COMMUNIST PERSECUTION OF CHURCHES IN RED CHINA AND NORTHERN KOREA | CONSULTATION WITH FIVE CHURCH LEADERS Rev. PETER CHU PONG REV. SHIH-PING WANG Rev. Tsin-Tsal Liu Rev. SAMUEL W. S. CHENG Mr. KYUNG Ral KIM COMMITTEE ON UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES EIGHTY-SIXTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION MARCH 26, 1959 (INCLUDING INDEX) Printed for the use of the Committee on Un-American Activities UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 89242° WASHINGTON : 1959 ¥ COMMITTED ON UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES UNITED STATES HOUSE or REPRESENTATIVES FRANOIS E. WALTER, Pennsylvania, Chairman MORGAN M. MOULDER, Missouri DONALD L. JACKSON, California OLYDE DOYLE, California GORDON H. SCHERER, Ohio EDWIN E. WILLIS, Louisiana WILLIAM E. MILLER, New York WILLIAM M. TUOK, Virginia AUGUST E. JOHANSEN, Michigan RicHARD ARENS, Steff Director 18 CONTENTS Page ee i: oh es ret ee eee ee te ee oie ee ee ea oe i! March 26, 1959: Testimony of— even ece rs CLUek ON oars tree cee ane ee ae ocr ee ee 10 REVO on =pinOeVWV.all Omen eee ee ce ere Nets a owe et erin le 14 TRE, ACSF SYA Sl DADDY alee eee ey gti li led one ees eek rae Lean 19 PE VABOTENUCIEV AiO OD ClO ae nen ene ea ennee sain near ae 24 Pama eer alg cee meee nc ee NS 8 ee eee ee 29 nd Gx se eee ee ee ee eee ee Mey 2 Se eee aN ie ee i 100 Digitized by the Internet Archive _ in 2021 with funding from i Columbia University Libraries https ://archive.org/details/communistpersecu0Ounit ; Pusuic Law 601, 79TH ConcREss The legislation under which the House Committee on Un-American Activities operates is Public Law 601, 79th Congress [1946], chapter 753, 2d session, which provides: Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, * * PART 2—RULES OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Rute X SEC. 121, STANDING COMMITTEES Xe * * * * * * 18. Committee on Un-American Activities, to consist of nine Members. Rute XI POWERS AND DUTIES OF COMMITTEES * * * * a ga * * (q) (1) Committee on Un-American Activities, (A) Un-American activities. (2) The Committee on Un-American Activities, as a whole or by subcommit- tee, is authorized to make from time to time investigations of (i) the extent, character, and objects of un-American propaganda activities in the United States, (ii) the diffusion within the United States of subversive and un-American propa- ganda that is instigated from foreign countries or of a domestic origin and attacks the principle of the form of government as guaranteed by our Constitution, and (iii) all other questions in relation thereto that would aid Congress in any necessary remedial legislation. The Committee on Un-American Activities shall report to the House (or to the Clerk of the House if the House is not in session) the results of any such investi- gation, together with such recommendations as it deems advisable. For the purpose of any such investigation, the Committee on Un-American Activities, or any subcommittee thereof, is authorized to sit and act at such times and places within the United States, whether or not the House is sitting, has recessed, or has adjourned, to hold such hearings, to require the attendance of such witnesses and the production of such books, papers, and documents, and to take such testimony, as it deems necessary. Subpenas may be issued under the signature of the chairman of the committee or any subcommittee, or by any member designated by any such chairman, and may be served by any person designated by any such chairman or member. * * * * % * * Route XII LEGISLATIVE OVERSIGHT BY STANDING COMMITTEES Src. 136. To assist the Congress in appraising the administration of the laws and in developing such amendments or related legislation as it may deem neces- sary, each standing committee of the Senate and the House of Representatives shall exercise continuous watchfulness of the execution by the administrative agencies concerned of any laws, the subject matter of which is within the jurisdic- tion of such committee; and, for that purpose, shall study all pertinent reports and data submitted to the Congress by the agencies in the executive branch of the Government. Vv RULES ADOPTED BY THE 86TH CONGRESS House Resolution 7, January 7, 1959 * * * * * * % Rute X STANDING COMMITTEES 1. There shall be elected by the House, at the commencement of each Con- gress, * * cI * * * x (q) Committee on Un-American Activities, to consist of nine Members. * * * * * * Ps Rute XI POWERS AND DUTIES OF COMMITTEES * * * * * * * 18. Committee on Un-American Activities. (a) Un-American activities. (b) The Committee on Un-American Activities, as a whole or by subcommittee, is authorized to make from time to time investigations of (1) the extent, char- acter, and objects of un-American propaganda activities in the United States, (2) the diffusion within the United Btates of subversive and un-American prop- aganda that is instigated from foreign countries or of a domestic origin and attacks the principle of the form of government as guaranteed by our Constitu- tion, and (3) all other yer re in relation thereto that would aid Congress in any necessary remedial legislation. The Committee on Un-American Activities shall report to the House (or to the Clerk of the House if the House is not in session) the results of any such investi- gation, together with such recommendations as it deems advisable. For the purpose of any such investigation, the Committee on Un-American Activities, or any subcommittee thereof, is authorized to sit and act at such times and places within the United States, whether or not the House is sitting, has recessed, or has adjourned, to hold such hearings, to require the attendance of such witnesses and the production of such books, papers, and documents, and to take such testimony, as it deems necessary. Subpenas may be issued under the signature of the chairman of the committee or any subcommittee, or by any member designated by any such chairman, and may be served by any person designated by any such chairman or member. * * * * 26. To assist the House in appraising the administration of the laws and in developing such amendments or related legislation as it may deem necessary, each standing committee of the House shall exercise continuous watchfulness of the execution by the administrative agencies concerned of any laws, the subject matter of which is within the jurisdiction of such committee; and, for that purpose, shall study all pertinent reports and data submitted to the Hous> by the agencies in the executive branch of the Government, VI SYNOPSIS Five Protestant leaders from Formosa, Hong Kong, and Southern Korea, in the accompanying consultation with the House Committee on Un-American Activities, described the persecution and horrible atrocities visited on Christians in Communist China and Northern Ko- rea by the Communist governments. Their testimony reveals that these governments, like that of the Soviet Union, are engaged in an intense campaign to wipe out all vestiges of Christianity in areas under their control. Rev. Peter Chu Pong, general secretary of the Hong Kong Inter- national Christian Leadership, told how the Communists, after tak- ing over China in 1949, began to persecute the churches there. They came to him and to other ministers, demanding complete information on his church’s income, the earnings of its members, a detailed ac- counting of daily expenditures, and information on contacts with foreign missionaries. They “borrowed” from him his religious books—and then never returned them. They set up indoctrination classes in his church to brainwash his congregation. ‘These classes stressed three points: 1. Denial of a living God; the teaching of creation through evolution. 2. Denial of Christ as God. They said He was simply a common carpenter who had been crucified by the people because he wanted to lead a counterrevolution. 3. Christianity is a “religious instrument of foreign im- perialists” to poison the Chinese people and “sell them into slavery.” The Communists held accusation meetings to charge Rev. Pong, his wife, and the elders and deacons of his church with being im- perialists. They were forced to kneel on the platform of the church assembly hall with their hands tied and a sign which said “Guilty Crime” hanging from their necks: * * * They slapped our faces, kicked our bodies, and poured cold water on our heads. They made my children stand and watch. If they cried, the Communists beat them. They wanted me to confess that I was an imperialist agent and reveal the amounts of money I was supposed to have received from the missionaries. They wanted me to tell what kind of guns and radios the missionaries had given to me. ‘They accused me of helping twelve missionaries escape from Nanking before the Communists came, They wanted me to reject Christ, give up my church, and admit that the only God was Mao Tse-tung, fee of the Communist gov- ernment. ‘They wanted me to reject God because they did not believe in God and said religion poisoned the minds of the people. 1 2 COMMUNIST PERSECUTION OF CHURCHES Even if he had done what the Communists wanted him to do, Rev. Pong said, it would have been of no use: Tf I had confessed they would have killed me immediately. They were going to put me into prison anyway, but if I had confessed they would have killed me. They also wanted me to confess that I had ill-treated our two orphans whom we kept in our mission compound. They wanted to know how much financial aid we had received from the United States and Britain. They slapped our faces with long sticks and beat us when we refused to confess to these things, ‘They said we have a gun in our heads and that the gun 1s the im- perialist plot. After the accusation meeting: They put me and my wife into prison. We had only one meal each day for 46 days. Then they suddenly released me from prison and told me that the people of the Chinese Communist Government had granted me real mercy. They said they wanted me to go home and write my self-confes- sion again. Then they would make arrangements for me to confess before the people my guilt. They really wanted to have me free so they could follow me with their secret police in the hope I would involve others. After they released me from the prison, each day they sent two different secret police to follow me. Rey. Pong escaped from Nanking to Shanghai, Canton, and finally Hong Kong. The Communists still held his wife: The Communists tried to get her to divorce me first. They beat her and tortured her, trying to get her to sign the papers of divorce. They brought the case to the common court. She finally signed the papers after much torture, and then they released her from prison. She was sent to Peking and finally fled to Hong Kong in March of 1951. There are no longer any truly Christian churches operating in Red China, Rev. Pong continued. The only ones in existence are propa- anda churches operated by the Communists with Communist min- isters “picked by the government to fill the pulpits and indoctrinate the people in communism.” Describing the incentive the Communists offer to the young people of Red China to join the Communist Party, Rev. Pong said: They are promised that if they concentrate all their ener- gies on the building of an industrial empire, they will be tangibly rewarded with material products, such as television sets and automobiles. In fifteen years, they are told, Red China will surpass the United States. They are told they will be the masters of the whole world; that by 1965 Red China will be celebrating their victories in San Francisco. As an immediate reward, the Communist young men are given their choice of the young women and they have wine to drink and, in general, live on a higher level than the average person. COMMUNIST PERSECUTION OF CHURCHES + Despite these inducements, the young people of Red China make up the greatest proportion of escapees from the mainland. There is eneral unrest among the population and “the people on the main- fia will never be satisfied until another revolution sweeps the pres- ent regime away.” . Rev. Shih-ping Wang, East Asia director of the Baptist Evangeli- zation Society International, described at some length the commune system recently instituted in Red China. This system has hurt the churches, he said, because it has given the government much more complete control of the people and all worship has been forbidden in the communes. The system works in the following manner: The family unit is broken up. Husbands and wives are separated into different barracks. The children are taken away from the parents and placed in government-run nurs- eries. Husbands and wives may meet only once a week for two hours—they have no other contact. Because these places of meeting are few, couples must stand in line at the special rooms waiting their turn. And after they are finished, they must report to the commune group leader to tell the date and time and how long they stayed together. They must also report what they said and did together. The parents may see their children once a week and when they see them they can- not show affection toward their children. The idea is to have the children and the family sever their affection and direct it toward the state. Names are taken away from the children, and they are given numbers. There is no individual identity. The basic unit of social life in the commune is the commune itself. The people have resisted the communes. One step they took was to kill their livestock when the system was being instituted. A short- age of pork in Hong Kong, which relies largely on mainland China for that meat, resulted from this. The farmers also burned their crops. At the present time active, open opposition to the Communist gov- ernment is confined to groups of guerrillas who have fled to the mountains, Visitors to the mainland, Rev. Wang said, are unaware of the true facts about life under the commune system because what they see: * * * is just a guided tour. They take them where they want to take them and let them see and hear only what they want them to hear. The commune system, Rev. Wang said, is destroying morality in Red China: * * * 1. There is no morality because the love of the family is taken away. 2. There is no honesty and respect among men or between men. There is no human dignity, they are all like animals. 3. There isno guilt associated with the murder of individuals for the improvement of the state. 4, There is no prostitution on the mainland in the com- munes because there is no man-woman relationship except the sanctioned two hours a week granted by the government. 89242 °—59——2 4 COMMUNIST PERSECUTION OF CHURCHES In Communist Party circles, a woman must submit herself to any party member who desires her favors. If the woman refuses a party member, she may be thrown into jail or stripped and nailed to a wall until she dies. Another punish- ment is to cut the breasts off the woman who refuses. The most revolting aspect of the commune system in China is re- vealed by the treatment now given to the older people: All the elderly people 60 years of age and above who cannot work are put in the old people’s “Happy Home.” After they are placed in the homes they are given shots. They are told these shots are for their health. But after the shots are taken, they die within two weeks, After they die, the corpses are placed in vats. When the bodies decay and maggots set in, the maggots are used to feed chickens, The remainder of the body is used for fertilizer. Old graves are also dug up and the bones used for fertilizer. In Hong Kong, the people do not eat chickens imported from the mainland because of the food fed to the chickens. To dig up the graves is to sever family ties completely. Chinese people revere their ancestors. Digging up the graves is the Communist method of severing all connections with tradi- tion and the past. Soldiers of the Red army, according to Rev. Wang, are not satis- fied. They do not like the breakdown of the family unit, have a tendency to look the other way when refugees try to escape and, when their ofiicers’ eyes are not on them, do not force the people to work hard—even standing by and doing nothing when others sabotage the system. Rev. Wang continued: During the bombardment of Quemoy, many of the shells that came over were duds and on the shells were carved “Return back to the mainland,” or “Go back to the main- land” for the Chinese on Formosa, The symbol used on the shells is in common use in China. Also, during Quemoy, many of the soldiers escaped to Quemoy from the mainland on little boats and they used their white shirts as signs of surrender. If we had an opportunity to return to the mainland, we believe that many of the Chinese Communist soldiers would defect to the Nationalist Army. Rev. Tsin-tsai Liu, pastor of the Gospel Baptist Church in Taipei, said that the Communists were friendly when they first took over China in 1949, but began wholesale persecutions of Protestant churches in 1950. Christian leaders were placed under house ar- rest. Christians were blacklisted and could not hold government jobs. In addition, they had to be “reeducated” and attend confession classes to reveal their past associations and beliefs. If the self- confessing classes are not successful, the Communists resort to other means: _ * * * They stop the noses of the people and pour water in their mouths. Every time the person breathes, he swallows water. After he swallows enough water, his stomach swells COMMUNIST PERSECUTION OF CHURCHES 5 up, and then they stand on it. Then they use 24-hour ques- tioning. The questioning goes on day and night with dif- ferent shifts of Communists asking the questions. The per- son being questioned loses all sense of time, Also used are threats of violence to loved ones. After the Christian ministers and leaders were arrested, they were replaced with Communists, The government now uses Chin Ling Theological Seminary in Nanking and the Shanghai China Theologi- cal Seminary in Shanghai to train their own “preachers.” Prior to the Communist takeover, there were over twenty-five Protestant seminaries in China. ‘Today there are only five, all of which are controlled by the Communists. The Communists confiscated the churches and then rented them back to the people at “fantastic” rentals. When the people could not pay these rentals, the churches were closed : * * * The only churches that were allowed to remain open were Communist-run churches that serve as show cases for visitors. Rev. Liu does not believe that these churches will ever be closed by the Communists because “they are a good means of spreading propa- ganda and reeducating the people. Also, the churches give them an appearance of a dignified civilization.” Rev. Liu revealed that after the Communist takeover, a considerable number of teachers in the seminaries who had been considered leftists and had called themselves “progressives” revealed their true colors and emerged as full-fledged collaborators with the Communists. Other measures adopted by the Communists to destroy the churches include forcing them to sever ties with all outside church groups, sub- stituting the teachings of Marx and Lenin for those of Christ, and government control of all “religious” printing. In 1953, it was de- cided that the Bible was unscientific and antirevolution and would therefore have to be retranslated. This work, however, has not yet been completed. Rev. Samuel W. S. Cheng, who received theological training at Princeton Theological Seminary and is superintendent of the Gospel- aires Friends Mission in Taipei, stated that since 1949 the Communist government of China had confiscated over 20 million U.S. dollars in church property; about 140,000 mainland Christians have been killed by the Lente: 5 million Chinese have fled as refugees to Hong Kong, Formosa, and other parts of the world, and over 30 million Chinese have been killed or persecuted. The Communist government, he said, confiscates all relief goods sent to the mainland. None of it gets to the people. The only effective re- lief is air drop, such as that done by the Chinese Nationalists at night so the relief goods can be picked up secretly. All other relief is wasted. Rey. Cheng described what had happened to the family of a mem- ber of the Chinese Nationalist House of Representatives on Formosa because he was intensely anti-Communist : * * * his family and his cousins, brothers, all relatives, altogether 180 persons, have been killed. Again he says his oldest brother, who is a graduate of Co- lumbia University, returned back to China in 1957 for peace 6 COMMUNIST PERSECUTION OF CHURCHES negotiations. He does not know whether he is dead or alive. His second older brother, Mr. Wang, is also a graduate of Central Military Academy. He was executed by public accu- sation. This writer’s sister-in-law is a very good woman. The Communists thought she had a whole lot of money and asked a lot of her, and she said she had lent it. So it made the Communists very mad at her. They used five horses. One horse was tied to her neck and the other horses were tied to her arms and legs and they went in all directions. The big- gest horse ran and it just tore her body into pieces. The blood streamed all over the public square, and the people shut their eyes and cried, They could not stand to see it. Kyung Rai Kim, Christian leader in Southern Korea and chief of the religious section of the Kook Do Daily News in Seoul, told of Northern Korean Communist persecution of religion. As in China, he said, all denominations have been eliminated in Northern Korea. There is only one so-called church, the “Northern Church Associa- tion” and it, too, is not a true Christian church but merely a propa- ganda tool of the government. Over 95 percent of the Christians of Northern Korea, he said, have fled to Southern Korea. Before 1945, there were 1,500 Protestant churches in Northern Korea. ‘Today there are only 116 church build- ings and most of them are used as public halls. Prior to 1945, there were 3 Protestant theological seminaries, 20 Bible schools, and 12 mis- sion schools in Northern Korea. ‘Today there are none. During the Korean War, the Northern Korean Communists killed 1,650 ministers and shot 1,600,000 Northern Korean people, including 125,000 Chris- tians. Four million refugees, including over 450,000 Christians, have fled from Northern to Southern Korea, he continued. The population of Northern Korea is now only 6 million, while that of Southern Korea is 2414 million. Mr. Kim revealed that the Communists in Northern Korea had established an “agricultural association system” there which is very similar to the commune system now operating in Red China. He also disclosed how the Northern Korean Communist gov- ernment went about destroying the church in that country: In Pyongyang, in 1946, an educational ministry was de- veloped to do away with the Christian churches. The edu- cational ministry sent secret police during worship services to hear the ministers preach. The ministers who preached the gospel of Christ were accused of being against the government and were arrested. At first the government tried to make them confess to being against the govern- ment. Later they were shot. The government made public examples of the ministers by torturing them. An evangel- ist friend of mine, Lee Chang Whan, was killed. He was 26 years old, a real intellectual, a graduate of a Lutheran seminary, and could speak six languages fluently. In the winter of 1948, he was killed by the Communists, because he was going to print the Bible. He was trying to publish the Bible in secret because there was no freedom for Bible pub- lishing under the puppet regime. The Red police stripped him naked, bound him, and put him into an empty water COMMUNIST PERSECUTION OF CHURCHES di pool. It was 17 degrees below zero that day. They filled the pool solid. My friend froze to death in 380 minutes. Then the police exhibited his body to the people. A lady evangelist, Kim Keum Sun, was tied between two horses. Then the horses were sent running in different directions. This happened in 1951. Through terrible per- secutions such as these, the Communists made the people afraid to be Christians and to go to church. Kim Keum Sun was guilty of not letting a portrait of the chief of Northern Korea be placed in her church. In January 1951, 250 pastors were killed by the Commu- nists on the same day in the same place in Hong Jai Dong, Seoul, Korea. The Red police made holes through the pastors’ hands with an ax and bound them hand to hand with an iron thread, and they shot them. In February 1951, at Won Dang Church, Chen Ra Nam Do Province, Red soldiers burned 83 Christians with gasoline. Mr. Kim further testified that the people of Southern Korea be- lieve there is danger of another attack from the north because the Communist regime is sending so many spies to Southern Korea. A former Communist spy who had defected, he said, revealed that the Northern Korean government was sending 200 spies per month to Southern Korea. Mr. Kim also said that since 1945 the Southern Korean national police had arrested over 47,000 Northern agents and spies and confiscated, 1,500,000 American dollars from them. 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Pes Ader ; 14 on) vr 4 Gare te nh * abt 19 ae pes Se, 7 COMMUNIST PERSECUTION OF CHURCHES IN RED CHINA AND NORTHERN KOREA THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 1959 Unirep States House or REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES, Washington, D.C. CONSULTATION The following consultation with Rev. Peter Chu Pong, general sec- retary of the Hong Kong International Christian Leadership; Rev. Shih-ping Wang, vice president of the Taiwan Baptist Evangeliza- tion Society Seminary and East Asia director of the Baptist Evan- gelization Society International; Rev. Tsin-tsai Liu, pastor of the Gospel Baptist Church in Taipei; Rev. Samuel W. S. Cheng, superin- tendent of the Gospelaires Friends Mission in Taipei; and Mr. Kyung Rai Kim, chief of the religious section of the Kook Do Daily News in Seoul, was held at 1:30 p.m., Thursday, March 26, 1959, in room 226 of the Old House Office Building, Washington, D.C. Committee member present: Representative Francis E. Walter, of Pennsylvania, chairman. Staff members present: Richard Arens, staff director, and Francis J. McNamara, research analyst. The Cuatrman. The Committee on Un-American Activities, over the course of the last several years, has been constantly engaged in the process of developing factual information regarding each of the many facets of the operation of the international Communist con- spiracy. This information has been the foundation upon which has been devised virtually all of the internal security legislation of our Nation. Today we are pleased to confer with five persons who have expe- rienced in their own lives the impact of communism in action—raw, ruthless terrorism as practiced by the perpetrators of the most mon- strous conspiracy against humanity in all recorded history. From them we expect to glean additional information which will be of con- cern to the Congress and the American people as we continue our struggle with this menace which threatens the free world. May I suggest, gentlemen, we proceed as follows: That each of you in advance of the response which you shall make to the individual questions posed to you give, if you please, a brief word about yourself personally and then, if it is agreeable, respond to the questions. (At this point the witnesses were duly sworn by the chairman.) 