I'm not sure about you, but I am very concerned about the United States relationship with China especially since I know for a fact that China allows Christians to be persecuted in that country. My husband is so passionate about those abuses that he does his best to not buy anything made in China, even though at times, it can be very hard.
The unfortunate truth is that the United States did something they never should have done, give China permanent trade status, because in doing that there is not protection or desire for the Chinese government to change the rules they have on human rights and Christians in their country. Which is why our prayers are so vitally important.
With that said, I just read an article where it says that a Chinese official is denouncing the United States Human Rights Report. This is outrageous!
According to this article,
Chinese Foreign Ministry [official website] spokesman Qin Gang insisted Sunday that China has made many improvements, and chastised the US:
We urge the US to pay more attention to its own human rights issues, stop using democracy and human rights issues to interfere in other countries' internal affairs and do more to enhance the mutual trust between China and the US and the development of bilateral relations.
And what exactly are those "many improvements" ?
Right now we have two prisoners highlighted on our VOM Prisoner Alert page that are from China, and both of these prisoners were put in jail AFTER we gave China permanent trade status.
Alimujiang Yimiti is one of the prisoners we would like you to write and encourage. He was arrested in January 2008 and accused of "subversion of the national government and endangering national security", a crime punishable by death.
In September 200 he had his business closed down because he was "preaching Christianity among people of Uyghur ethnicity".
Interestingly, the case from January 2008 went to trial on May 27th and the case was
Alimujiang’s case referred back to the
Chinese Public Security Bureau’s prosecutors due to “insufficient
evidence.”
So, my question again is this - what exactly are the "many improvements" that China has made regarding human rights abuses?