Hardly the Last Roundup

by Thomas A. Droleskey

The hunt to round up underground Catholic priests in the Xiwanzi diocese is hardly the first of its sort. It will not be the last. The persecution of Catholics (bishops, priests, laity) by the authorities of the government of Red China, the so-called People's Republic of China, has been conducted for well over fifty years without a word of public protest from any American elected official. Please, please, spare me e-mails about annual reports submitted to the United States Houses of Representatives' Committee on International Relations.by the independent, bi-partisan United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. One measly sentence was dedicated in its 2001 report to "religious persecution" in China, containing the laughably absurd conclusion below:

Second, the Commission's forceful and truthful reporting on religious persecution in China, even during the time when the President and Congress were engaged in a process of extending permanent normal trade relations to that country, contributed to the President's decision to declare China a ''country of particular concern'' under the International Religious Freedom Act. This, in turn, made it far less likely that the extension of permanent normal trade relations would be taken as a United States seal of approval on Beijing's human rights policies.

 

Doesn't that give you warm "fuzzies" all over? The government of the United States of America does not give its "seal of approval on Beijing's human rights policies" despite the "extension of permanent normal trade relations." The 2006 report of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom boasted of its members having made a trip to Red China in 2005, during which time they met with the representatives of government-sponsored religious groups, including the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, the schismatic and heretical rump church in Red China created by Mao Tse-tung and his band of mass murderers in 1957, four years after the initial arrests and tortures and executions of Catholics, aided and abetted by turncoat bishops and priests who sought to save their own skin while doing the bidding of their Communist paymasters and protectors.

The report United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, Policy Focus on China, based on its members' 2005 visit, focuses on each major religion in Red China. It does, to be fair, list some of the underground Catholic bishops who have been arrested and held without trial. However, the Commission's annual reports--and its special policy statements--have never prompted any sitting President of the United States of America to denounce the arrest and torture of Catholics who do not belong to the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association. No, ladies and gentlemen, the story below will draw not a word out of President George W. Bush or Vice President Richard N. Cheney or Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice.

"But, but, but," some defenders of Bush will interject, "didn't the President speak about religious freedom for members of 'unregistered house churches' when he visited Red China in November of 2005?" He did. Once. In a gratuitous way. With absolutely no follow-up, no expression of concern for individual cases such as the report from Asia News. No threat of sanctions. No threat of withdrawn of Most Favored Nation status. No, empty words uttered by an empty suit are nothing to get excited about.

Yes, the silence is bipartisan  The story from Asia News pasted below will not draw a word out of former City of New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani or Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) or Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-New York) or former Senator John Edwards (D-North Carolina) or Senator Barak Obama (D-Illinois) or Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Connecticut) or any other aspirant, Republican or Democrat, to succeed George W. Bush in the White House (assuming, that is, some sort of international or domestic "crisis" does not cause Mr. Bush to "preempt" the 2008 elections, you understand).

No, no one of the above-named individuals will utter word one about this story, reported by Asia News:

Rome (AsiaNews) – The Patriotic Association (PA) has launched a violent campaign against underground Catholics in Xiwanzi. This was denounced in an appeal from some faithful that reached AsiaNews. Prompted by the local authorities, the police are on a manhunt, with door-to-door searches for underground priests to make them inscribe to the PA. Believers who refuse to collaborate and to act as spies are arrested or left without work. Those with shops are forced to shut down. The auxiliary bishop of the diocese, Mgr Yao Liang, has been missing in police custody since 30 July. There are also 20 believers and two priests in prison. The appeal that reached AsiaNews ended with a plea: “Brothers and sisters, pray for us, so that the Christian faith in China may be truly free!”

The diocese of Xiwanzi (Hebei) is a diocese of the underground Church, with 15,000 members, around 260km north of Beijing, nearly at the border with Inner Mongolia.

On 28 July last, the faithful were getting ready for a pilgrimage to Mount Muozi, in Inner Mongolia, a tradition in place for 100 years. But for the first time, the police banned it and monitored all churches for 24 hours a day. On 30 July, the religious affairs office invited Mgr Yao Liang to Zhangjiakou (the centre of the district) to “discuss with him the restitution of some properties of the church” but instead they kidnapped him and held him in prison. “They deceived the bishop and so far we have heard nothing of him,” said the appeal.

In Hebei, the region with the highest number of Catholics, a harsh campaign of repression against the unofficial church has been under way for years in a bid to force it to join the PA.

On 1 August, Fr Li Huisheng was arrested, tortured by the police and later released. After this abuse, more than 90 believers (of the church of Shangyi, Xiwanzi diocese) protested outside the police headquarters. They were charged, beaten by police and forced to disperse. In the night, between 2 and 4am, around 500 police launched a raid, re-arresting Fr Li, who had returned to church, and 90 people. At least 20 are still in prison, together with Fr Li. Another priest of the diocese, Fr Wang Zhong, has disappeared.

Relatives of Fr Li have forked out 100,000 yuan (around 10,000 euros) to find six lawyers to defend him. But all the lawyers gave up his case under pressure from local officials. And so Fr Li was condemned to seven years for “inciting the masses against the government”. The priest is currently in Shalingzi prison of Zhangjakou. Other believers have been convicted of similar charges and sentenced.

The appeal that reached AsiaNews said: “To sustain the integrity of the faith, refusing to join the PA, priests are forced to remain in hiding to this day.” For months, mass has not been celebrated in churches of the diocese.

“The local authorities continue to search for priests from house to house but without success. They interrogate believers to find out where priests are hiding and they threaten them if they do not collaborate.” Because of their silence, they are persecuted. “The local government has sent financial controllers and health, quality and traffic inspectors to all shops owned by Catholics, saying these are ‘ordinary checks’. The vehicles of two believers have been seized together with their merchandise and their home has been confiscated and sealed off. Because of all these obstacles, which do not allow people to work normally, some believers have been forced to shut down their shops and to stop their activities.”