9 10 COMMUNIST PERSECUTION OF CHURCHES TESTIMONY OF REV. PETER CHU PONG Mr. Pone. My name is Peter Chu Pong. I was born in Peking, China, on February 17, 1918. I received my B, Th. degree from Tientsin Bible Seminary in 1947. From 1950 to 1953 I was affiliated with the Hong Kong Ghiifian Refugee Brethren Assembly. From 1953 to 1955 I was superintendent of the Hong Kong Tsun Wian Gospel Library. At the present time I am general secretary of the Hong Kong International Christian Leadership. Mr. Arens. When did you leave the China mainland ? Mr. Pona. I left in February 1950. Mr. Arens. What was your occupation up to the time the Commu- nists took control of China ? Mr. Pona. I was a Protestant minister of a Brethren Assembly Church of 120 members in Nanking. Mr. Arens. When the Communists took control in 1949, did you continue in your church work in the usual way ? Mr. Pone. Yes, until August 1949. Mr. Arens. What happened at that time to cause you to differ in your work ? Mr. Pone. The Communists began coming every day to question me about the church and the missionaries and everything pertaining to religion. They wanted to know if I had connections with foreign missionaries; did I accept their financial support; did I have connec- tions with them before the war; what my congregation had to believe before they could be baptized. Mr. Arens. Did you learn why the Communists wanted to know these things? Mr. Pona. They wanted to uncover some evidence that would help them destroy my church and the Christian faith. The first few times they came they were nice but then later they became terrible. Mr. Arens. In what way did they become terrible? Mr. Pone. They wanted to know the monthly offerings and the earnings of my church members; what the money was used for; how much I spent for myself and my family. I had to give a detailed account, including meals, clothing, et cetera, for each day of the week; what kind of people offered us money; whether the people were of- fering the money voluntarily, or was I forcing it from them, They wanted to know 1f I had organized a Christian crusade. After they had asked these things, they began to borrow all my religious books and the books I used in my ministry—they never re- turned them. Finally, they borrowed my last book, a book on Revela- tion, by John Harkins, but they could not understand it. They thought there was something mysterious in the book, some secret code they could not translate. When I told him the book concerned the second coming of Jesus Christ, the Communist questioning me slapped me with his hand and then he beat me until I could not get up. They were convinced there yas SOUNCue secret in the book, something in connection with spy work, Mr. Arrns. You mentioned that the Communists wanted to know if you had organized a Christian crusade. Did they indicate why they asked that question ? COMMUNIST PERSECUTION OF CHURCHES 11 Mr. Pone. They said that foreign missionaries were always spies. I was born in a missionary home and was brought up by missionaries, and they suspected that I was a spy. Mr. Arens. Were you, as a Protestant minister, more suspect of being connected with foreign spies than the average person ? Mr. Pone. Yes. Because I had so many foreign missionary friends. They knew I had been brought up by the missionaries—raised in a missionary home. Mr. Arens. After they questioned and beat you, what was the next step taken by the Communists ? Mr. Pone. They formed an indoctrination class in the assembly hall of our church. For 2 weeks they worked on the members of my church, brainwashing them into accusing me of being an imperialist agent and a running dog of the missionaries. Mr. Arens. How was this brainwashing class in your church con- ducted ? Mr. Pone. From morning to night they taught my church members all about communism. ‘They indoctrinated our people along three major points: 1. They entirely denied there is a living God which exists in this universe. They told the people the whole universe was created through evolution. 2. They denied Lord Jesus and His salvation. They told the people that Jesus Christ was just a common carpenter, that the people had crucified him because he wanted to lead the people in counterrevolution work. 38. They told the people that Christianity is a religious instrument of the foreign imperialists to poison our Chinese people and sell them into slavery. Mr. Arens. After the Communists had completed this brainwashing class, what did they do? Mr. Pone. They held an accusation meeting to accuse me, my wife, and the elders and deacons in our church of being imperialists. They tied our hands with long rope and forced us to kneel on the platform in our church assembly hall with signs around our necks which said “Guilty Crime.” They slapped our faces, kicked our bodies, and poured cold water on our heads. They made my children stand and watch. If they cried, the Communists beat them. They wanted me to confess that I was an imperialist agent and reveal the amounts of money I was supposed to have received from the missionaries. ‘They wanted me to tell what kind of guns and radios the missionaries had given tome. They accused me of helping twelve missionaries escape from Nanking before the Communists came. They wanted me to reject Christ, give up my church, and admit that the only God was Mao Tse-tung, head of the Communist government. They wanted me to reject God because they did not believe in God and said religion poisoned the minds of the people. Mr. Arens. Did you actually have anything to do with the escape of the twelve missionaries as they accused you’ Was that a fabri- cated charge? Mr. Pone. Before they left, I helped them in their packing, and I did whatever I could do to help them secure passage. Mr. Arens. If you had done the things the Communists wanted you to do, would they have let you keep your church? Mr. Pona. No. If I had confessed they would have killed me im- mediately. They were going to put me into prison anyway, but if 1 had confessed they would have killed me. They also wanted me to 89242°—59——3 1? COMMUNIST PERSECUTION OF CHURCHES confess that I had ill-treated our two orphans whom we kept in our mission compound. They wanted to know how much financial aid we had received from the United States and Britain. They slapped our faces with long sticks and beat us when we refused to confess to these things. They said we have a gun in our heads and that the gun is the imperialist plot. Mr. Arens. Mr. Pong, you said that if you had confessed they would have killed you. Do you know of some cases where, when people or ministers did confess to these accusations, they did kill them? Mr. Pona. If you confess you are guilty, they want to hold another accusation hearing and they say the people are hearing and they say that your own people want you to die. If Khar do not confess, they — will put you in jail, and you are never released. Mr. Arens. After the accusation meeting, what did the Communists do with you? Mr. Pone. They put me and my wife into prison. We had only one meal each day for 46 days. ‘Then they suddenly released me from prison and told me that the people of the Chinese Communist Gov- ernment had granted me real nerest They said they wanted me to go home and write my self-confession again. Then they would make arrangements for me to confess before the people my guilt. They really wanted to have me free so they coil follow me with their secret police in the hope I would involve others. After they released me from the prison, each day they sent two different secret police to follow me. Mr. Arens. After you were released from the prison, did you escape immediately to Hong Kong? Mr. Pona. I stayed in Nanking for three days and then I escaped first to Shanghai, then Canton, and finally Hong Kong. pape ag gl Was your wife released soon after you fled to Hong ong? Mr. Pona. No: The Communists tried to get her to divorce me first. They beat her and tortured her, trying to get her to sign the papers of divorce. They brought the case to the common court. She finally signed the papers after much torture, and then they released her from ee She was sent to Peking and finally fled to Hong Kong in Jarch of 1951. Mr. Arens. Were the methods the Communists used on you similar to the ones they used on other Protestant ministers on the mainland? Mr. Pone. Yes, sir; they followed the same pattern with everyone. They wanted to destroy the churches, the ministers, and then they could destroy the faith of the people. Mr. Arens. Are there still churches in existence on the mainland? Mr. Pone. The churches now in existence are not Christian churches; they are propaganda churches allowed to operate by the Communists. . Mr. Arrns. What about the pastors of these churches. Are they not Christians ? ' Mr. Pone. None of them are Christians; they are all Communists. They are picked by the government to fill the pulpits and indoctrinate the people in communism. Mr. Arnns. Are any of these so-called pastors agents of the Red Chinese secret police ? COMMUNIST PERSECUTION OF CHURCHES 13 Mr. Pona. Yes. Rev. Y. T. Yu, Peking Christ Church in China;- Rev. Marcus Chen, Peoples Government Religious Delegation; and Rey. Peter K. S. Wong, Canton Christ Church in China, are all secret agents of the Communist government. Their churches, under Communist sanction, are still functioning. The churches in Peking and Canton are quite large and are centers for disseminating Communist propaganda. Mr. Arens. Do most of the people who formerly attended these churches still attend ¢ Mr. Pone. No. | Mr. Arens. Are there any Christians among the young people on the mainland ? Mr. Pona. Not a one. The young people are not allowed to attend services, even in the Communist-controlled churches, The young people are all property of the Communist Party. Mr. Arens. Do the Christian parents of the young Chinese try to teach them something of their religion in the home, even though they can’t go to church ? Mr. Pona. No, the young people turned Communists. Mr. Arens. Do many young people try to escape from the main- land? Mr. Pona. Yes, more young people and students try to escape from the mainland than do the older people. Mr. Arens. Was the escape route you followed the usual path the refugees follow ? Mr. Pona. Yes, sir; this is the usual route. Mr. Arens. Is there an underground route to help people escape? Mr. Pona. Yes, there is an underground working, but the details, of necessity, must be kept secret. Mr. Arens. Have the number of people attempting to escape in- creased since the commune system went into effect ? Mr. Pona. Yes, sir. After the commune system went into effect, escape became harder. ‘The chances for escape now have fallen off sharply. Only one in ten attempting to escape gets through. Over- seas students have the best opportunities for escape since the com- munes came into being. From June to December 1958, in Hong Kong, with the commune system operating, more than 2,000 refugees successfully escaped. Among them were 167 university students; 1,240 fishermen, including their families who fled by water during the night; 24 farmers from Canton; and two officers in full uniform who fled from Macao. One was a Communist Party member and the other one was an army captain. Mr. Arens. You said tnat the overseas students have the best op- portunities for escape. Why is that? Mr. Pona. The Communists are attempting to disseminate their propaganda in all parts of the Far East. They send students to Malay and Singapore and to the Philippines and to different parts to distribute Communist propaganda, and these are the students who defect, who have the best chance for escape because they are outside the borders of Red China. Mr. Arens. Could you tell us what incentive is offered to the young people in China to join the Communist Party ? Mr. Pona. They are promised that if they concentrate all their energies on the building of an industrial empire, they will be 14 COMMUNIST PERSECUTION OF CHURCHES tangibly rewarded with material products, such as_ television sets and automobiles. In fifteen years, they are told, Red China will surpass the United States. They are told they will be the masters of the whole world; that by 1965 Red China will be celebrat- ing their victories in San Francisco. As an immediate reward, the Communist young men are given their choice of the young women and they have wine to drink and, in general, live on a higher level than the average person. Mr. Arens. But in spite of all these immediate and future bene- fits that are promised them, young people still comprise the largest number of escapees; is that true? Mr. Pona. At first the young people were satisfied but