to completely ban the CAG, the CCP plotted the May 28 McDonald’s Murder Case to lay the blame on the CAG and also used the media to propagandize. On June 16, the CCP carried out a nationwide special action, the “One-Hundred-Day Battle,” to crack down on the CAG, escalating the act of suppressing the CAG into an “urgent, arduous, and significant” political task. Just according to the statistics publicly reported by the CCP’s media, there had been 1,858 CAG Christians arrested during the “One-Hundred-Day Battle,” and in the half year of latter 2014, at least 6 CAG Christians were tortured to death by the CCP. An overseas human rights organization said in a report that 2014 was the year when Christian churches and Christians in mainland China suffered the most severe persecution since the end of the Cultural Revolution. On May 23, 2016, the United Morning Post reported: In a short span of two years between 2014 and 2015, there were 1200-1700 churches whose crucifixes were forcibly demolished, several rights-defense lawyers were arrested, and several presidents of Christian Association were imprisoned and put under house arrest by the CCP government for having objection to its demolishing the crucifixes…. The large-scale atrocities committed by the CCP to persecute religious beliefs made tens of millions of Christians in mainland China suffer so much devastation and torture. Danger was apprehended throughout Mainland China. The Christians felt great suffering and panic. Against such a background, the CAG Christians risked their lives to flee to many foreign countries to seek asylum. This has been a known fact.

The iron-clad and irrefutable evils of the CCP persecuting the Christians of the house churches have caused strong condemnation and resentment from many human rights organizations, democratic people, and the media at home and abroad. On October 23, 2017, at the international conference on “Religious Persecution and the Human Rights of Refugees” held at the Korea Press Center in Seoul, Italian sociologist and director of Center for Studies on New Religions Prof. Massimo Introvigne pointed out, “The CAG is a religious organization that suffers the most severe suppression of the CCP.” Former chair of the European Union Working Group on Humanitarian Aid Ms. Rosita Šorytė said: What the CAG Christians have suffered is severe religious persecution that is planned and continuous and proceeds in steps. The CAG suffers persecution as an organization. According to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) issued in 2004, an “ordinary believer” in the group that suffers persecution has the qualification to get refugee status. In their cases, it’s clear that the persecution the CAG Christians have suffered are cruel tortures indeed, and evil crimes higher than social persecution. She pointed out, “The evidence of the CAG suffering persecution in China is irrefutable.” Numerous facts and human rights organizations and democratic people have proved that the CAG is an organization persecuted by the CCP, and what they have suffered are cruel tortures higher than social persecution. So, even the ordinary members of the CAG also probably face persecution. But Tian and Wu denied the facts of the CAG being persecuted in China with their eyes wide open. They openly stood on the side of the CCP, covering up its evils, and skewed facts to say that the CAG Christians were not refugees, so as to mislead people into thinking that the CCP had not persecuted the religions and that the Christians would not be persecuted if they went home. They also spoke for the CCP like a thief crying “stop thief,” saying that their family didn’t go home for being “trapped” in the CAG, and falsely accused the Christians of misusing the refugee law when they applied for refugee status by legal means, so that they could interfere with the South Korean court in accepting the asylum applications of the Christians. They are truly accomplices who help the CCP attack and persecute religious belief abroad. In fact, they are not there to visit or look for their family, but wantonly violate the right of asylum for everyone to enjoy in United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, and covertly deny the behavior of the CCP persecuting religious belief. How despicable their illegal actions are!

2. Is It in Line With the Bible’s Teachings for the Christians to Leave Home and Work Hard and Sacrifice for Their Belief