In recent years, the activities of the unofficial community of Xiwanzi were tolerated. On 18 July last, believers even inaugurated a church dedicated to the Sacred Heart in Guyang district. The church was constructed thanks to donations from believers, who tithed themselves for two years. “Those who did not have enough money offered hours of voluntary work, sacrificing their time of rest,” said a local Catholic. “Even women and children came to help to build this house of God.”

More than 7,000 people together with 21 priests and a bishop of the unofficial church participated in the consecration ceremony.

Some Catholics believe the worsening persecution is due to signals of dialogue between the Chinese government and the Vatican, which are being increasingly hindered by the Patriotic Association. (Asia News)

 

None of the White House aspirants, campaigning actively fully twenty-one and one-half months before the November, 2008, general election, will be asked to comment on this persecution. Some commentators will attempt to dismiss it as indicating merely the "zealotry" of local officials in the Chinese Communist Patriotic Association. The plain fact of the matter, however, is that the persecution of Catholics in the underground Catholic Church in Red China is nationwide in scope. Here are just a few facts from the website of the Cardinal Kung Foundation (The Cardinal Kung Foundation):

• The Chinese Government does not recognize the underground Roman Catholic Church. The Government considers the underground Church illegal. Thus, religious services and catechism classes for the underground Church must be conducted in private homes and in secret. Penalties for belonging to the underground Roman Catholic Church include exorbitant fines, imprisonment, house arrest, beatings, and labor camp internment. Chinese authorities have recently begun to use the "cult law" -- the same law used to persecute members of the Falun Gong movement -- to arrest and detain members of the underground Roman Catholic Church.
•   Currently, every one of the approximately 45 bishops of the underground Roman Catholic Church is either in jail, under house arrest, under strict surveillance, or in hiding. Bishop WEI Jingyi, the underground Roman Catholic Bishop of Quqihar, Heilongjiang was arrested by the Chinese authorities in September 2002.  Bishop Wei has been released as of today.  Bishop JIA Zhiguo, the underground Roman Catholic Bishop of Zhengding, Hebei was arrested nine times from March 2002 to November 8, 2005.  Bishop SU Zhimin, the underground Bishop of Baoding, Hebei was arrested in 1996, escaped, and rearrested in 1997.  He was not heard from or seen for eight years.  Inquiries to the Chinese government from various U.S. government and non-government agencies about Bishop Su's whereabouts and his well being were never answered satisfactorily.  For eight years since his arrest in 1997 until November 2003, we did not know if he was alive or dead until he was accidentally seen on or around November 15, 2003 in a hospital in Baoding, Hebei for an eye operation and for heart ailments.  Bishop Su was taken away and disappeared again as soon as the authorities discovered that he had been seen.  Bishop AN Shuxin, the underground Auxiliary Bishop of Boading, Hebei, was arrested in 1996.  He was seen only once when he was permitted to go home to visit his elderly mother several years ago; otherwise, he has not been seen since.  We do not know where he is and whether he is alive or dead. Bishop HAN Dingxiang, Bishop of Yong Nian, Hebei, was arrested on or about December 1, 1999.  He is elderly and is in bad health.  He has been detained for the last 6 years.  We do not know where he is and whether he is alive or dead.  Bishop SHI Enxiang, Bishop of Yixian, Hebei, was arrested on April 13, 2001.  He is now more than 80 years old and has been detained for almost 5 years.  We do not know where he is and whether he is alive or dead. Bishop GAO Kexian, Bishop of Yantai, Shandong, was arrested in October, 1999. We did not know where he was until he died in jail in January 2005. His cause of death is unknown. Bishop James LIN Xili, 86, the underground Bishop of Wenzhou, Zhejiang, was arrested on March 20, 2005. Bishop Lin reportedly has been confined in the cathedral of the government-recognized official Patriotic Church community since 1999 with no freedom of movement.  Bishop Leo YAO Liang, in his early 80's, the underground auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Xiwanzi in Hebei, was arrested on March 31, 2005.  Bishop ZHAO ZhenDong, in his mid eighties, the underground Bishop of Xuanhua, Hebei, was arrested in December 2004. 
•   Priests face similar harassment.  Rev. DONG Yingmu, 37, an underground Roman Catholic priest serving the diocese of Baoding, Hebei was kidnapped by the Chinese authority during Christmas 2002 when he was walking on his way to offer a Holy Mass.  In December 2001, the Chinese security police arrested Father PANG Yongzing, 30 years of age, in his home.  In March 2002, the police arrested Father MA Shunbao, 50 years of age, while he was offering Holy Mass on Easter Sunday.  That same month, the police arrested Father WANG Limao, 32 years of age.  All three priests belong to the underground Roman Catholic Church in Baoding, Hebei.  On July 7, 2002, they were sentenced to three years in a labor camp for "disturbing the peace of society" under the "cult" law.  They have been transferred to the Balizhuang labor camp in Baoding, Hebei.
•   On September 11, 2000, approximately 70 security police surrounded the residence of Father Ye GONG Feng of Gongtou Village, Qibu Township, Luoyuan County, in Fujian province.  The 82-year-old underground Catholic priest was beaten to unconsciousness.  He lay in a coma for approximately 17 hours until noon of the next day.
•   Around midnight on August 30, 2000, the Chinese government arrested Father Liu SHAO-Zhang, one seminarian, 20 nuns, and two laypersons. All belong to the underground Roman Catholic Church in Gongtou Village, Zibu Township, Luoyuan County, Fuzhou City in Fujian Province.  Father Liu was severely beaten, causing him to vomit blood and bleed externally.
•    In May, 2003, police in eastern China used the mother of an underground priest, Father LIN Daoming of Fuzhou Diocese, to draw him out and arrested him.  Five Roman Catholic clergy were arrested on July 1, 2003 in Baoding, Hebei and Father LU Xiaozhou, a priest in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, was arrested by the Chinese authority in the afternoon of June 16, 2003.  A dozen underground Roman Catholic priests and seminarians were arrested on October 20, 2003 in Hebei.  A Roman Catholic church was demolished by the Chinese government on June 21, 2003.  Two Roman Catholic priests, Father LU Genjun and Father CHENG Xiali, were arrested on May 14, 2004 in Hebei just before the two priests were to start classes for natural family planning and moral theology courses.  Eight Roman Catholic priests and two seminarians were arrested by police during a religious retreat in a north China village on August 6, 2004 in Heibei.  Father WANG Jinling of Zhangjiakou, Hebei, in his early 80's, was arrested on April 1, 2005. We do not know why he was arrested, nor do we know where he is being held.
•   Father ZHAO KeXun, approximately 75 years old, an administrator in charge of the Diocese of Xuanhua, Hebei, was forcibly abducted by Chinese government security personnel in the morning of March 30, 2005.  Seven priests belonging to the Diocese of Zhengding, Hebei were arrested on April 27, 2005 in Wuqiu Village of Jinzhou city.  These seven priests had traveled from their parishes for a religious retreat conducted by Bishop Jia Zhiguo.  Father LIN Daixian, 40, belonging to the Pingtan parish of the Fuzhou diocese in Fujian, was arrested on July 25, 2005.  Father Lin was savagely beaten by the security police and suffered severe injury.  Father Lin was arrested three times previously. Father PANG Yongxing of Qing Yuan County, Hebei was arrested on September 2, 2005.  Father Pang was also arrested in 2001 when he was sent to a labor camp for three years.  Father YANG Jianwei of Xushui City, Hebei was arrested on November 12, 2005.
•   Laypersons face severe persecution as well.  In July 2002, 31 underground Roman Catholics, 26 of whom were students under the age of 18, were arrested during a summer vacation catechism class in a private home.  The arrest occurred in Dong-An village, Guantou Township, Lianjiang County in Fujian Province.  In May 2002, six Roman Catholics from Wenzhou, Zhejiang went to DongLu in Baoding, Hebei for a pilgrimage and were arrested by the authorities.  They were fined a total of $3,850 for the "illegal pilgrimage."  18 seminarians were sentenced in April 2003 to a month's imprisonment because they were reading the breviary during a picnic in the city of Changle, near Fuzhou.
•   Mr. WANG Chengun, an underground Roman Catholic lay leader in Baoding, Hebei was arrested shortly before Christmas 1999.  He was placed in the "re-education through labor" center in Gaoyangxian County in Hebei Province. This was his seventh arrest in the last 20 years, having been imprisoned for a total of approximately 10 years.  When he was last in the labor camp in 1997, he suffered a stroke, partially paralyzing him without any medical care from the prison authorities.
•   A seminarian and 9 parishioners of the Pingtan parish of the Fuzhou diocese in Fujian were arrested on July 25 2005. They was severely beaten and suffered severe injuries. Mr. MA Yongjiang of Qing Yuan county in Hebei, a recently graduated underground seminarian, was arrested on September 2, 2005.  Ten seminarians were arrested on November 12, 2005
•   On December 12, 2000, Agency French Press reported that "authorities in eastern China have shut down, and in many cases blown up, 450 Catholic and Protestant churches, as well as Taoist and Buddhist temples."  Many more churches have been destroyed since then.
•   On April 7, 2002, the National Catholic Register reported that "as many as 23,686 Christians have been arrested since 1983; 20,000 have been beaten; and 129 have been killed in an effort to stamp out the underground churches."