they dis- covered the Communists did not keep their promises, that they cheated, and so the younger people are among the largest numbers among the escaping refugees at the present time. They do not want to be sent to the far corners of China to work. Mr. Arrens. Do you believe that this indicates a general unrest among the population on the mainland ? Mr. Pone. Yes. The people on the mainland will never be satis- fied until another revolution sweeps the present regime away. Mr. Arens. From what sources do you receive information from the mainland ? Mr. Pona. Refugees are the main source. Old women over 60 years of age can come and go freely between Canton and Hong Kong. They are valuable sources of information, but the main source is the refugees. Also the students supply a great deal of information. Mr. Arens. Do you know of any instances in which refugees in aoe Kong have been kidnaped and returned to the interior of hina ? Mr. Pona. Yes, sir. Su Ming-shuien, Great Wall motion picture director, was kidnaped October 10, 1958, because he wanted to sepa- rate himself from all Communist activities. He was kidnaped in the Prince Garden Restaurant in Hong Kong. There are other in- stances, not so current, in which a Protestant minister’s wife was kidnaped. Mr. Arens. Do you have any knowledge, Mr. Pong, of what hap- pens to refugees who are returned to the mainland ? Mr. Pona. Yes. They are sent to concentration camps in Sen Chieng province in Manchuria. Mr. Arens. Could you tell us what is done with them there? Mr. Pone. They put them to work in the labor camp and they never come out of there until they die. TESTIMONY OF REV. SHIH-PING WANG Mr. Wane (Through interpreter) : My name is Shih-ping Wang. I was born in Tientsin, Hopei Province, China. I am a graduate of China University in Peiping, where I received both my Bachelor and Master of Law degrees. At the present time I am vice president of the Taiwan Baptist Evan- elization Society Seminary and East Asia director of the Baptist {vangelization Society International. I am also a member of the first board of directors on Taiwan and have been active in the Chris- tian Anti-Communism Crusade in China. COMMUNIST PERSECUTION OF CHURCHES Le Mr. Arens. Could you tell us what the first board of directors on Taiwan is? Mr. Wana. I am a member of the first board of directors of the Baptist Evangelization Society International. Mr. Arens. When did you leave the China mainland? Mr. Wana. I fled Peking in 1948, when the Communists were sur- rounding the city. I went first to Shanghai where I stayed a short time. Then I went from Shanghai directly to Taiwan. Mr, Armns. How have you managed to keep in touch with the con- ditions on the mainland ? Mr. Wane. My information is from refugees who come periodically from the mainland. I have also gathered information from the 14,000 Red Chinese soldiers who defected to American forces during the Korean War. These men are now on Taiwan. Right after the establishment of the commune system, a Mrs. Han came to Taiwan from the mainland and also a Mrs. Shung. From these two ladies I have received a great deal of information about the communes, Mr. Arens. Do you work primarily with refugees and refugee groups in Taiwan? Mr. Wana. My work is not primarily for the refugees, but interest is so high on Taiwan that we try to contact all of the refugees who come from the mainland. Mr. Arens. When were the communes established on the mainland ? Mr. Wana. The communes were established in 1958. In April of 1957 a trial commune was set up in Hopei Province. Because of its success, the others were established. Mr. Arens. Who in the Red Chinese Government is responsible for the commune system ? Mr. Wane. Mao Tse-tung. Mr. Arens. Who is Mao Tse-tung’s immediate assistant in the ad- ministration of the communes? Mr. Wana. Liu Shao-chi. He is head of the secret police. Mr. Arens. Are the secret police the main tool of the Red Chinese Government in seeing that the commune system is carried out in China? Mr. Wana. The combined forces of the Communist Party, the se- cret police, and the army are responsible for seeing that the commune system is carried out on the mainland. Mr. Arens. Do you know of any church leaders who are promoting the communes? Mr. Wana. First of all, these men are not true Christians; they have compromised their faith with communism. Rev. Wu Chuen- shen in Shantung, and Tsui Yung-fu and Chow Rei-ting, in Hopei, are so-called Christian ministers who are working with the govern- ment to get the people to accept the commune system. The churches have been hurt by the commune system. Congrega- tions have been broken up and scattered as the people have been moved from one province to another. In the country where the communes are there are no churches. Mr. Arens. What is the basic unit of social life in the communes? Mr. Wana. The family unit is broken up. Husbands and wives are separated into different barracks. The children are taken away trom the parents and placed in government-run nurseries. Husbands and wives may meet only once a week for two hours—they have no other 16 COMMUNIST PERSECUTION OF CHURCHES contact. Because these places of meeting are few, couples must stand in line at the special rooms waiting their turn. And after they are finished, they must report to the commune BE eee to tell the date and time and how long they stayed together. They must also report what they said and did together. The parents may see their children once a week and when they see them they cannot show affection toward their children. The idea is to have the children and the family sever their affection and direct it toward the state. Names are taken away from the children, and they are given numbers. There is no individual identity. The basic unit of social life in the commune is the commune itself, Mr. Argns. Do families try to meet at other times between the ap- proved once-a-week meetings ? Mr. Wana. They cannot meet because they are not consigned to the same place and do not have freedom to travel. They come to work in a group, eat in a group, work in a group, and return ina group. There is no opportunity for individuals to get away and see their families. Husbands and wives are placed on different communes. Travel be- tween communes is only possible if the traveler has a pass. There is no contact between the once-a-week meetings. Mr. Arens. Have the Chinese people accepted the commune system and the breakdown of the family unit passively ? Mr. Wane. They did not accept the communes freely—the com- munes were forced upon them. The commune is especially hard on the Chinese people because their traditional unit of life was the family and the family ties are very close. When the communes were first es- tablished, the people could openly complain against them verbally and sometimes they did revolt physically. One line of resistance was to kill all livestock when they were supposed to be turned over to the gov- ernment. The effect of this latter line of resistance has been felt in Hong Kong. A large amount of pork is exported from the mainland to Hong Kong. ‘There is now a shortage of pork in Hong Kong asa result of the resistance. Farmers burned their crops in opposition to the communes, Mr. Arens. What happened to those individuals who tried to resist the communes ? Mr. Wane. If they are few in number, they are given life imprison- ment in a slave labor camp or else they are killed. If they are many in number, the Communists try to pacify them for a while until they can locate the leaders. Then the leaders are killed. Mr. Arrns. If the people are dissatisfied with the communes, why do they not organize and revolt? Mr. Wana. They cannot revolt because, 1. They work between 14 and 16 hours a day. When they are through with work they are al- most dead. 2. The lack of nourishment, the lack of food with the hard labor. There is no physical stamina to revolt. The people on the com- munes receive only 4-oz. of rice per day. Sometimes they eat a lot of sweet potatoes in order to save the rice. 8. Anything that can be used as a Weapon, even personal things, has been collected by the officials of the communes. Mr. Arnns. Is there any kind of underground in operation on the mainland to sabotage the efforts of the Red Chinese Covaharhanes Mr. Wana. There is, but the activities of this organization are con- fined to the mountains. Since the establishment of the commune sys- COMMUNIST PERSECUTION OF CHURCHES 17 tem, most of the people who are against the commune system have fled to the mountains. At night they come down to attack the crops and sabotage the communes. By attacking the crops, I mean they burn the crops. Mr. Arrns. Do the people on the communes find any opportunity at all for Christian worship ? Mr. Wane. There are no opportunities for any kind of worship because the people work 14 to 16 hours a day, 7 days a week. Mr. Arens. In addition to that factor, is religious worship permitted on the communes ? Mr. Wana. It is completely forbidden. Mr. Arens. Are visitors to the mainland made aware of these facts when they get outside the large cities? Do visitors to Red China from the free nations of the world get a true or objective picture of condi- tions in China? Mr. Wane. No, it is just a guided tour. They take them where they want to take them and let them see and hear only what they want them to hear. Mr. Arens. Has the Communist system raised the morality of the eople ? : r. Wana. No. There isno morality. 1. There is no morality be- cause the love of the family is taken away. 2. There is no honesty and respect among men or between men. There is no human dignity, they are all like animals. 38. There is no guilt associated with the murder of individuals for the improvement of the state. 4. There is no prostitution on the mainland in the communes because there is no man-woman relationship except the sanctioned two hours a week granted by the government. In Communist Party circles, a woman must submit herself to any party member who desires her favors. If the woman refuses a party member, she may be thrown into jail or stripped and nailed to a wall until she dies. Another punishment is to cut the breasts off the woman who refuses. Mr. Arens. What kind of treatment is accorded young people in the commune system ? Mr. Wane. Youth corps are organized to train spies among the youth to work in the families and throughout the communes and to train youth guards for the communes. There is no special treatment for the youth. They eat the same food and work just as hard as the older people. The mass of the young people attend political school, where they are taught communism over and over. Those individuals who go to college and technical schools are hand-picked by the gov- ernment. There is no equal opportunity for education among the young people. Mr. Arens. I imagine those who are handpicked and given edu- cational opportunities by the government are those who show com- plete devotion to the government and the commune system. Mr. Wane. Yes, they consider them as progressive enough in the Communist Party to take the special education. Mr. Arens. On the other hand, is it true that if the people resist at all, then they are denied, they are considered reactionary and unfit for educational opportunities ¢ ; Mr, Wana. That is true. Mr. Arens. What provision is made for the elderly people who are no longer able to work on the communes? 18 COMMUNIST PERSECUTION OF CHURCHES Mr. Wana. All the elderly people 60 years of age and above who cannot work are put in the old people’s “Happy Home.” After they are placed in the homes they are given shots. They are told these shots are for their health. But after the shots are taken, they die within two weeks. After they die, the corpses are placed in vats. When the bodies decay and maggots set in, the maggots are used to feed chickens. ‘The remainder of the body is used for fertilizer. Old graves are also dug up and the bones used for fertilizer. In Hong Kong, the people do not eat chickens imported from the mainland because of the food fed to the chickens. To dig up the graves is to sever family ties completely. Chinese people revere their ancestors. Digging up the graves is the Communist method of severing all con- nections with tradition and the past. Mr, Arens. Since the establishment of the communes, has the death rate on the mainland increased ? Mr. Wana. The death rate has increased: 1. Lack of nourishment and hard labor has shortened the lives of many people; 2. Passing away of the elderly people by injection has increased the death rate. At first there were 24,000 communes. Now there are 26,000, On all the communes there is a higher-than-average death rate. Mr. Arens. Is there any ownership of personal property on the communes? Mr. Wana. There is no personal ownership of any property. All houses and land are confiscated for the communes. All cooking uten- sils and household items are taken away from the people by the com- mune officials, According to the commune system, the people are supposed to be paid for all items taken over by the commune, but none has been paid yet. Mr, Arens. What has happened to religious buildings and prop- erty on the communes? Mr. Wana. All churches and temples have been taken over by the government and are used as public buildings and offices on the com- munes. Mr. Arens. What is the attitude of the soldiers who enforce the commune system ? Mr. Wane. The soldiers