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Chinese dissident and pastor Bob Fu recently had to be placed in protective custody after receiving threats against his life and a mob of protestors lined up in front of his home accusing him of membership in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Fu is now back at home and continuing his work of exposing abuses by the Chinese government.
Bob Fu’s organization, ChinaAid, seeks to expose abuses by the Chinese government, promote religious freedom in the communist country, provide legal assistance and training to Christians and churches, and financially support persecuted Christians. This made it doubly suspicious when Fu received death threats and was accused of being a member of the CCP by a mob of protesters surrounding his house in Texas. Fu and his family were placed in protective custody at an undisclosed location, but he has since returned to his home. As China continues to crack down on religious freedom and any criticism of the CCP, this incident raises concerns that the Chinese government is targeting Fu in America and seeking to intimidate him into silence.
ChinaAid describes its mission in this way:
“ChinaAid is an international non-profit Christian human rights organization committed to promoting religious freedom and the rule of law in China. We believe that religious freedom is the first freedom, which lays the foundation for all other basic human rights. By exposing the abuses, encouraging the abused, and spiritually and legally equipping the leaders to defend their faith and freedom, ChinaAid strives to promote religious freedom for all.”
ChinaAid exposes very unflattering human rights abuses and restrictions of religious freedom by the CCP, making it logical that China would seek to silence its leader, Bob Fu. What is strange is that after Fu received death threats, protestors showed up at his house and accused him of being a spy for the Chinese government and even the leader of the CCP. The protestors, who stood outside his house for hours each day for more than a month, wouldn’t say who sent them or if they were paid to be there. Some believe that the protests were set up and funded by Chinese billionaire Miles Kwok.
Patrick Payton, the mayor of Midland, Texas, said,
“It’s something we can’t come to grips with, why someone in this organization is saying he’s a member of the Communist Party, when quite frankly, all he’s done is been wanted by the Communist Party. We’re still trying to figure that out.”
As a safety measure, Fu and his family were initially taken away from their home for more than two months. He has since returned home and is again at work with ChinaAid. “The Lord has won this victory,” Pastor Fu reported on his return, while also thanking the community, including the many neighbors, politicians, and lawyers who supported Fu during the crisis. “We are back — peacefully and safe.”
China, which was recently elected to the U.N. Human Rights Council, has been named by the Pew Research Center as the nation that is most restrictive of religious freedom. The Heritage Foundation is in agreement, stating that “China is one of the world’s worst human rights offenders.”
Among other crimes, the CCP has imprisoned over 1 million Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, and Kyrgyz, and other members of religious minority groups in internment camps, which are designed to “erase religious and ethnic identities” and where as many as 20,000 detainees have been abused, tortured, and killed, according to the Uyghur Human Rights Project.
China has fiercely opposed Christianity for some time, but in recent years, it has increased its persecution “to a degree not seen since the most repressive days of Mao’s Cultural Revolution,” according to the Heritage Foundation. In 2020, the CCP closed church buildings and repurposed them as cultural centers that serve to convert Christians into worshippers of the state and even banned Christmas celebrations. The CCP also imprisons and tortures pastors; forces churches to register with the state and then dictates what the church is allowed to teach; and has rewritten the Bible to reflect communist ideology.
Fu receiving death threats in America and having to be placed in protective custody is troubling on its own, but considering China’s increasing influence in our nation, this case reveals an emboldened enemy who is able and willing to reach inside of American borders to threaten and attack those who live here. U.S. Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe recently named China as the biggest threat to democracy since World War II. China has also been found to have infiltrated U.S. universities with spies and even compromised U.S. congressmen.
These threats against Fu show that opposition to the CCP is dangerous, even if you live in Texas. China wants to silence those who expose its human rights abuses and stop those who promote religious liberty. It is imperative that the U.S. protect activists like Fu and support those who expose the atrocities being committed by the CCP.
Check out the Falkirk Center podcast with Erin Elmore on how the Chinese Communist Party impacts your daily life:
