Editing The Shouters (section)

==Suppression of "the Shouters" (1983–1984)==
The Chinese government and the Three-Self churches contended that the Shouters were creating civil disturbances, disrupting Three-Self church activities and organizing protests against the government.<ref name=":0" />{{Reference page|page=227}}

[[Jiang Ping]], Vice Minister of the [[United Front (People's Republic of China)|United Front Work Department]] (UFWD) of the [[Central Committee of the Communist Party of China|CPC Central Committee]], was assigned to form a team to investigate the problem of "the Shouters sect." The team was composed of members of the Public Security Bureau, the Religious Affairs Bureau (now the [[State Administration for Religious Affairs]]), and the Ethnic Groups Affairs Bureau. Its first stop was in Shanghai on January 15, 1983, where they met with Tang Shou-lin and Ren Zhong-xiang.<ref>Jiang Ping 1983, "呼喊派問題調查" [An Investigative Report on the Shouters: a Travelogue], 考察調查旅遊日記輯要 [A Collection of Travelogues of Various Investigative Trips] (compilation, 2008), Beijing: Hua-wen Press, 3.</ref>
 
After all of Watchman Nee's close co-workers were arrested on January 29, 1956, Tang and Ren were elected as elders, not by the congregation of the church in Shanghai, but by the "Believers’ Political Re-education Committee," which had been formed to oversee the political [[indoctrination]] of the church's members. Tang and Ren cooperated in the PRC's campaign to denounce Watchman Nee as a counterrevolutionary.<ref>Zhang 2012, 202</ref> Tang had earlier been a member of the Three-Self Standing Committee but withdrew from this position due to criticism by church members that he had betrayed the church in Shanghai.<ref>Zhang 2012, 222–23</ref> After his cooperation in denouncing Watchman Nee, Tang was reinstated and made a TSPM Vice Chairman.<ref>Francis P. Jones, ed., ''Documents of the Three-Self Movement: Source Materials for the Study of the Protestant Church in Communist China'' (New York: Far Eastern Office, Division of Foreign Missions, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, 1963), 96, 200.</ref> Under the leadership of Tang and Ren the Nanyang Road meeting hall built under Watchman Nee's oversight for the church in Shanghai was given to the TSPM in 1958 and any semblance of the church in Shanghai's meetings ceased. After undergoing re-education in a reform-through-labor ([[laogai]]) camp during the Cultural Revolution, Tang was reinstated as a Vice Chairman in the newly re-established TSPM and made a member of the standing committee of the [[China Christian Council]],<ref>Office of the East Asia and Pacific Division, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, ''The People & Church in China: A Guide to Prayer'' (New York: Friendship Press for the China Program, 1982), 9.</ref> which was established by the TSPM in 1980.<ref>"A Statement of the Third National Congress of the Chinese Protestant Church, 13 October 1980," ''LWF Marxism & China Study'' 31, November 1980:12–14.</ref> In July 1981 Tang issued a statement titled "Pouring Out My Heart to the Party," in which he said, "I made a decision: anything that was expedient to the Party and our country, as long as I could do it, I would do it and would do it well."<ref>Tang Shou-lin, "Pouring Out My Heart to the Party," July 1, 1981.</ref>

When Tang and Ren met with the PRC officials in January 1983, they shared a common interest in suppressing those in the local churches who were aggressively spreading the gospel in China.  The CCP viewed any widespread social movement as a political threat, and the TSPM saw any activity outside of its purview as undermining the legitimacy of its claim to be the sole representative of the Christian faith in China.  On January 16, a TSPM panel, including Tang and Ren, decided that "the Shouters sect" was counterrevolutionary in politics and heretical in religion and should be dealt with swiftly. Tang and Ren were commissioned to write a refutation of "the Shouters sect."<ref>Jiang Ping 2008 [1983] 3.</ref>

In April 1983 a forty-page book by Tang and Ren titled ''Firmly Resist the Heretical Opinions of Li Changshou'' [Witness Lee] was published by the [[Nanjing Union Theological Seminary]] as teaching material. Copies were sent to Public Security Bureau offices throughout China, as well as to state-approved churches and other Christian organizations. Many of the accusations in Tang and Ren's book were based on ''The God-Men'', a book which was published in the United States by the [[Spiritual Counterfeits Project]] and was sent to Tang.<ref>Zhang 2012, 388, 350</ref>  ''The God-Men'' was subsequently ruled to be false and libelous in 1985.<ref>{{Citation | first = Leon G | last = Seyranian | contribution = Statement of Decision | title = Lee et al v. Duddy et al | id = Case no. 540 585–9 | publisher = Superior Court of the State of California in and for the County of Alameda | url = http://www.contendingforthefaith.org/libel-litigations/god-men/decision/}}.</ref> The entire text of Tang and Ren's book was reproduced in the September 1983 issue of ''Ching Feng'', a publication of the Tao Fong Shan Christian Centre in Hong Kong.<ref>Tang Shou-lin and Ren Zhongxiang, "Firmly Resist the Heretical Opinions of Li Changshou," ''Ching Feng'', September 1983, 15–18.</ref> An interview with Tang and Ren was published by Tao Fong Shan in the November 1983 issue of its ''Bridge'' magazine. This article included a picture of the cover of ''The God-Men'' on its second page.<ref>"Speaking of the Shouters: An Interview with Tang Shou-lin and Ren Zhongxiang," ''Bridge: Church Life in China Today'' 2, November 1983:16–18.</ref> A second, expanded edition of Tang and Ren's book specifically cited ''The God-Men'' as a source.<ref>Tang Shou-lin and Ren Zhongxiang, ''Contend Earnestly for the Faith'' (Shanghai Christian Education Committee: December 1983), 9.</ref>