are not satisfied. Since most of them are family men, they are not happy about the breakdown of the family unit. Many of the soldiers have shut one eye and looked the other way when the refugees have attempted to escape. When the higher- ups are not around, the soldiers do not get after the workers very hard—they let things ride. When others sabotage the Communist government, the soldiers stand by and do nothing. They practice a kind of passive resistance. Mr. Arens. Are the communes strengthening the Red China Gov- ernment or is it being weakened ? Mr. Wana. Since the establishment of the communes, the govern- ment has a better control of the people, both physically and mentally. Consequently the commune system is strengthening the government. Mr. Arens. As far as the feelings of the Peon are concerned, how- ever, what effect is the commune system having? Is it tending to make the people hate the government even more ? Mr. Wana. Yes. They have a tendency to hate more because of the breakdown of their family society. COMMUNIST PERSECUTION OF CHURCHES 19 Mr. Arens. Could you give us an example of an indication of resist- ance to the Red Chinese regime on the part of soldiers in the army? Mr. Wane. During the bombardment of Quemoy, many of the shells that came over were duds and on the shells were carved “Return back to the mainland,” or “Go back to the mainland” for the Chinese on Formosa. The symbol used on the shells is in common use in China. Also, during Quemoy, many of the soldiers escaped to Quemoy from the mainland on little boats and they used their white shirts as signs of surrender. ‘If we had an opportunity to return to the mainland, we believe that many of the Chinese Communist soldiers would defect to the Nation- alist Army. TESTIMONY OF REV. TSIN-TSAI LIU Mr. Lrv. My name is Tsin-tsai Liu. I was born in Tientsin, China, on January 18, 1928. After World War II, I came to the United States and attended Jacksonville Baptist College, Jackson- ville, Texas. I received my B.S. degree there. Following graduation I returned to Taiwan. At the present time I am pastor of the Gospel Baptist Church in Taipei. Mr, Arens. What contact have you had with conditions on the mainland since you left? Mr. Liv. Through refugees who have fled to Hong Kong and to Formosa. Mr. Arrens. Are you engaged in extensive work among the refugees ? Mr. Liv. Not completely; we have contact with them in our church, I also have numerous friends and relatives who have fled since I left. Mr, Arens. When the Communists took control on the mainland what was their first attitude toward the churches? Mr. Liv. They were more or less friendly since they had not as yet consolidated: their forces. Actually they only tolerated the churches. Mr. Arens. When did they actually begin to oppress the churches? Mr. Lrv. During the first part of 1950 the Communists began to persecute the churches. They waited until they had moved their forces pretty well across the mainland. Mr, Arens. How did they persecute the churches? Mr. Liu. They did it very quietly. They took all the known Chinese Christian leaders and placed them under house arrest. All Christians who were faithful Christians were blackballed, and it was made impossible for them to obtain any high-ranking posts in govern- ment; and if they were persistent in rhein belief, they were kept from ' government jobs entirely. This was true not only of government jobs but any jobs at all. Anyone that hired Christians was also suspect and considered a bad risk. : Mr. Arens. What other forms did this persecution of the churches take? Mr. Liv. All Christians were educated by the missionaries, and thus their minds were considered to be poisoned. They had to be reeducated. They said that all missionaries were spies and all they taught was contrary to the scientific teachings and that communism is superior to Christianity. They held self-confessing classes, and 20 COMMUNIST PERSECUTION OF CHURCHES the people were given a guilty feeling about what they had been. They were forced to confess all their past associations and beliefs, It was not physical force. They took part in a round-table con- fession discussion. They divide up into several groups. In each group are some Communists who take the lead in confessing. The confessions of the Communists draw out the confessions of the other people who are not Communists. They may go on for weeks or months, depending upon how progressive the Communists think the people have been in their confessing. Mr. Arens. What means are used if the self-confessing classes do not work? Mr. Liv. If they do not work, physical force is used. They stop the noses of the people and pour water in their mouths. Every time the person breathes, he swallows water. After he swallows enough water, his stomach swells up, and then they stand on it. Then they use 24- hour questioning. The questioning goes on day and night with dif- ferent shifts of Communists asking the questions. The person being questioned loses all sense of time. Also used are threats of violence to loved ones. Mr. Arens. Which methods are more effective? Mr. Liv. The brainwashing is more effective because it is done on a larger scale. The torture is done to one individual at a time. The example is not before everybody; and since a large number die from’ the torture, it does not accomplish what the Communists intend for it to do. Mr. Arens. Are these methods more intensified on the Christians than on the average person? : Mr. Lav. Yes, because the Communists consider their mind is more poisoned than the rest. Mr. Arens. Getting back to the churches, after the Christian lead- ers were arrested, what did the Communists do? Mr. Liv. They tried to put their own people in to fill up the vacuum. People were trained by the Communists to work as preach- ers in the church—they also used left-wing preachers. Mr. Arens. Do the Communists have a school where they train ministers, or do they use existing seminaries? Mr. Irv. They have a school which used to be a seminary where they train their own men. Chin Ling Theological Seminary in Nanking is the school they use. The Communists infiltrated it before the war and they are using it now. Mrs. Wu Yi-fang is the presi- dent of the school. She welcomed the Communists to Nanking in 1949 in the name of Christianity. The Communists also have another school in Shanghai. It is called Shanghai China Theological Sem- inary. Mr. Arens. Prior to the Communist take-over in 1949, was Mrs, Wu Yi-fang regarded by the people as a Communist or pro-Communist ? Was she known as such, or did she successfully cover up her pro- Communist inclinations? Mr. Liv. When the teachers were what we call the leftists, they did not actually show their true color. Many showed their true color after the Communists arrived. They called themselves progressive intellectuals but they never claimed they were Communists. They never showed their true color until after the Communists infiltrated the place. COMMUNiST PERSECUTION OF CHURCHES 21 Mr. Arens. Do the Communists plan to replace even the left-wing ministers with graduates from these training schools? Mr. Liv. I presume so, because the left-wingers still have contact with the Western world and are subject to doubt. Mr. Arens. How do these men maintain contact with the West- ern world ? Mr. Liv. Most of them were graduates in the States or taught by missionaries. In actuality they do not maintain contacts outside China. But their background is against them. Mr. Arens. Did the Communists close all the truly Christian seminaries ? Mr. Liv. Yes. Before the Communists there were more than twen- ty-five seminaries. Now there are only five. All five are used by the Communists as propaganda agencies. The two I mentioned above are just examples. Mr, Arens. After the Communists began putting their own people in the churches, did they begin to exert force to close all the churches? Mr. Lav. They confiscated all the church properties and then made them available back to the people at fantastic rentals. When the people could not meet the rentals, the churches were automatically closed, but the state could technically say they did not close the churches. The only churches that were allowed to remain open were Communist-run churches that serve as show cases for visitors. Mr. Arens. Do the Communists, after a time, plan to close the propaganda churches? Mr. Liv. No, I don’t believe so; they are a eed means of spread- ing propaganda and reeducating the people. Also, the churches give them an appearance of a dignified civilization. Mr, Arens. Will more churches be established as propaganda chan- nels? Mr. Lav. No, they have enough for their purposes and these are used only in the big cities. The country is already communized and has no need of the churches. Before the Communists took control, they destroyed all the Buddhist temples in China. Now they are training Buddhist priests to work in India and other countries where Buddha is worshipped. But they will not build more temples in China. Mr. Arens. Did the Communists use means other than confiscation to close the churches ? Mr. Liv. In 1950 they forced three self-improvements on the churches. The self-improvements are self-independence, self-support, and self-teaching. The first two are aimed at the Christians to make them sever their ties with the outside world and isolate them. Self- teaching means replacing the teachings of Jesus with the teachings of Marx and Lenin. as as Is any religious publishing being done on the mainland today ¢ Mr. Liv. There is some, primarily for the purposes of the govern- ment; only items allowed by the government are printed. There is not even any underground printing being done. What is printed for the churches goes hand in hand with the Communist line. Mr, Arrns. How about the people who write this religious mate- rial? Are they all party members or people who have gone over to the side of the Communists ? 4 COMMUNIST PERSECUTION OF CHURCHES Mr. Liv. There are some party members and then the left-wingers, as the others have mentioned by name, who write for them. They are well known in China. They used to be so-called Christian leaders. They write articles and some of them are eM members. h he Aruns. Is the Holy Bible still used in those churches which are permitted to exist in China? , Mr. Liv. No. There has been almost 100 percent confiscation of Christian books, magazines, and Bibles. Mr. Arens. What is used in place of the Bible? Mr. Liv. In place of the Bible the writings of Marx and Lenin are used. In 1953 the National Religious Conference, a propaganda group, passed a resolution to translate the Bible in the light of the writings of Marx and Lenin. They consider the Bible to be unscien- tific and antirevolution. Since it has not been translated as yet, it is hard to tell how this will be done. Mr. Arens. Do you know of any work at all that is being done on a new translation ? / Mr. Lav. No, they haven’t translated it yet, only the resolution was passed. : Mr. Anrens. Are the peop in the propaganda churches, the mem- bers, sincere Christians ¢ Mr. Liv. Some are sincere Christians who really want to worship God, but most of them are not. With respect to the Bible translation, they teach that Jesus was a laborer, a carpenter’s son, a proletariat and because he was from the working class and wanted to establish a working class that the rich people, the Pharisees, crucified him because he was a revolutionist, or the Communists say a Communist, and that is the way they teach it. Mr. Arens. This is oral teaching. It is not in any book as yet? Mr. Lio. No, but that will give you an idea of what the new Bible, if they translate it, will sound like. Mr. Arens. Where are the true Christians on the mainland ? Mr. Liv. In the beginning they had undercover meetings in their homes with small groups getting together. If they were caught in these meetings, they faced certain death as counterrevolutionaries. Since the commune system has started, the families have been broken up and so have the undercover worship meetings. It is difficult to find accurate figures concerning the number of Christians who have been either murdered or imprisoned. The Communists have published, in newspapers and magazines, that 8,840 have been executed as landlords and gangsters; 64,000 are in slave camps; and 2,300 Christians were executed in Shanghai, Nanking, and Canton alone. These figures were released in 1957, but they are a small fraction of the actual figures. The true Christians on the mainland are scattered across China. Mr. Arens. Would you say there are more Chinese Christians out- side China than in? Mr. Liv. Considering the number of Christians put to death on the mainland, there are more Christian Chinese outside than there are in- side Red China. Mr. Arens. Have many Christians given up their faith due to per- secution, or have the majority of Chinese Christians remained true? Mr. Liv. The majority remain true but they do not express them- selves. There are more true Christians in the country, I would say from my own experience. COMMUNIST PERSECUTION OF CHURCHES - 23 Mr. Arrens. Do the true Christians in the large cities attend the propaganda churches? Mr. Liv. They stopped attending. If it becomes known that they are true Christian believers, they are not allowed to take an active part in the church. Mr. Arens. Then, in the large cities there are more Christians out- side the propaganda