 

The silence about the active, intense persecution of Catholics who do not belong to the schismatic and heretical Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association comes as no surprise. Politicians of both major political parties in this country receive donations from the individuals who head the multinantional corporations that make billions of dollars in Red China by the sweat of underpaid and/or slave labor. There has been the delusion abroad in American political and financial and corporate circles dating back to the administration of the late President Richard Milnous Nixon that "trade" and "investment" will change (that is, "democratize") Red China. This has not happened. It will not happen. The only thing that has happened in the land of one child per family and the land of forced abortions is the institutionalization of American corporate ties and the rise of a staggering United States trade deficit of $232 million in 2006 (see: FTD - Statistics - Country Data - U.S. Trade Balance with China) with this land of murder and torture and political represssion.

American corporations, whose executives contribute frequently to candidates of both major political parities, actually assist the Red Chinese government to track down and prosecute political dissenters. Consider this report written by G. Pascal Zachry for a website called "In the Times" (a site that is probably very hostile on the whole to Catholic truth):

A few days later, an American who used to work for Nike explains to me why he won’t stick his neck out for the Chinese or even his own principles: fear of retaliation. The American has his own sports marketing company, organizes amateur basketball tournaments throughout China and even advises China’s version of the NBA. He knows Yao Ming, star of the Houston Rockets, personally. When talk comes around to the poor performance of China’s international basketball team, the American offers an explanation: China’s government officials are ruining Yao Ming and other top players by making them play year-round for China’s national team, often sacrificing time for much-needed rest and skills building. The American knows of what he speaks, since he is the agent for the country’s leading point guard who, like Yao Ming, is a victim of the government’s sports policies.

I say that this is a shame, and the American agrees. But he isn’t about to campaign for better treatment of these stars. In his office we are surrounded by posters of leading Chinese athletes. He points to a poster of Wang Zhizhi, a tall Chinese man who backed up Shaquille O’Neal last year for the Miami Heat. Wang rebelled against the Chinese government by refusing to play for the national team at last year’s Olympics. He is now persona non grata, not only to the Chinese government, but the sports marketing establishment here. This American won’t touch him, nor will anyone else, out of fear of antagonizing the Chinese government and losing lucrative deals.

The sports marketer is guilty of keeping his mouth shut. But other Americans actively assist the Chinese government in the maintenance of its repressive regime. Even as I talk to the sports marketer, Microsoft is concocting an Orwellian policy for its new Chinese version of MSN, a news site and search engine. Microsoft has decided (and publicly confirmed this summer) that anyone in China doing a search containing the words “freedom” or “democracy” will be shown a message explaining that those words are banned and the requested search query will not be processed.

Now, Microsoft is one of the richest companies in the world and its founder Bill Gates has spent billions of dollars on a foundation to reduce global inequalities in health and education. And yet his own company is so intimidated by China’s government that terms basic to free expression are banned from its search engine.

American collaboration gets even uglier than that, however. In September Internet company Yahoo admitted that its employees in China assisted the government in making a case against a dissident journalist named Shi Tao, jailed since April, apparently for revealing information about a crackdown by the Communist Party.

In response to a question about the journalist’s fate at a Beijing Internet conference in September, Jerry Yang, an American co-founder of Yahoo, confirmed that his company had helped the Chinese government arrest and prosecute Shi Tao. Yang didn’t give specifics, but Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based advocacy group, has said that Yahoo officials in China helped the government track Shi Tao down using the IP address from which he read his Yahoo e-mail account.

Yang said that Yahoo receives “a lot” of requests for information from the Chinese government. “I do not like the outcome of what happens with these things,” he said. “But we have to comply with the law. That’s what you need to do to stay in business.”

That kind of pragmatic attitude might pass muster in the United States or Europe, where courts are independent and the line between business and government is usually clear. But in China, the American who blithely assists the Chinese government is likely contributing to a heavy-handed injustice. (G. Pascal Zachry, "See No Evil," October 24, 2005, www.IntheTimes.com)

 

The fact that "that kind of pragmatic attitude might pass muster in the United States of Europe" is a major indictment of our ethos of legal positivism, something that unites us quite fully to the thuggery in Red China, a point that Mr. Zachry obviously misses. Nevertheless, the facts stated in Mr. Zachry's article prove once again the maxim of Vladmir I. Lenin himself:: "The Capitalists will compete with themselves to sell us the rope with which we will hang them all." Thus it is that the grubby capitalists in this country, content with rising profits from their exploitation of cheap labor in Red China as they helped to produce massive trade deficits for their own country, to which they are not in the least loyal (money comes before authentic patriotism for these exploiters), are fueling the economy of a nation that persecutes Catholics who do no belong to the heretical and schismatic Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, a nation that is building up its military might with a vengeance.

Yes, the true external threat to the United States of America (we have plenty of internal threats as a result of the daily slaughter of the preborn, both by chemical and surgical means, as well as the blithe promotion of each of the other three sins that cry out to Heaven for vengeance under cover of law and in every aspect of our popular culture, which we busily export all around the world) is not al-Qaeda, if it ever was a threat to begin with, that is. The true external threat to the security of the United States of America is the military might of Red China. A Hong Kong-based holding company, Hutchison Port Holdings, actually runs the Panama Canal at the present time, having a lease that runs until the year 2049. Phyllis Schafly of the Eagle Forum and Howard Phillips of the Conservative Caucus Foundation both have reported on the latter phenomenon:

The billionaire chairman of Hutchison Whampoa [the parent of Huchison Port Holdings], Li Ka-shing, was a business and political buddy of the late Deng Xiaoping and now has the same close relationship with both Jiang Zemin and the Riady financial empire of Indonesia. No doubt that's why he controls most of China's commercial ports and seaborne trade as well as most of the dock space in Hong Kong.

Li was China's chief agent in facilitating China's smooth takeover of Hong Kong in 1997. Hutchison Whampoa partnered in several enterprises with China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO), which is directly controlled by the People's Liberation Army, and served as a middleman in China's deals with the U.S. firms Hughes and Loral.

The Carter-Torrijos Treaties, bad as they were, gave the United States the right to defend the Panama Canal militarily. The Chinese leases, however, will make it impossible to do this without directly confronting the Chinese Communist regime.

In 1996, when China was "testing" missiles to scare Taiwan before its election, the United States sent warships to the area and China responded by impudently threatening to "rain down fire" on Los Angeles from its China-based ICBMs. Would Communist China do the same if it bases its shorter-range missiles in Panama?

China will be able to ship its shorter-range missiles across the Pacific, unload them at Balboa, and conceal them in warehouses until the time is ripe. If Congress doesn't act immediately, we are heading for a Panama Missile Crisis like the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.Red China: Gatekeeper of the Panama Canal -- November 1999 Phyllis Schlafly Report

 

It is actually worse than all of this, as one can see from several excerpts from the Howard Phillips Issues and Strategies Bulletin:

Excerpts from Howard Phillips Issues and Strategy Bulletin of December 31, 2001

RED CHINA’S TOP LOBBYIST FOR HUTCHISON WHAMPOA NAMED BY BUSH TO BE DEPUTY DIRECTOR FOR THE OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET

According to The Wall Street Journal (p. 1, 11/30/01) "Cheney hand Nancy Dorn is expected to get the No. 2 job at the White House Office of Management and Budget. With budget director Daniels at odds with Congress’s GOP leaders, Dorn offers good Capitol ties: The Cheney staffer once worked for House Speaker Hastert. Former budget deputy Sean O’Keefe also was a Cheney ally."

As reported in HPISB #664, February 28, 2001, "Mrs. Dorn, whose husband was on the staff of Bob Dole, was previously hired to be national security adviser to GOP House Speaker Dennis Hastert, despite the fact that she had served as a registered foreign agent for the Chinese-controlled company, Hutchison Whampoa."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Excerpts from Howard Phillips Issues and Strategy Bulletin of February 28, 2001

CHENEY HIRES HUTCHISON WHAMPOA’S FOREIGN AGENT

In what could be a serious blow to the continuing campaign of The Conservative Caucus and allied organizations to restore a U.S. military presence in Panama and challenge control of port facilities at the Atlantic and Pacific sides of the Panama Canal by a company closely linked to the Chinese Communist government, Vice President Dick Cheney has hired Nancy Dorn to be a key member of his Capitol Hill staff.

As you will recall from previous editions of HPISB, Mrs. Dorn, whose husband was on the staff of Bob Dole, was previously hired to be national security adviser to GOP House Speaker Dennis Hastert, despite the fact that she had served as a registered foreign agent for the Chinese-controlled company, Hutchison Whampoa.

According to an article by Eric Schmitt in The New York Times (2/3/01, p. A8), "To help track Congress and tend to lawmakers’ needs, [Vice President Dick] Cheney has hired Nancy P. Dorn, [House Speaker Dennis] Hastert’s former foreign policy adviser...."

