The New York Times, Dec 31, 2001 pA4(L) col 06 (13 col in).

2 CHRISTIANS ORDERED TO DIE AS CHINA 

ACTS AGAINST A SECT

Full Text COPYRIGHT 2001 The New York Times Company

Two leaders of a Chinese Christian sect were sentenced to death today, the

first time executions have been ordered under the country's 1999 anti-cult

law.

Gong Shengliang, the founder of the unauthorized South China Church, was

ordered to die in Hubei Province in central China for crimes including

''hooliganism and rape,'' according to the Hong Kong-based Information Center

for Human Rights and Democracy. The sentence could not immediately be

verified, but reports from the center, which acts as a clearinghouse for

human-rights reports from across China, have proved accurate in the past.

Mr. Gong's niece, Li Ying, 36, another reported leader of the church, was also

sentenced to death but with a two-year reprieve, which normally results in

commutation to a life sentence if the person is cooperative in prison.

Mr. Gong, 46, founded the South China Church in 1991 as a splinter group from

another underground church, called the Total Scope Church, according to the

report from the human rights monitor. In April, the Ministry of Public

Security added the church, said to have 50,000 members, to a list of more than

a dozen Christian sects officially labeled as cults, allowing the government

to prosecute Mr. Gong and his followers under the anti-cult law.

The law was adopted as part of the government's campaign to eradicate the

Falun Gong spiritual movement and gives the government greater latitude in

prosecuting the leaders of groups that are determined to be cults. Under the

law, cult leaders can be held responsible for injury or death suffered by

followers as a result of cult activities, even if the leaders were not

directly involved.

China previously executed religious sect leaders under other criminal

statutes. In 1999, Liu Jiaguo, the founder of a Christian sect called the

Supreme Spirit Church, was executed for rape. His mentor, Wu Yang ming, the

founder of the Established King Church, was executed for rape in 1995.

The latest death sentences come during a nationwide campaign against crime

that has resulted in thousands of death sentences and executions.

China bans religious practices outside the government-authorized churches,

temples and mosques of the five religions it recognizes: Buddhism, Taoism,

Islam, Roman Catholicism and Protestant Christianity. It frequently arrests

religious leaders who defy the ban, including priests who profess loyalty to

the pope.

The Communist Party worries that religious groups could transform themselves

into political organizations that might challenge the party's rule. China's

leaders are also concerned that the country's largely undereducated,

relatively poor population is ripe for exploitation by charismatic spiritual

leaders.

The country has experienced mass spiritual movements in the past during

periods of economic change and weakening central government authority. In the

late-1800's a man claiming to be the brother of Jesus temporarily wrested

control of a large swath of territory from the Qing court. Millions of people

died in fighting.

The Hong Kong human rights center said the Intermediate People's Court of

Jingmen, a city in Hubei Province, found Mr. Gong, 46, guilty of using a cult

to undermine the enforcement of law and of malicious assault and rape.

He was found responsible for serious injuries sustained by four people during

the performance of exorcisms, the report said. It did not say whether Mr. Gong

was directly involved in the reported exorcisms or whether the assault and

rape charges were related to them.

The report said 15 other members of the church were given sentences of two

years to life imprisonment. All of the defendants contend that they are

innocent and are appealing.

Return to the GARDEN STATE SANGHA Homepage