Chinese-Christians Are Paying a High Price for the Olympics

By John W. Whitehead
Christian Post Contributor
Fri, Apr. 25 2008

The world is finally seeing China for what it is: a totalitarian dictatorship.

It's widely known that China has been rounding up and persecuting First Amendment advocates. These Chinese dissidents who use the Internet and demonstrations to protest what China has been doing often disappear or are sent to re-education camps.

Little, however, is said about China's religious persecution, especially of Christians. Yet it is on par with, if not worse than, the harsh and oppressive treatment of demonstrators in Tibet that has received widespread news coverage and caused public outrage. And it's been happening for years.

Nevertheless, the 2008 Olympic Games were awarded to China in July 2001, with the expectation that the Games would act as a catalyst for the improvement of human rights in China and cause China to change its image. And over the past seven years, China has invested huge amounts of time and resources in preparing for the Olympics in order to make a good impression on the world. Unfortunately, these preparations have included the "religious repression, torture, sexual abuse and arbitrary detention" of many religious individuals, particularly Chinese Christians. the rest