 

None of this means anything to those reaping huge profits in Red China. None of this means anything to the Bush administration, which is not at all unlike its predecessors in refusing to acknowledge the military threat posed by the Red Chinese government (see: Red Chinese Military Threat). None of this means anything as Catholics are rounded up in Red China. None of this means anything to the average American, including the average Catholic American, whether in or out of the conciliar structures, diverted by bread and circuses and by the illusion that the American electoral process is (a) honest and (b) can "change" the country and the world for the better. Who cares if the Red Chinese are building up their military with the profits being made from the presence of American corporations there (and with our own complicity in refusing even to try to boycott at least a few goods made in Red China)? Who cares if the Red Chinese, who have a most cozy relationship with America's "only ally in the Mideast," Israel? (See Asia Times Online - News from greater China; Hong Kong and Taiwan). Who cares is China is developing anti-missile missiles and is aiding the government of The Sudan as the latter pursues its atrocities in Darfur?

RED CHINA AND RUSSIA SEEK CONTROL OF THE MILITARY HIGH GROUND

“China and Russia are developing space weapons and are among several nations working on systems to threaten U.S. satellites with lasers or missiles, says the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.

“In Senate testimony last week, Army Lt. Gen. Michael Maples for the first time raised Pentagon concerns about secret Chinese and Russian space weapons programs. …”

U.S. IS AT RISK

“Gen. Maples said that ‘several countries continue to develop capabilities that have the potential to threaten U.S. space assets, and some have already deployed systems with inherent anti-satellite capabilities, such as satellite-tracking laser range-finding devices and nuclear-armed ballistic missiles.’ …

“Gen. Maples did not discuss the reported testing of a Chinese anti-satellite laser against a U.S. satellite, which triggered high-level Bush administration worries about Beijing’s growing space-weapons program.

“U.S. officials said details about the Chinese anti-satellite laser shot remain classified so as not to alert China about U.S. knowledge of what intelligence officials say may have been a test shot of an anti-satellite weapon.

“China has developed several types of ground-based lasers with Russian and Israeli technology, U.S. officials have said.

“Russia developed anti-satellite weapons during the Cold War, and U.S. officials think the Russian military is continuing work on the weapons, which include both anti-satellite missiles and ground-based lasers.” Source: Bill Gertz, The Washington Times, 1/17/07, p. A6

CHICOMS FUEL SUDAN TYRANNY

“China yesterday defended economic ties with Sudan ahead of a trip to Africa by Hu Jintao during which the president will visit Khartoum.
“The tour will be the third to the continent by a top Chinese leader in a year. There is disquiet in the US and Europe about China’s intensifying relationship with Africa. Trade is expected to have reached a record $50bn last year, up from $39.7bn in 2005.

“Zhai Jun, a Chinese foreign ministry official, said yesterday: ‘With Sudan we have co-operation in many aspects, including military co-operation. In this we have nothing to hide.’ …

“China sources oil from Sudan and refuses to support direct intervention in the Darfur crisis, which has cost thousands of lives and displaced 2m people.

“A Beijing summit was attended by 48 African leaders last year. It was preceded by diplomatic programmes headed by China’s top leaders. Omar al-Bashir, Sudan’s president, played down the Darfur atrocities. He praised China as a ‘partner on many projects’….” Source: From Beijing, Andrew Yeh, Financial Times, 1/25/07, p. 1 (Howard Phillips Issues and Strategies Newsletter, February 15, 2007).

 

Although Vice President Richard N. Cheney, currently in Australia, far away from Washington, D.C. ( where a jury is now deliberating the fate of his former Chief of Staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, on charges of lying to a grand jury about how he, Libby, learned the identity of a Central Intelligence Agency operative whose husband had written an article critical of the Bush administration's pre-Iraq war claims about Iraq's attempts to buy enriched uranium from the country of Niger), said on Friday, February 23, 2007, that "Last month's anti-satellite test, China's continued fast-paced military buildup are less constructive and are not consistent with China's stated goal of a peaceful rise," there are no indications that the Bush administration is going to take punitive measures, such as withdrawing Most Favored Nation status or encouraging American corporations not to invest in Communist China. Just more empty rhetoric as the cash registers boom at Wal-Mart and the various "dollar" stores in this country and around the world.

As Catholic priests are hunted down in a way reminiscent of the Protestant Revolt in England, Asia News reports that that Benedict XVI is preparing a letter to be sent to Catholics in Red China, possibly to announce some kind of  program or schemata of "reconciliation" between the conciliarist Vatican and the government of Red China. Vatican officials are indicating that a "majority" of "bishops" (we do not know if the bishops of the rump church have been consecrated according to the old or new rite of episcopal consecration) in the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association are in "union" with Rome.What precisely this means is a mystery as none of those "bishops" has publicly abjured his support for Red Chinese government's "population control" policies. (See a September, 2005, article that appeared on this site: There is Schism and Then There is Schism, 2005, written about six months before I began to study in earnest the doctrinal issues as to whether the Catholic Church can be the author of the errors of the past forty years.) Has the conciliarist Vatican extracted such abjurations privately? Will such abjurations be made public? Or will it be the case that Benedict will simply call upon Catholics in Red China to put aside their "differences" in a spirit of "national reconciliation," exhibiting the same insensitivity to collaboration with Communist authorities in Red China that he continues to exhibit in the case of the Communist collaborator in Poland, the now disgraced Stanislaw Wielgus?

Appeasement of the Red Chinese will not work in political or military or economic realm. It will not work in the ecclesiastical realm, especially within the context of conciliarists attempting to represent a Church from which they have defected for their own many apostasies and errors. The most likely result of any "reconciliation" between the Rome of Modernism and the Red Chinese government is going to be a requirement that Catholics in Red China keep their mouths shut about the evils perpetrated by the dictators who rule their country. Always. Remember, ladies and gentlemen, Paul VI sold out József Cardinal Mindszenty in order to"improve" the situation of the Church in Communist-controlled Hungary. Remember also that John XXIII agreed not to have Communism mentioned at all during the "Second" Vatican Council in exchange for the presence of "observers" from the schismatic and heretical Russian Orthodox Church  Appeasement is not the sole province of Western politicians. It has been practiced by the conciliarists in Rome since men sympathetic to Communism, Angelo Roncalli and Giovanni Montini, came to power in the counterfeit church of conciliarism.