Wu and the others vilified the leader of the CAG by saying that the leader ordered the Christians to write a letter of guarantee about cutting ties with the family and lured them into running away from home at the press conference. In the “miserable play” staged by Tian in South Korea, she claimed that her husband didn’t get in touch with the family and became a cold man after he believed in Almighty God. Is this the fact? Why daren’t the Christians contact their family actually? As we have learned, it is not that the church leader ordered Zhang to flee from China, nor is it that the church forced him not to meet his wife. He chose to leave home and stay abroad because of the persecutions of the CCP and his family, and he decided not to meet his wife anymore because of his wife’s threat of self-destruction and oppression. In “An Open Letter to My Wife Tian of October 7, 2016”, Zhang clearly said, “Before, when I was at home, you once persecuted me by committing suicide and self-destruction, and even threatened me by killing me with a knife, obstructing me from believing in God. If it were not for your aunt, I would have been hacked by you. In May, you tried the same old trick when we met, threatening me by committing suicide, and then ganged up with the spies of the CCP to abduct me back to China. If I hadn’t made a narrow escape, malignant things would have happened. So, thinking over and over again, I decide not to meet you.” “Remembering that in the Spring Festival of 2014, I said to you, ‘If I hadn’t believed in God, I would have abandoned myself to the pleasures of sin, eating, drinking, whoring, and gambling.’ But you replied, ‘I would rather you do so.’ What is it that you say? You don’t like me to be a good person but feel happy if I learn to do ill. I see that we are not the similar types of people. The Bible says that believers and unbelievers are not compatible indeed. Now, I have a true knowledge of it. As the saying goes, ‘There is little common ground for understanding between persons of differing principles.’ We aren’t suitable to live together already. It’s getting colder now, you’d better go home with our child quickly. Don’t wallow in the mire with the CCP anymore, for you’re doing evils and you’ll be punished. I hope that you can shun evil and respect my freedom of belief and also give yourself some freedom. If you want to divorce, I can sign it at any time. All the property belongs to you. If our child wants to follow me, I will bring him up. I also hope that he can come before God to pursue to be a real person and walk the right path of life.” Obviously, it is completely because the persecutions of the CCP and his family made Zhang unable to believe in God that he left home and didn’t want to meet his wife anymore. The Bible says, “Be you not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: … or what part has he that believes with an infidel?” (2Corinthians 6:14–15). It fully conforms to the Bible that the believers and unbelievers pursue divorce when they couldn’t be together anymore. It is common in the religious world and originally unimpeachable. But Tian and Wu make a big deal out of it to discredit the CAG. How preposterous! They do have ulterior motives. Actually, when the family of the CAG Christians come to visit them, the gate of the CAG is open. No one is stopping them. If the family want to stay abroad, the Christians also support and welcome them. While as for the family who have followed the CCP to persecute their belief, the Christians have the right to decide whether to meet them or not according to the Bible. The church completely respects their choices. But Tian and Wu fabricated rumors out of thin air and framed up, “Zhang lost contact with the family for trapping in the CAG. The church leader ordered the Christians to write a letter of guarantee about cutting ties with the family and tempted them to run away from home.” They are completely skewing facts and their words are truly smearing, framing, rumoring, and discrediting!

When the Christians saw that their family interfered with the foreign democratic countries in carrying out the refugee law and obstructed them in seeking asylum under the cover of “familial affection,” how did they feel? Just as Zhang said, “Thinking back, I once had hopes for you. I thought that you did harm to me just because you were deceived or threatened by the CCP government. I also fantasied that you would understand one day: The path my husband insists walking is the right path of life; it is the most correct and honorable thing that my husband worships the Creator. But facts show that I’m wrong. I don’t see through the evil substance of the CCP’s being hostile to God and your ‘kind intention.’ You would rather want me to be imprisoned and persecuted to death or to be crippled than let me believe in God. You keep saying that you love me, but your so-called ‘love’ is really too selfish and terrifying.”

3. Be Watchful That the CCP Has Stretched out Its Evil Hand of Persecuting Religious Belief and Interfering With Democratic Freedom Into Foreign Countries

In February, 2012, South Korea enacted the refugee law which was carried into effect on July 1, 2013. Since then, it has become the first country that complies with the refugee agreement of the international community and independently carries out the comprehensive refugee law in the areas of Asia. This plays an active role in solving the problems of the refugees of the international community. UNHCR South Korea representative admired that, saying, “The trial implementation of the refugee law will be the basis for South Korea to epochally improve the standard of supporting the domestic refugees and asylum applicants.” However, facing the advanced action that South Korea actively complies with the international refugee agreement and protects the human rights of the refugees, Tian and Wu willfully obstructed and interfered and also required the court to reject the asylum applications of the Christians who have been persecuted by the CCP at the press conference. What’s their purpose? What force incited them to interfere with the enforcement of the South Korean laws?