churches than there are in? Mr. Liv. Yes, but it must be remembered that we are speaking of true Christians, not just the general grouping “Christian.” Mr. Arens. Are the Communists making definite attempts now to get rid of all Christians ? Mr. Liv. If they insist upon expressing their beliefs, the government definitely removes them. There is only organized brainwashing and mass indoctrination going on all the time. At this point, the Com- reins do not want to kill more people, they need them for slave labor. Me Arens. Are denominational lines still in evidence in Red China today ? ve Liv. No. The churches that are now existing are just called Christian Churches or the Church of Christ. They are “reeducated” now and no longer need to identify themselves with any denomina- tional organization. Mr. Arens. Mr. Liu, the Soviet Union, through its satellite coun- tries, has during the past two years or so been conducting an intensive redefection campaign aimed at refugees from central Europe who have come over to the United States or to countries in Western Europe, seeking to get them to return to Russia or the satellite nations. Could you tell us if the Red Chinese Government has been conducting a simi- lar campaign ? Mr. Liv. Yes, on Radio Peking they have letters written from peo- ple on the mainland to people in Formosa; they read them by name, and they beam it toward Formosa. When I was coming to the States last week, I met a lady with four children who just came out of Red China, and she told me when they were in Shanghai, the Communists found out her husband was a TV engineer working in the United States, and they asked her to write letters to get her husband to return back to the mainland. Shortly after that a friend of her husband came in and told her husband that from now on anything she writes to him not to believe it. She wrote big, nice letters about the program of China, that they need men like him—she really spread it on thick. The Communists thought she was progressive and they let her go to Hong Kong. After she applied for the children, they all came out and they took this opportunity to go to Formosa and just last week she came on the same plane with me and now they live in New York. Mr. Arens. Could you tell us whether or not this redefection cam- paign has been successful? Have many Chinese been influenced or persuaded to return to the mainland? Mr. Liv. No, by this example alone you can see there are not very many. From southeast Asia, many students who go to the mainland go there to go to school. After they go for a short time, they want to leave. They bring reports out of mistreatment and very few, if any, defect back to the mainland. 24 COMMUNIST PERSECUTION OF CHURCHES Mr. Arens. We have had one or two cases in this country of Chinese students who were studying at universities here and, when they com- pleted their studies, they announced their intention to return to Red China. Do you know, by any chance, anything of the kind of treat- ment these people receive when they return ? Mr. Liv. By the report from the overseas Chinese that I have come in contact with, when they enter, instead of being put in a good school, they are put in small schools and they are given indoctrination be- cause it is considered that they have brought evil thoughts from the Western world. They get very bad treatment. Many try to get out but can’t. One family in Malaya had to buy their son’s way out. Mr. Arens. How about those people who are highly educated, say people with masters or doctors degrees from some university in the West? Are they, too, treated the same way ? Mr. Liv. Yes, unless they are progressive or Communists—if they are not, they will spread Western ideas very dangerous to the Com- munist system and they have to be reeducated too. TESTIMONY OF REV. SAMUEL W. 8. CHENG Mr. Cuena. My name is Samuel W.S. Cheng. I was born in Luho, Kiangsu, China. I studied at the North China Theological Seminary where I received my B.D. degree. I also attended Asbury College in Wilmore, Ky., and received my M. Th. degree from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1936. From 1953 to 1957, I was vice presi- dent of the Taiwan Bible Institute in Taipei. At the present time I am superintendent of the Gospelaires Friends Mission in Taipei and hold professorships at the Taiwan Bible Institute in Taipei and the Reformed Theological Seminary in Tamsui. Mr, Arens. When did you leave the mainland ? Mr. Cuenea. April 23, 1949, the same day the Communist troops marched into the city of Nanking where I was. There was a three- hour difference between the time I left and the time the Communist troops arrived. Mr. Arrens. Since you have been on Taiwan, how close contact have you had with events on the mainland ? Mr. Cuene. Besides my own children escaping from the mainland of China, I have had many contacts with refugees during the past nine years. Mr. Arens. When did your children escape? Mr. Cuene. First one came out in 1948 through much hardship, almost being killed; and the second in 1952, in the spring of 1952; and I still have two children remaining on the mainland. I don’t know whether they are dead or alive. I do know that one of my two remaining sons was placed in a concentration camp near Soochow. He wrote me on March 2, 1956, and I have not heard from him since. He said he was going to such a place tomorrow (March 8). Since then I have had no word from him. Mr. Arzens. What has been done on the mainland to keep people from escaping ? Mr. Curne. One way is to keep people from traveling from town to town easily. They must get a permission certificate in order to travel, There are guards along all the borders, COMMUNIST PERSECUTION OF CHURCHES Pi Mr. Arens. How difficult is this permission certificate to obtain? Mr. Cuena. Very difficult. Permission is requested from the rank- Ang official. A guarantee must be made to insure return. The guar- -antee is usually a close friend or relative who will be thrown into prison if the traveling person does not return. Mr. Arnns. What happens to the guarantee person if the traveler never returns? Mr. Curnc. The guarantee person will bear the responsibility of the traveler who does not return. If a traveler is detained because of sickness or business, nothing will happen to the guarantee per- son. But if the traveler escapes, the guarantee person may suffer consequences as drastic as death. Mr. Arens. How much contact do people on the mainland have with the outside world? Mr. Cuene. Very, very little. If anyone comes from Hong Kong to visit, not only will he be inspected, but the people he visits with will be questioned after he leaves. All incoming an outgoing mail is censored. There are only one or two radios in most towns and cities. The people are not allowed to pick up relief bundles of food and clothing dropped by the Free China Relief Association or any other relief agency. Mr, Arens. Are these few radios that are found in most towns and Suecaentinately owned, or are they in the possession of the govern- ment ¢ Mr. Cuena. No, they are secretly owned. If any are discovered by the government they will be taken away. Not only that, the in- dividual will be punished. Mr. Arens. You are referring to privately owned and secretly owned radios then ? Mr. Cuena. Yes, absolutely. Mr. Arens. What happens to relief goods sent to the mainland? Mr. Curna. The government confiscates all relief items sent to the mainland. The materials are used for the military and the govern- ment. None of it filters down to the persons in the communes. Air drops are most effective—all shipping 1s confiscated. Mr, Arens. Do you mean that money spent in the free world for China relief is wasted ? Mr. Cuenea. So very little gets through, the money is actually wasted. What is dropped by the Chinese Government on Taiwan is dropped at night and picked up by the people in secret. Mr. Arens. Would diplomatic recognition of Red China make it easier for relief goods to be sent to the people on the mainland ? Mr. CHENG. No. The Red China Government will get more, but the people of China will not get any more than they are getting at the present time. Mr. Arens. Are there churches operating in the local villages? Mr. Cyrene. No. And there are very few in the large cities. Mr. Argens. Do you mean what churches there are, are confined to the large cities? Mr, Curne. Yes. What churches there are, are in the large cities and they are maintained for propaganda churches. There are no churches in the smaller towns and villages. ee Arzuns. Does the government, then, support the churches in the cities 20 COMMUNIST PERSECUTION OF CHURCHES Mr. Cuena. They do not support them, just allow them to exist. The government makes the rent too high and forces most of the churches to close. The ones they want to keep open for propaganda purposes they let have the buildings rent free. The same is true of schools and other institutions. Mr. Arens. Are there privately operated schools, too, or have all of them been taken over by the government ? Mr. Curna. Very few Mr. Arens. Are these churches Christian churches ? Mr. Curena. They are so-called Christian churches but not real, true Christian churches. Mr, Arens. Do these churches preach the Gospel of Christ? Mr. Cuena. No. Mr. Arens. What do they preach ? Mr. Cuene. At best they preach modernism: Christ the model for all humanity. They take away the divinity of Christ and point out he was a good carpenter, a good example for the working people to follow. At the worst they substitute Lenin the Father, Stalin the Son, and Mao Tse-tung the Holy Ghost, for the triune God of the Christians. They have completely changed the Christian faith. Where Christian teachings fit in with Communist aims, they are retained. Where they do not, they are eliminated. Mr. Arens. What, then, is the function of the church in Com- munist society ? Mr. Cuene. They have fellowship with the Communists. Their function, instead of promoting the spiritual life of the Christian, is to promote the work of the Communists and to make the people satis- fied with communism. When the commune system was begun, the ministers told the people the commune system fit in with the teachings of Christ and they should follow the new development if they wanted to serve Christ. Mr. Arens. Would diplomatic recognition of Red China bring the church in closer contact with the churches of the free world? Mr. Cuena. I don’t believe so. I don’t see how. There will be no contact with the real Christians—just with those groups selected by the government. Mr. Arrns. Does the government punish people for being Christians? Mr. Crena. Yes. ‘They persecute them. They are accused of being agents of American imperialism. They are called the running dog of the American missionaries. Worship is not allowed at all during the week or on Sundays for the true Christians. People who belong to the Communist-run churches may worship. Persecution of Christians takes the form of unequal punishment and unequal work loads, unequal distribution of food. ‘The Christian always gets the least, the worst, and the hardest. Mr. Arens. How much property and buildings on the mainland are devoted to churches and church institutions ? Mr. Cuena. All the Bible schools and seminaries in nine north- eastern provinces are closed and only one remains. All the Bible schools and seminaries in central China are closed but one._ In southern China, all closed but one. In western China, all closed but one, In northern China only one remains, There are only five Bible COMMUNIST PERSECUTION OF CHURCHES 27 schools and seminaries remaining on the mainland today. Since pastors can take no outside support, outside the mainland, there is not enough financial support for the schools and seminaries. Mr. Arens. Did the government close these institutions? Mr. Curna. Yes, the government came and sealed the properties with government seals. Mr. Arens. What happens to the properties? Mr. Cuena. They are taken and used for other purposes by the government. In Honan Province a former church is now being used as a jail. Since 1949, the Communist government has confiscated, through 1957, more than 20 million United States dollars worth of church property. Mr. Arens. What happens to the pastors and officials of the churches and schools that are closed ? Mr. Cuena. First of all they are out of work. Secondly, punish- ment such as forced labor like cleaning the streets, without payment. Some are sent to the slave labor camps in the Northwest. Others are killed. Men and women in the slave labor camps can write to their relatives, but the government never mails the letters. Former minis- ters are completely cut off from their congregations. Mr. Arens. Who are the ministers, then, in the churches that do exist on the mainland ? Mr. Cuena. They are the modernistic ministers who are Com- munist followers. Mr. Arens. How many Christians have been killed on the mainland since 1949 ? Mr. Cyrene. Approximately 140,000 Christians have been killed on the mainland since 1949. That figure is up to the beginning of the commune system. Mr. Arrens. How many Chinese people have suffered persecution and death since 1949 ? Mr. Cuena. More than 30 million Chinese have suffered persecu- tion and death up to the beginning of the commune system. There are around 5 million Chinese now refugees in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and around the world. Mr. Argns. Has the