Mind you, the mind simply boggles when contemplating the diabolical conundrum in which the good, faithful Catholics, people who have suffered so much over the years, have been placed. The schismatic and heretical church of conciliarism is considering a reconciliation with the schismatic and heretical "church" started by the government of Red China. The faithful Catholics in Red China will be taught that "fidelity" to the "church" is fidelity to the "Second" Vatican Council and the whole ethos of conciliarism. These Catholics will be taught to keep their mouths shut about the evils perpetrated by the Red Chinese government. Those who have the authentic sensus Catholicus will be taught to keep their mouths shut about the errors of conciliarism! Thee is indeed quite a kinship between the ways of statist thugs and the ways of conciliarist thugs.

The irony here is inescapable: "priests" in the indult must keep their mouths shut about the errors of religious liberty and ecumenism and episcopal collegiality and the separation of Church and State and the evils of the Novus Ordo Missae. Underground Catholics in Red China will get "official" recognition at the price of being unable to defend the Faith against the the attacks of the Communists and the errors of the conciliarists. Muzzling a Catholic about the truth is never from God. It is always from the devil. Always.

Consider these words of Pope Leo XIII, contained in Immortale Dei, November 1, 1885:

Hence, lest concord be broken by rash charges, let this be understood by all, that the integrity of Catholic faith cannot be reconciled with opinions verging on naturalism or rationalism, the essence of which is utterly to do away with Christian institutions and to install in society the supremacy of man to the exclusion of God. Further, it is unlawful to follow one line of conduct in private life and another in public, respecting privately the authority of the Church, but publicly rejecting it; for this would amount to joining together good and evil, and to putting man in conflict with himself; whereas he ought always to be consistent, and never in the least point nor in any condition of life to swerve from Christian virtue.

 

Indeed, the same Holy Father explained to us in Sapientiae Christianae, January 10, 1890, that we have a positive obligation to oppose evil:

Moreover, if we would judge aright, the supernatural love for the Church and the natural love of our own country proceed from the same eternal principle, since God Himself is their Author and originating Cause. Consequently, it follows that between the duties they respectively enjoin, neither can come into collision with the other. We can, certainly, and should love ourselves, bear ourselves kindly toward our fellow men, nourish affection for the State and the governing powers; but at the same time we can and must cherish toward the Church a feeling of filial piety, and love God with the deepest love of which we are capable. The order of precedence of these duties is, however, at times, either under stress of public calamities, or through the perverse will of men, inverted. For, instances occur where the State seems to require from men as subjects one thing, and religion, from men as Christians, quite another; and this in reality without any other ground, than that the rulers of the State either hold the sacred power of the Church of no account, or endeavor to subject it to their own will. Hence arises a conflict, and an occasion, through such conflict, of virtue being put to the proof. The two powers are confronted and urge their behests in a contrary sense; to obey both is wholly impossible. No man can serve two masters, for to please the one amounts to contemning the other.

As to which should be preferred no one ought to balance for an instant. It is a high crime indeed to withdraw allegiance from God in order to please men, an act of consummate wickedness to break the laws of Jesus Christ, in order to yield obedience to earthly rulers, or, under pretext of keeping the civil law, to ignore the rights of the Church; "we ought to obey God rather than men." This answer, which of old Peter and the other Apostles were used to give the civil authorities who enjoined unrighteous things, we must, in like circumstances, give always and without hesitation. No better citizen is there, whether in time of peace or war, than the Christian who is mindful of his duty; but such a one should be ready to suffer all things, even death itself, rather than abandon the cause of God or of the Church.

Hence, they who blame, and call by the name of sedition, this steadfastness of attitude in the choice of duty have not rightly apprehended the force and nature of true law. We are speaking of matters widely known, and which We have before now more than once fully explained. Law is of its very essence a mandate of right reason, proclaimed by a properly constituted authority, for the common good. But true and legitimate authority is void of sanction, unless it proceed from God, the supreme Ruler and Lord of all. The Almighty alone can commit power to a man over his fellow men; nor may that be accounted as right reason which is in disaccord with truth and with divine reason; nor that held to be true good which is repugnant to the supreme and unchangeable good, or that wrests aside and draws away the wills of men from the charity of God.

Hallowed, therefore, in the minds of Christians is the very idea of public authority, in which they recognize some likeness and symbol as it were of the Divine Majesty, even when it is exercised by one unworthy. A just and due reverence to the laws abides in them, not from force and threats, but from a consciousness of duty; "for God hath not given us the spirit of fear."

But, if the laws of the State are manifestly at variance with the divine law, containing enactments hurtful to the Church, or conveying injunctions adverse to the duties imposed by religion, or if they violate in the person of the supreme Pontiff the authority of Jesus Christ, then, truly, to resist becomes a positive duty, to obey, a crime; a crime, moreover, combined with misdemeanor against the State itself, inasmuch as every offense leveled against religion is also a sin against the State. Here anew it becomes evident how unjust is the reproach of sedition; for the obedience due to rulers and legislators is not refused, but there is a deviation from their will in those precepts only which they have no power to enjoin. Commands that are issued adversely to the honor due to God, and hence are beyond the scope of justice, must be looked upon as anything rather than laws. You are fully aware, venerable brothers, that this is the very contention of the Apostle St. Paul, who, in writing to Titus, after reminding Christians that they are "to be subject to princes and powers, and to obey at a word," at once adds: "And to be ready to every good work." Thereby he openly declares that, if laws of men contain injunctions contrary to the eternal law of God, it is right not to obey them. In like manner, the Prince of the Apostles gave this courageous and sublime answer to those who would have deprived him of the liberty of preaching the Gospel: "If it be just in the sight of God to hear you rather than God, judge ye, for we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard."