It is revealed by an insider of the CAG: In November, 2013 and in March, 2016, Wu once went undercover in the CAG to pry into the information of the church under the guise of investigating the true way. She also spread the messages of the CCP condemning the CAG on her religious website many a time and was driven out of the church after being discovered. On August 28, 2016, Wu incited 5 old ladies and Zhang’s wife and son to go to the CAG to make trouble. Obviously, Wu is the spy who has been bought off and planted abroad by the CCP. According to Zhang’s personal experience, he said, “Tian’s identification had already been discovered when she came to South Korea in May, 2016. On May 23, Tian came to meet me with the CCP’s spy called Xiaohan and contacted a police officer of the Public Security Bureau of Shaanxi Province who claimed to be Xiaohan’s teacher through the microblog, letting him coax me to go back to China. They also tried hard to pry into the information of the South Korean church. I rejected them. Seeing that their trick failed, they took away my passport, cellphone and all my money, and intercepted me in the airport building. In fear, I ran desperately to get rid of them.” It’s clear that Tian has already become a chessman bought off and controlled by the CCP. So, she came to South Korea to disturb and discredit the CAG by the “family-trap” of “looking for her husband” over and over again. They whipped up public opinions in South Korea and intended to put pressure on South Korea and forced its government not to grant refugee status to the CAG Christians, thus helping the CCP achieve its evil purpose of extraditing the Christians to China and completely abolishing the CAG.

From November 8 to 13 in 2017, Tian colluded with Wu again. They went to Jeju courthouse, the Seoul Immigration Office and the entrances of the CAG to protest, held press conferences against the asylum applications of the CAG Christians, and directly required the court to reject the asylum applications of the CAG Christians. From their organized, premeditated, and planned actions and purpose, the true fact of Tian and the others coming to South Korea to “look for their family” is all too obvious. They are led and controlled by the CCP and their true intention of this trip is to cooperate with the CCP in compelling South Korea to deport the CAG Christians who are seeking asylum there. As to this, some South Korean Christians and people of human rights activities condemned: The CCP goes to South Korea to interfere with the enforcement of the refugee law. How despicable and shameless! It is clear that the CCP’s shameless behavior of stretching out its evil hand into South Korea to persecute religious freedom of belief has long angered the democratic people.

According to relative materials, the CCP has long had the evil policy of attacking and persecuting religious belief abroad. In February, 2016, at a special conference when indicating suppression of religious groups outside borders, Meng Jianzhu, Secretary of Central Politics and Law Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, clearly pointed out, “We should push the work of deepening main diplomatic channels, focus the strategy on carrying out the action of crack-down, and narrow the religious groups’ overseas room for activities. … We must seize the moment when the western countries’ demands from our country are ascending and make the struggle of counteraction abroad more and more active. ... We should insist on taking the initiative in attacking and make good use of international general regulations and state laws to attack and crack down on religious groups.” On April 15, 2017, notice on “Key Work Points of the Provincial Leading Group for Prevention and Handling of Cult Issues in 2017” clearly pointed out, “Public Security agencies shall conduct household special investigation on cult members (‘Operation Door-knock’), conduct comprehensive investigation and dynamic assessment of the risks of cult problems, focus on probing non-line-of-sight and fugitive cult members, and prominent clues on cult activities. … Initiate search and pursuit of fugitive and missing cult members. Apprehend cult members-at-large and locate missing members by the end of June…” In addition, as we have learned from an insider, in the middle of June 2017, Zhao (alias), the wife of Christian Zhang Xingdao (alias) who fled to South Korea for religious persecution, was arrested by the CCP in mainland China. The CCP led her to be a scout, applied for the passport for her, and arranged for her to come to South Korea and contact the CAG, attempting to extradite the CAG Christians to go back to China. This is exactly the result of the enforcement of the CCP’s evil policy which is enacted to persecute overseas religious freedom of belief. The CCP willfully interferes with the enforcement of South Korean laws and persecutes religious belief. Its crimes of anti-human-rights will be spurned by South Korea and even the just people all over the world! The CCP takes measures such as “family-trap,” “economical pressing,” and “political pressing” to persecute religious belief. All its evil measures of violating human rights and justice will be rejected by mankind! The CCP’s dictatorship will certainly be destroyed by God because of resisting God, running counter to right principles and acting against Heaven.