Petition to China To Release All the Imprisoned Roman Catholic Religious and Faithful And To Exonerate All their Criminal Charges, Living and Deceased By Joseph M. Kung

September 1, 2005

President Hu Jintao
People's Republic of China
c/o Ambassador Yang Jiechi
Embassy of the People's Republic of China
2300 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20008

Dear President Hu:

September 8, 2005 will be remembered as your historical first visit to the United States and to Yale University as the President of the People's Republic of China. The world will be eagerly listening to your vision for China. However, September 8, 2005 is also being observed by 12 million Roman Catholics in China and millions more worldwide as the 50th anniversary of the unjust and brutal assault on the Roman Catholic Church in Shanghai when the Chinese government simultaneously arrested the late Bishop Ignatius Kung Pin-Mei 龔品梅主教, at the time the Roman Catholic Bishop of Shanghai, 21 priests, 2 nuns, and approximately 300 Roman Catholics for practicing their Roman Catholic religion.

Today, fifty years later, we commemorate and weep silently about this gross injustice and tragedy that your government had inflicted upon these innocent Catholic religious and faithful. All of them were sentenced to 10 - 30 years and even to life imprisonment. In honor of these bloodless martyrdoms, the late Pope John Paul II secretly (in pectore) elevated Bishop Kung PinMei to a Cardinal in 1979 while he was still in jail and publicly proclaimed him a cardinal in 1991 amidst a 7-minute standing ovation before an audience of 7,000 people.

Since 1949 when your government took over China, literally tens of thousands of Roman Catholic bishops, priests, nuns, and their faithful have been imprisoned for 5, 10, 20, 30 or even 40 years.  Many of them, such as Bishop Fan Xueyan of Baoding保定的范學俺主教 (34 years in solitary confinement), died in jail.  Some of them are still in jail on this date or have vanished after they were arrested.  Many of them were released after a very long period in jail.  Some of those released are still living in China or in other parts of the world.  Some, such as Cardinal Kung Pin-Mei, whom the late Pope John Paul II called “this noble son of China and of the Church” (30 years in solitary confinement and 2.5 years in house arrest), and Archbishop Dominic Tan Yee-Ming of Canton 廣州的鄧以明總主教 (24 years in jail without a trial), have since died.

It does not matter if these prisoners are dead or living today. They are still considered criminals because the “criminal” charges against them were never erased by your government.

There are thousands more like Cardinal Kung, Bishop Fan and Archbishop Tang. They are all loyal citizens of China and they love China.

Mr. President, you have the power and the leadership to bring modern China into an era of true religious freedom. Mr. President, you also have the wisdom and historical acumen to realize that a country without religious freedom is never peaceful and constructive. You know the importance of changing the world's perception of China's human rights policy for the better and you can do it. And, we pray that you will do it.

The Chinese government has justifiably exonerated numerous political prisoners in the past. On this 50th anniversary of the unjust and brutal assault of the Roman Catholic Church in Shanghai described above, the Cardinal Kung Foundation appeals to you once again, as we have appealed to your Ambassador Yang Jiechi on March 23, 2005, that all these prisoners, including Cardinal Kung, Bishop Fan and Archbishop Tang and many others, both living and dead, be officially and posthumously exonerated of so called crimes of which the Chinese government falsely and unjustly accused them, some as long as five decades ago. We also appeal to you to release all current religious prisoners from prison and labor camp as per the attached list. By your doing so, the reputation of these living and dead religious prisoners of conscience in China can be restored. Those who are still living can at least once again enjoy equal treatment in the society. To do so will be a powerful testimony to the Chinese government's respect for and adherence to human rights and liberty. To do so will also prove that China is honoring the spirit of the Olympic Games that you will have the honor of hosting in 2008.

God love you.

Thank you.

Yours truly,

      /s/    (Original signed by Joseph Kung)

Joseph Kung 龔民權
President
Cardinal Kung Foundation
龔品梅樞機基金會