Wherefore, to love both countries, that of earth below and that of heaven above, yet in such mode that the love of our heavenly surpass the love of our earthly home, and that human laws be never set above the divine law, is the essential duty of Christians, and the fountainhead, so to say, from which all other duties spring. The Redeemer of mankind of Himself has said: "For this was I born, and for this came I into the world, that I should give testimony to the truth." In like manner: "I am come to cast fire upon earth, and what will I but that it be kindled?'' In the knowledge of this truth, which constitutes the highest perfection of the mind; in divine charity which, in like manner, completes the will, all Christian life and liberty abide. This noble patrimony of truth and charity entrusted by Jesus Christ to the Church she defends and maintains ever with untiring endeavor and watchfulness.

But with what bitterness and in how many guises war has been waged against the Church it would be ill-timed now to urge. From the fact that it has been vouchsafed to human reason to snatch from nature, through the investigations of science, many of her treasured secrets and to apply them befittingly to the divers requirements of life, men have become possessed with so arrogant a sense of their own powers as already to consider themselves able to banish from social life the authority and empire of God. Led away by this delusion, they make over to human nature the dominion of which they think God has been despoiled; from nature, they maintain, we must seek the principle and rule of all truth; from nature, they aver, alone spring, and to it should be referred, all the duties that religious feeling prompts. Hence, they deny all revelation from on high, and all fealty due to the Christian teaching of morals as well as all obedience to the Church, and they go so far as to deny her power of making laws and exercising every other kind of right, even disallowing the Church any place among the civil institutions of the commonweal. These men aspire unjustly, and with their might strive, to gain control over public affairs and lay hands on the rudder of the State, in order that the legislation may the more easily be adapted to these principles, and the morals of the people influenced in accordance with them. Whence it comes to pass that in many countries Catholicism is either openly assailed or else secretly interfered with, full impunity being granted to the most pernicious doctrines, while the public profession of Christian truth is shackled oftentimes with manifold constraints.

13. Under such evil circumstances therefore, each one is bound in conscience to watch over himself, taking all means possible to preserve the faith inviolate in the depths of his soul, avoiding all risks, and arming himself on all occasions, especially against the various specious sophisms rife among non-believers. In order to safeguard this virtue of faith in its integrity, We declare it to be very profitable and consistent with the requirements of the time, that each one, according to the measure of his capacity and intelligence, should make a deep study of Christian doctrine, and imbue his mind with as perfect a knowledge as may be of those matters that are interwoven with religion and lie within the range of reason. And as it is necessary that faith should not only abide untarnished in the soul, but should grow with ever painstaking increase, the suppliant and humble entreaty of the apostles ought constantly to be addressed to God: "Increase our faith.''

But in this same matter, touching Christian faith, there are other duties whose exact and religious observance, necessary at all times in the interests of eternal salvation, become more especially so in these our days. Amid such reckless and widespread folly of opinion, it is, as We have said, the office of the Church to undertake the defense of truth and uproot errors from the mind, and this charge has to be at all times sacredly observed by her, seeing that the honor of God and the salvation of men are confided to her keeping. But, when necessity compels, not those only who are invested with power of rule are bound to safeguard the integrity of faith, but, as St. Thomas maintains: "Each one is under obligation to show forth his faith, either to instruct and encourage others of the faithful, or to repel the attacks of unbelievers.'' To recoil before an enemy, or to keep silence when from all sides such clamors are raised against truth, is the part of a man either devoid of character or who entertains doubt as to the truth of what he professes to believe. In both cases such mode of behaving is base and is insulting to God, and both are incompatible with the salvation of mankind. This kind of conduct is profitable only to the enemies of the faith, for nothing emboldens the wicked so greatly as the lack of courage on the part of the good. Moreover, want of vigor on the part of Christians is so much the more blameworthy, as not seldom little would be needed on their part to bring to naught false charges and refute erroneous opinions, and by always exerting themselves more strenuously they might reckon upon being successful. After all, no one can be prevented from putting forth that strength of soul which is the characteristic of true Christians, and very frequently by such display of courage our enemies lose heart and their designs are thwarted. Christians are, moreover, born for combat, whereof the greater the vehemence, the more assured, God aiding, the triumph: "Have confidence; I have overcome the world." Nor is there any ground for alleging that Jesus Christ, the Guardian and Champion of the Church, needs not in any manner the help of men. Power certainly is not wanting to Him, but in His loving kindness He would assign to us a share in obtaining and applying the fruits of salvation procured through His grace.

The chief elements of this duty consist in professing openly and unflinchingly the Catholic doctrine, and in propagating it to the utmost of our power. For, as is often said, with the greatest truth, there is nothing so hurtful to Christian wisdom as that it should not be known, since it possesses, when loyally received, inherent power to drive away error

 

It may very well be that the military might of the Red Chinese will be one means by which God visits a  major chastisement is visited upon us. I hope and pray that this is not the case! Humanly speaking, however, appeasement of tyrants in the political realm always leads to war and to the destruction engendered thereby. Appeasement of tyrants in the ecclesiastical realm always leads to a far worse fate: the deformation of souls, quite possibly unto their eternal perdition.

Let us pray for the persecuted Church in Red China. Let us pray for the conversion of the Communist dictators there. Let us pray for the conversion of the craven careerists who run Western governments and the equally craven Calvinist capitalists who bankroll their campaigns. And let us pray for the conversion of the conciliarists themselves who bear such a tremendous responsibility for the deformation of souls and for the silencing of the sensus Catholicus in the face of spiritual and political evils.

Having recourse, as always, to Our Lady's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart as her consecrated slaves, we beg her to help us offer up our acts of reparation to her so that we can grow in holiness in our own lives and be better able to conform every beat of our hearts to the pulse that unites her own Immaculate Heart and the Most Sacred Heart of her Divine Son, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Each of us has much to make reparation for in our own lives. Our little daily acts of reparation, especially during this penitential season of Lent, will help us to die to self and to be ever ready to take up our crosses as the price of our sanctification and of our salvation. The only thing that matters in our own lives is that we die in a state of Sanctifying Grace. All of the troubles of this present world will fade away. Our Lady will have the triumph of her Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart as a result of the fulfillment of her Fatima Message when a Catholic sits once again on the Throne of Saint Peter. We must simply try to do our our part in planting the seeds for the restoration of the Church in all of her glory, which will include the banishment of all errors and outrages, including the Novus Ordo Missae, and the restoration of Christendom in the world.