death rate on the mainland increased since the commune system has been in effect ? Mr. Curna. Yes. There are no actual figures on the increase, but there are more suicides in addition to government persecution, there are more deaths among the aged, and the number of refugees fleeing the mainland has increased since the communes have been put into effect. Mr. Arens. Would Red China be content to be just a member of the community of nations or would she attempt more aggressive actions ? Mr. Cuena. She would not be content—she would cause more dis- turbance and Free China would be forced out. Mr. Armns. Would diplomatic recognition make it easier for Red China to conduct aggressive actions in other countries in the Far East? Mr. Cuena. Certainly. They would have liberty to open their em- bassies in other countries and, through their agencies, begin a more intense systematic undercover work. Therefore, we completely op- 28 COMMUNIST PERSECUTION OF CHURCHES pose recognizing Red China’s puppet government, and we also com- pletely oppose letting Red China enter into the United Nations, in order to save Chinese Christians and Christian churches together with the Chinese nation, as well as the free world as a whole. Mr. Arens. Did you by any chance know Mrs. Wu Yi-fang, head of the Nanking Women’s College? Mr. Cuena. Yes. Personally, I do know this lady myself as Miss Wu Yi-fang. She was brought up by missionaries and educated by the missionaries. She is also in charge of the Nanking Women’s Col- lege for years. She is very influential lady, but she has been con- verted as a Communist during the war, too. Mr. Arens. During World War II? Mr. Cuene. That is right. She had so much contact with the Communists before the Conmmdttige troops marched into Nanking where her college is. Mr. Arens. Was she active in Communist fronts during that period before the Communists took over ? Mr. Crena. Yes, in the underground. Let me illustrate one more important thing, for all the colleges and universities were instructed by the government to move out from Nanking to Canton or come to Taiwan. She did nothing. She said, “All right, we won’t be too late.” She did nothing. In other words, she wanted to keep it out for the Communists. So when the Communists marched in, some of my relatives tried, and their parents left, but they could not get out on account of her. She is president of that college so nobody is al- lowed to get out, not even dependents, so everybody had to stick to her and they were shut into the college. That is a fact, and every- body knows that. Mr. Arens. I understand that since you arrived in the United States, Mr. Cheng, you received a letter from a member of the Legis- Jative Yuan of Nationalist China on Formosa, Could you tell us something about the contents of that letter ? Mr. Curena. Yes. Just about three or four minutes before I got on the airplane, a man came to me and he handed me this letter. He said, “J want you to read this important message.” I put it in my pocket. I did not read it and the day after I arrived at Seattle, Wash., I read the letter, and the president of the American Council of Christian Churches was there. He looked at my face and he was surprised. It was not a farewell letter at all. Not a single word talks about fare- well. It says that I am Wang Chi-wu, and a graduate from the Military Academy here and later he was elected as a member of the House of Representatives and before the fall of Nanking to the hands of the Communists he was appointed magistrate, but he got away. He says that because he is against communism so bitterly, his family and his cousins, brothers, all relatives, altogether 180 persons, have been killed. Again he says his oldest brother, who is a graduate of Columbia University, returned back to China in 1957 for peace negotiations. He does not know whether he is dead or alive. His second older brother, Mr. Wang, is also a graduate of Central Military Academy. He was executed by public accusation. This writer’s sister-in-law is a very good woman. The Communists thought she had a whole lot of money and asked a lot of her, and she said COMMUNIST PERSECUTION OF CHURCHES 29 she had lent it. So it made the Communists very mad at her. They used five horses. One horse was tied to her neck and the other horses were tied to her arms and legs and they went in all directions. The biggest horse ran and it just tore her body into pieces. The blood streamed all over the public square, and the people shut their eyes and cried, They could not stand to see it. : That is real fact. He said by his own hand he put his own legal seal on it. He bore the full legal responsibilities for the facts he brought to me. Mr. Arens. Could you tell us, Mr. Cheng, whether or not the Com- munist Government in China tries to use the few churches that are open to impress travelers from Australia, Britain, and India and other nations of the world who visit China to see what the conditions are? Mr. Cuena. There are very few churches which remain in exist- ence on the mainland of China. The ones remaining are for prop- aganda. I got a picture the year before last from some British Quaker friends who took them in Nanking. My own friends say the church is still in existence there and operating and had prayer meetings with them but that was for propaganda. Secondly, those churches that are remaining are teaching commu- nism instead of the Gospel. Mr. Argens. Mr, Cheng, does the Chinese Communist Government send church delegations to other countries ? Mr. Cuena. Yes, they did. They sent a delegation to India and some other country which I forget. I remember two occasions. Mr, Arens. Whom do they use in these delegations and under whose control are the delegations ¢ Mr. Cuena. Mr. Shin Chin-yu is No. 1. He is always sent by Mao Tse-tung to negotiate with respect to any religious missions. There is also a No. 2 man next to him, C. T. Chao. I know him per- sonally. Also the men named in Mr. Pong’s testimony. Mr. Arens. Now, Mr. Kim, will you be kind enough to give us the information you have on Korea and Northern Korea. TESTIMONY OF KYUNG RAI KIM Mr. Kim. My name is Kyung Rai Kim. I was born in the city of Choong Moo, Korea, on April 3, 1928. I was educated at the National Normal School in Chin J oo, Southern Korea, and I attended the Uni- versity of Dong-ah, the Korean Army Academy, and the Seoul In- stitute of Journalism. After study in normal school and college, I taught public and high school in Southern Korea for three years. On August 17, 1950, I became a member of the Korean Army and served during the Korean War. At the present time I am chief in the religi- ous section of the Kook Do Daily News in Seoul. I am also director of the Christian Reporters’ Fellowship in Korea, secretary of the Ko- rean Church Music Association, and a deacon in the Hung Chun Presbyterian Church in Seoul. I am also a member of the central committee of the Korean Christian Anti-Communist Committee. Mr. Arens. When was the last time you were in Northern Korea? Mr. Kim. In 1951. Mr. Arens, In what capacity were you in Northern Korea in 1951? Mr. Kia. I was a second lieutenant in the Southern Korean Army, 30 COMMUNIST PERSECUTION OF CHURCHES After I retired from the army I went to Northern Korea three times in 1951 and as a war correspondent each time. . Mr. Arens. Have you done a great deal of work with refugees since then ? Mr. Kim. Since 1952 in Southern Korea, in Pusan, I have worked with refugees. Mr. Arens. Do you have sources other than refugees from whom you obtained your information about conditions in Northern Korea? Mr. Kim. Yes. Many Christian leaders, my uncle was a pastor in Pyongyang City, the capital of Northern Korea, before he came to Southern Korea; a Pravda reporter who defected on January 27, 1959; and interviews with spies who have defected. Mr. Arens. Was the Pravda reporter from Northern Korea? Mr. Kim. Yes, sir. Mr. Arens. Is there a commune system in effect in Northern Ko- rea ? Mr. Kim. Yes, there is a near commune system in Northern Korea similar to that now in Red China. In Northern Korea it is referred to as an agricultural association system. It was established in De- cember of 1958, following the establishment of the commune system in Red China. Mr. Arens. How has this agricultural association system affected the churches in Northern Korea? Mr. Kim. There are no longer any denominations in Northern Korea since the agricultural association system went into effect— there is only one Northern Church Association. Mr. Arens. Is this Northern Church Association a Christian as- sociation ? Mr. Kim. No, it is not. It is only a propaganda tool of the goy- ernment to deceive other nations into belioying that the people of Northern Korea have freedom of religion. Mr. Arens. What has happened to the Christian churches in Northern Korea? Mr. Kim. More than 95 per cent of the Christians in Northern Korea have escaped to Southern Korea since the Korean War. Be- fore the liberation in 1945, Northern Korea had 1,500 Protestant churches, but there is none there now. There are 116 church build- ings remaining, but they are not Christian churches. In 1945 in Southern Korea there were only 1,200 Protestant churches. Today there are 4,200. During the Korean War the Communists killed 1,650 ministers and shot more than 1,600,000 Northern people in- cluding 125,000 Christians. Mr. Arrens. Are there any churches at all in Northern Korea to- day, government or otherwise ? Mr. Kim. There are no true Christian churches in Northern Ko- rea since the 1945 liberation; persecution since 1945, intensified since the Korea War, has closed the churches in Northern Korea. Be- fore the Korean War, the Christians in Northern Korea were silent; but during the war and right after the war, they aided the Amer- icans and demonstrated against the Communists. This caused the Communists to increase persecution. There are churches, but they are Communist-run churches. COMMUNIST PERSECUTION OF CHURCHES 31 Mr. Arens. Are the pastors of these churches Communist also? Mr. Kim. Yes, they are. They can only be pastors if they become Communists or compromise with Communists. Mr. Arens. Do the Communists in Northern Korea have special schools in which they train men to be pastors ? Mr. Kim. There are no seminaries or Bible schools of any kind in Northern Korea. ‘There are no men being trained to be ministers later on. Before 1945, in Northern Korea there were three theological seminaries and twenty Bible schools and twelve mission schools. Mr. Arens. In other words, after the present pastors in Northern Korea die, there will be no younger ministers to take their place? Mr. Kim. That is true. After a pastor dies, an elder or deacon appointed by the government takes over the church. Most of the churches, however, are empty. There is no regular worship on Sun- days. There are 116 aime baeldinee but not all of them are used for worship purposes. Most of them are now used for public halls. Mr. Arens. Then it is the eventual aim of the Northern Korean Government to eliminate the church completely, in any form? Mr. Kim. Yes, the Northern government is conducting a day-by- day disintegration of the church in Northern Korea. Mr, Arsns. How is the disintegration being accomplished ? Mr. Kim. Through brainwashing of the younger people; through the replacing of Ghncten values with Communist values; through the agricultural association system which makes the individual com- pletely dependent upon the state for his food and existence. Mr, Arens. How did the Northern Korea Government begin dis- placing the church in the first place? Mr. cai In Pyongyang, in 1946, an educational ministry was de- veloped to do away with the Christian churches. The educational ministry sent secret police during worship services to hear the min- isters preach. The ministers who preached the gospel of Christ were accused of being against the government and were arrested. At first the government tried to make them confess to being against the gov- ernment. Later they were shot. The government made public ex- amples of the ministers by torturing them. An evangelist friend of mine, Lee Chang Whan, was killed. He was 26 years old, a real in- tellectual, a graduate of a Lutheran seminary, and could speak six languages fluently. In the winter of 1948, he was killed by the Com- munists, because he was going to print the Bible. He was trying to publish the Bible in secret because there was no freedom for Bible publishing under the puppet regime. The Red police stripped him naked, bound him, and, put him into an empty water pool. It was 17 degrees below zero that day. They filled the pool solid. My friend froze to death in 80 minutes, Then the police exhibited his body to the people. A lady evangelist, Kim Keum Sun, was tled between two horses. Then the horses were sent running in different directions. ‘This hap- pened in 1951. Through terrible persecutions such as these, the Com- munists made the people afraid to be Christians and to go to church. Kim Keum Sun was guilty of not letting a portrait of the chief of Northern Korea be placed in her church. ; In January 1951, 250 pastors were killed by the Communists on the same day in the same place in Hong Jai Dong, Seoul, Korea, The 32 COMMUNIST PERSECUTION OF CHURCHES Red police made holes through the pastors’ hands with an ax and bound them hand to hand with an iron thread, and they shot them. In February 1951, at Won Dang Church, Chen Ra Nam Do Province, Red soldiers burned 83 Christians with gasoline. Mr. Arens. With this terrible persecution has the number of refu- gees from Northern to Southern Korea increased since 1950? Mr. Kim. More than 4 million refugees have fled to Southern Korea from Northern Korea. This figure includes more than 450,000 Chris- tians. Now, the population in Northern Korea is only 6 million. The population in Southern Korea is now 2414 million. At the present time the flow from Northern to Southern Korea continues more rap- idly than before. Each month approximately 50 people escape at night from Northern to Southern Korea. This number is more than were escaping before the agricultural association system was put into effect. 3 Mr. Arens. Have more people died in Northern Korea since the agricultural association system has been in effect than before? — - Mr. Kim. Yes. More than 100,000 young men were killed by the Communists because they demonstrated against the agricultural asso- ciation system. And in the meantime more and more people are escaping to Southern Korea. Mr. Arens. How many secret agents are being sent to Southern Korea by the Communist Government in Northern Korea ? Mr. Kim. Kim Soo Kil, a former Communist spy who defected, said, “Northern Korea has a spy training school and sends 200 spies er month to Southern Korea.” Since 1945, 47,500 Northern agents fae been arrested by the Korean national police, and the R.O.K. police have confiscated 1,500,000 in actual American dollars from Northern spies and agents. Mr. Armns. What do they use this money for? Mr. Kim. They buy cooperation, use it for newspaper advertise- ments, dances, and they use it for entertaining important businessmen. Mr. Arens. Do you know of any instances in which the Communists of Northern Korea are attempting to infiltrate and work through the Protestant churches in Southern Korea ? Mr. Kim. During the Korean War in 1951 from Northern Korea, Communist religious delegate Kim Yong-Gun came to Seoul and worked with three or four ministers in Seoul to organize a Korean Christian League to welcome Northern Korean soldiers and Red China soldiers to Southern Korea. This organization was a Com- munist organization which gathered the names of all the fundamental Christian ministers in Southern Korea to send to the government in Northern Korea. At the end of the Korean War it was disbanded. Mr. Arens. Are there any similar organizations now functioning in Southern Korea which take their orders from the Communists in Northern Korea? Mr. Kr. No, at the present time there are no similar organizations in Southern Korea. At the end of the Korean War, the members of the Korean Christian League fled to Northern Korea. But their use- fulness was over, and the Communists killed them. Mr. Arens. Do the Communists attempt to terrorize the Protestant ministers in Southern Korea? COMMUNIST PERSECUTION OF CHURCHES 33 Mr. Kiar. Yes. Many times. At night and early morning minis- ters return from their churches and they are stoned and killed by the secret agents from Northern Korea. This happens mostly in the country towns away from the big cities. Mr. Arens. What individual is in charge of the Protestant church in Northern Korea? Mr. Kim. His name is Kim Chang Ukk. He wasa minister but he is now a Northern government oflicer in charge of the religious section of the Northern government. He made a list of all the fundamental and evangelical leaders’ names for the government, Many, many Christians have been killed as the result of his report. Lee Dong Joon, a Pravda reporter who escaped from Northern Korea to Southern Korea on January 27, 1959 said, “Kim Chang Ukk was head of the religious section from the en of the Korean War until two months ago.” Now Kim Chang Ukk isin prison, and there is no head of the religious section of the government in Northern Korea. Lee Dong Joon also said the Northern Koreans do not have any kind of church now. Mr. Arens. What are Christians in Southern Korea doing to com- bat communism ? Mr. Kru. We cooperate with the government and we have estab- lished a new organization, the Korean Christian Anti-Communist Committee. On the 25th of February, 1959, Korean Christians estab- lished this anti-Communist organization. { was chosen a member of the central committee and a member of the executive committee. This committee was formed after the decision of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.’s Fifth World Order Study Confer- ence in Cleveland, Ohio, on October 21, 1958, All Korean Christians were afraid when the NCC Study Conference asked for the recogni- tion of Red China. We decided to work against the NCC and com- munism through the Korean Christian Anti-Communist Committee. Mr, Arens. What effect would the diplomatic recognition of Red China ane its admission to the United Nations have on Southern Korea ? Mr. Kim. We are against it. We Korean people in the Korean churches know what communism is. Many American Christian leaders do not know what communism really is. Mr. Arens. Politically, militarily, what would the effect be on Korea, Southern Korea, what would happen, do you think, if the United States were to diplomatically recognize Red China and Red China were admitted to the United Nations? Mr. Kia. If the United States recognized Red China, it would be oppressing to the free nations. Indirectly it would tend to work towards the recognition of Northern Korea, which would have a very bad effect on our country, bringing about its permanent division. It would be an open door for the Communist agents. Mr. Arrns. You were in Northern Korea and you saw communism in action. Mr. Ki. Yes. Mr. Arnns. Can you tell us anything about the status of the press there? Is it free? Mr. Kru. In Northern Korea it is not free. At Panmunjom, in the conference area, I saw thousands of newspapermen writing and ot COMMUNIST PERSECUTION OF CHURCHES there was no inspection; but where there were Soviet and Chinese press newspapermen, there was a secret policeman behind each press man. Mr. Arens. Do the people of Southern Korea today feel there is danger of another attack from Northern Korea? Mr, Kru. Yes, because many spies are in Northern and Southern Korea. Many do fear war. § : Mr. Arens. Do you know how many Red Chinese troops are in Northern Korea now? The Chinese Communists said some time ago they were withdrawing their troops from Northern Korea. Mr. Kim. No, that is a lie, Now itis higher. National defense an- nounced more than 650,000 soldiers are in Northern Korea. There are also some Russians there. Mr. Arens. Why do Red China and Moscow want United States’ recognition of Red China and its admission to the United Nations? Mr, Wane. For their own benefit. They can easily go through the whole free world where they have embassies here in the United States. Secondly, it is much easier for them to cross out free China and the representative of China from Taiwan to the United Nations, and it is another step for them to invade Taiwan and the other nations like Northern Korea and Southern Korea and Indo China. Mr. Liv. It would give them prestige as the legalized government of China, which it is not, Mr. Arens. It is argued that recognition of Red China and its ad- mission into the United Nations would help create a split between Red China and the government of the Soviet Union. What do you think of this argument? Mr. Liv. That is wishful thinking. You can know by the example of the satellites in Europe. The economy of China is so tied up with Russia you just cannot pull her away from it. She depends on it and by depending on it they just could not just pull apart from it, and also the power behind Mao Tse-tung are agents trained in Moscow and they are die-hard Stalinists, Mr, Arrns. Would you say the strongest pull is the economic de- pendency or ideological ? Mr. Lru. I would say it is both, economic and ideological. Mr. Arens. A little earlier in our consultation one of the gentlemen mentioned the fact that the people of China are being told today that a the Communist government they will soon surpass the United tates. Based on your knowledge, do you think this is possible ? Mr. Liv. No. There is the big leap forward to try to surpass Eng- land in five years, especially in steel production. Their farming is in- tensive but extensive not on a big scale. They are trying to make it a big-scale system by using humans as tractors, more or less, and other primitive ways, and their factories are not up to date. I do not think they will surpass America in the near future so far as we can foresee. Mr. Pone. The Communists produce lorries. Four months ago they brought five trucks into Mukden. They put one truck in Hong Kong for two days on exhibition. They said they were producing more trucks than the Westerners. The manufacturing plant was estab- lished during the Japanese War. There were two factories. Now only one factory is actually producing. I have one of the automobiles COMMUNIST PERSECUTION OF CHURCHES 35 myself. On the other hand, most of the trucks and lorries of the Red Chinese are from Moscow—not manufactured in Red China. The ones they display in Hong Kong are just for show. Mr. ARENS. Goal you ‘tell us how your group happens to be in the United States at this time, why you are here? Mr. Lr. Since last year, the National Council of Churches Fifth World Order Study Conference wants to recognize Red China and they are putting on a campaign to do so. The International Council of Christian Churches and the American Council of Christian Churches want to sponsor a group to tell the people of the United States what Red China is instead of just the one side put out by the National Council of Churches’ Study Conference. Mr. Watrer. I want to thank each one of you gentlemen for the peer you have given today. I know that the facts you have rought out will do much to enlig ten the Congress and the American people about the enemy they face in communism. Again my thanks and congratulations and best wishes to all of you in your work, (Whereupon, at 4:00 p.m., Tuesday, March 26, 1959, the consultation was concluded. ) ¥ ¢ ec ~~ > | & 4 4 a 6 : . m ei ‘ ARQ GOO RIA TER THGEDS Br gee | e. oa 2: em ia hi an et ee ae ae serait to) wv iste 20 . a bey pear. UT, 5 .G8.@)) ST.! ior agasao ak vias sarc’ ns Hoque etch od bape nedustd BAT ot Balog ent tet oh Reh A eats sy: shame ig PL A af "a0 ivi obi; den ‘s if ee i +5 . pe eis pie "ee aes | &» Te fiunta Saf tot wo ere ip Bao [sae Aseld oF duhaats Ae RETA ai ma Te fay f oe wet eae orn L sho: > MBIT er a { Fe hie ia mY at rh TR Hees Sacral ; ach Ngai igs 94, cohraok . “. Sig, afSDARCLaEaTY hace oon ae! Yasats ac 9 OF toa HR w ct ‘ie tt tebe Dua ag eR DE Ey UO, 03p% j > =. 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Yim, A Vane e iy 7 y @ a j Fy ee ; .: a } INDEX INDIVIDUALS Page CHIO8 Ca eects were ee ra te eee ee 29 Ceaveye, MY EOE YS a a I 13 CGhenesSamueliWegsoewe nso eee ee ee ee 5, 9, 24-29 ee Ghowgeltel- tino Seen sen ree en ee eee © Cee ee PEL a KG Seared OLLI Seer ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee a 1 rua, CGH a vem av esied Oe be aie eect a ps a pe at ae ee 33 Kime Keumy S00 ase sn aoe ane ne Se ee ee ee eee ee %, 31 DES ATG SS GO Sc Re oe ee ae ee Sr ee eee eS Su, clini ey ONS = (UT) os ee ne re et ee eR ee ee ne 32 a SGA DOYS A BAG Wed GB ga ee ag eae 6, 7, 9, 29-84 (testimony ) NEC e OLA TS RV, Le Taree ee ee ee eee re ed none rey oee ee e 6, 31 CCR ONS ed OO lees er ee ee ee ee eee ee ee ee eee 33 ening GNUcOlaL) cee ae oe ee ee oe eee, ee eee ee 5 Pal, BPS SFE ii ue SDAO-Chigtes ns cee en ee ee eee eles Sere ee ee ee 15 Wolpe Sin tsaieee oe ee et en ee ee 4, 5, 9, 19-24 (testimony), 34 Mag USe-CUung are ses See 2 en 2 ee eee eee eee ee ab slik, alsy, Pasy Pag) Buu! VU aT: Xo (GIN 2 yl) eee eS Se eo ee ee ee ay, Pall, DY PoneePeteri Chas: ate ee ee eee 1, 2, 9, 10-14 (testimony), 34 SES rye GTA 11 yee ee ne ee ee ee 29 BSE pp a I ge a AN a a pe ce 26 Sle Ming -sSnulen= ose ——e See ee eee ee eee nee oe te eo 14 PINS UTR: TT OL Un ee ee te ce ee ee ee ee ete et 15 TNC BU Le a a ae a a i aE See oe ee 28 AVY .EUTT NES ad Day ra ee ee ee rem aa 3, 4, 9, 14-19 (testimony), 34 VOLS CLOL A Sa Ss ere or cree ee te ee ee re ee eee ene i Witte CD Uen=sh er see ne ae ee en ee ee ee ee Oe eae 15 ABATE SG SW Ca la le a nl a i ee 20, 28 MG NO ey A Me a Ai i as ie Sane ae i die efi ea a 13 ORGANIZATIONS Amencan Councizot: Christian ©huTGhec sss. == seen ee er ae ee 85 Cantons Cnriste@ hunch ale sae ee eee eee ee ee ee eee 13 Ohing binge heologiealss emit arya (Nei oi) pee eee eee een oe oe eee ee een a 5, 20 interna tonal ©ouncligor Chri Siians Gite ecm eens ete ee eee 35 Korea, Northern Church Association, (See Northern Church Association (North Korea).) Korean ChristiansAnti-Communist @ommittees---- eases ne a enenee sees 33 FSOPCAT EO OTISTIA REDO Cee eet = ean ee ne see es ps See ee ee 32 Nan PR W Omen ss Collec enema emer nee meteen ee ee ene ree ee 28 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Fifth World Or- der Study Conference, October 21, 1958, Cleveland, Ohio_-__--_-____--- 33, 35 INatOnaeh eli clouseCOnTerence meee e as ee es ee ee oe eae, 22 Norcherni@hurcheassocta tone CNOruneWored) jee aee eas sae ene a eee 80 iPekingsOhriste Ohureh maces = an ae ere = ae ne eee ee ee 3 Peoples Government Religious Delegation_._.____._____----------------~- 13 nhanehamChinaeltheolorcicaleSeminatysce. == ee ee es 5, 20 1 xX