We believe in a God Who became Man in Our Lady's Virginal and Immaculate Womb by the power of the Holy Ghost. We believe in a God Who rose from the dead on Easter Sunday forty hours after being buried in a borrowed tomb. We believe that a mere man who utters mere words over the mere elements of the earth makes God truly present under the appearance of bread and wine? Why, then, do we doubt that God has a great miracle in store for the Church and for the world?. He has promised us this miracle through His Most Blessed Mother. He will deliver on His promise!

Vivat Christus Rex!

Our Lady, Help of Christians, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Jude, pray for us.

Saint John the Beloved, pray for us.

Saint John Bosco, pray for us.

Saint Dominic Savio, pray for us.

Saint  Scholastica, pray for us.

Saint Benedict, pray for us.

Saint Anthony of Padua, pray for us.

Saint Francis of Assisi, pray for us.

Saint Thomas Aquinas, pray for us.

Saint Bonaventure, pray for us.

Saint Augustine, pray for us.

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, pray for us.

Saint Francis Xavier, pray for us.

Saint Peter Damian, pray for us.

Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, pray for us.

Saint Lucy, pray for us.

Saint Monica, pray for us.

Saint Agatha, pray for us.

Saint Philomena, pray for us.

Saint Cecilia, pray for us.

Saint John Mary Vianney, pray for us.

Saint Vincent de Paul, pray for us.

Saint Vincent Ferrer, pray for us.

Saint Athanasius, pray for us.

Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, pray for us.

Saint Isaac Jogues, pray for us.

Saint Rene Goupil, pray for us.

Saint John Lalonde, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel Lalemont, pray for us.

Saint Noel Chabanel, pray for us.

Saint Charles Garnier, pray for us.

Saint Anthony Daniel, pray for us.

Saint John DeBrebeuf, pray for us.

Saint Alphonsus de Liguori, pray for us.

Saint Dominic, pray for us.

Saint Hyacinth, pray for us.

Saint Basil, pray for us.

Saint Vincent Ferrer, pray for us.

Saint Sebastian, pray for us.

Saint Tarcisius, pray for us.

Saint Bridget of Sweden, pray for us.

Saint Gerard Majella, pray for us.

Saint John of the Cross, pray for us.

Saint Teresa of Avila, pray for us.

Saint Bernadette Soubirous, pray for us.

Saint Genevieve, pray for us.

Saint Vincent de Paul, pray for us.

Pope Saint Pius X, pray for us

Pope Saint Pius V, pray for us.

Saint Rita of Cascia, pray for us.

Venerable Anne Catherine Emmerich, pray for us.

Venerable Pauline Jaricot, pray for us.

Father Miguel Augustin Pro, pray for us.

Francisco Marto, pray for us.

Jacinta Marto, pray for us.

Juan Diego, pray for us.

 

The Longer Version of the Saint Michael the Archangel Prayer, composed by Pope Leo XIII, 1888

O glorious Archangel Saint Michael, Prince of the heavenly host, be our defense in the terrible warfare which we carry on against principalities and powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, spirits of evil.  Come to the aid of man, whom God created immortal, made in His own image and likeness, and redeemed at a great price from the tyranny of the devil.  Fight this day the battle of our Lord, together with  the holy angels, as already thou hast fought the leader of the proud angels, Lucifer, and his apostate host, who were powerless to resist thee, nor was there place for them any longer in heaven.  That cruel, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil or Satan who seduces the whole world, was cast into the abyss with his angels.  Behold this primeval enemy and slayer of men has taken courage.  Transformed into an angel of light, he wanders about with all the multitude of wicked spirits, invading the earth in order to blot out the Name of God and of His Christ, to seize upon, slay, and cast into eternal perdition, souls destined for the crown of eternal glory.  That wicked dragon pours out. as a most impure flood, the venom of his malice on men of depraved mind and corrupt heart, the spirit of lying, of impiety, of blasphemy, and the pestilent breath of impurity, and of every vice and iniquity.  These most crafty enemies have filled and inebriated with gall and bitterness the Church, the spouse of the Immaculate Lamb, and have laid impious hands on Her most sacred possessions. In the Holy Place itself, where has been set up the See of the most holy Peter and the Chair of Truth for the light of the world, they have raised the throne of their abominable impiety with the iniquitous design that when the Pastor has been struck the sheep may be scattered.  Arise then, O invincible Prince, bring help against the attacks of the lost spirits to the people of God, and give them the victory.  They venerate thee as their protector and patron; in thee holy Church glories as her defense against the malicious powers of hell; to thee has God entrusted the souls of men to be established in heavenly beatitude.  Oh, pray to the God of peace that He may put Satan under our feet, so far conquered that he may no longer be able to hold men in captivity and harm the Church.  Offer our prayers in the sight of the Most High, so that they may quickly conciliate the mercies of the Lord; and beating down the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, do thou again make him captive in the abyss, that he may no longer seduce the nations.  Amen.

Verse: Behold the Cross of the Lord; be scattered ye hostile powers.

Response: The Lion of the Tribe of Juda has conquered the root of David.

Verse: Let Thy mercies be upon us, O Lord.

Response: As we have hoped in Thee.

Verse: O Lord hear my prayer.

Response: And let my cry come unto Thee.

Verse: Let us pray.  O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we call upon Thy holy Name, and as suppliants, we implore Thy clemency, that by the intercession of Mary, ever Virgin, immaculate and our Mother, and of the glorious Archangel Saint Michael, Thou wouldst deign to help us against Satan and all other unclean spirits, who wander about the world for the injury of the human race and the ruin of our souls. 

Response:  Amen.