Following the publication of the first edition of Tang and Ren's book, a nationwide campaign to suppress "the Shouters sect" and to attack the teaching of Witness Lee was initiated. TSPM seminars were held throughout the country to denounce Witness Lee and the "Shouters sect."<ref>"The Two National Christian Organizations Meet to Discuss ‘Firmly Resist the Heretical Opinions of Li Changshou’," ''Tian Feng'' 1983:4.</ref> The July and September issues of ''Tian Feng'' published several articles echoing Tang and Ren's accusations.

The Dongyang/Yiwu incidents had occurred against a backdrop of widespread civil unrest in the PRC. Crime had become a serious problem, something of a residue of the Cultural Revolution.<ref>The October and November 1983 issues of Zheng Ming contain several articles describing the Anti-Crime Campaign; its association with the persecution of Christians is discussed in "The Ins and Outs of the Persecution of the Church," ''China Watch'' 60, May/June 1984.</ref> The economic reforms implemented by Deng Xiaoping reduced duplication of workers, resulting in a substantial number of workers being displaced.<ref>Richard Baum, "The Fall and Rise of China, Lecture 38: The Fault Lines of Reform, 1984–1987" (Chantilly, VA: The Teaching Company, 2010).</ref> When an Anti-Crime Campaign began in August 1983, the wave of persecutions that had already begun after the Dongyang/Yiwu incidents was quickly subsumed under it. Government entities at various levels issued proclamations outlawing "the Shouters sect" as a criminal cult.<ref>Xiangshan County People's Government in Zhejiang Province, "Notice on the Suppression of the Reactionary ‘Shouters’ Organization," August 15, 1983; Guangzhou Municipal People's Government, "Notice Concerning Arresting the Counter-revolutionary Group ‘The Shouters’," December 1, 1983.</ref> Leaders of the local churches using publications of Witness Lee were targeted for arrest,<ref>Overseas Missionary Fellowship, ''Pray for China Fellowship'', December 1983.</ref><ref>''China Prayer Letter'' 39, December 1983.</ref> but many unregistered house church leaders were also incarcerated.<ref>''China Prayer Letter'' 38, November 1983.</ref> Several sources have noted that "the Shouters sect" was applied broadly to any Christian group which refused to join TSPM.<ref>Chinese Church Research Centre (CCRC), ''China Prayer Letter'' 48, September 1984.</ref><ref>David H. Adeney, ''China: The Church's Long March'' (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1985), 159.</ref><ref>Tony Lambert, ''China's Christian Millions'' (London: Monarch Books, 2000), 81.</ref><ref>Human Rights Watch, ''China: State Control of Religion'' (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1997), 31.</ref> Jonathan Chao of the CCRC speculated that Tang and Ren's book "may be TSPM's way of isolating Li's group from other Christians, and it will probably be effective since evangelical house church leaders in China will not support Li against the TSPM."<ref>Jonathan Chao, ''China News and Church Report'' 8, June 10, 1983.</ref>

After news of the persecution against "the Shouters" reached the United States, members of the U. S. Congress took note. On November 17, 1983, [[U. S. House of Representatives]] members [[Don Sundquist]], [[Mark D. Siljander]], [[Christopher H. Smith]], and [[Thomas J. Tauke]] wrote to [[Zhang Wenjin]], the PRC ambassador to the U.S. expressing concern for two Christians scheduled to be executed the following month and asking for information on the imprisonment of "Shouters." On November 23 [[Mark Hatfield|Senator Mark Hatfield]] also wrote to Zhang, echoing the concerns in the Representatives’ letter. On December 7 Zhang responded that the Chinese government was engaged in a crackdown on crime in order to maintain social stability and that the arrests were not because of religious beliefs but because of criminal activities. In May 1984, concurrent resolutions were introduced in both houses of the U. S. Congress expressing America's continuing concern for religious freedom and strongly urging the PRC to release several imprisoned Roman Catholic priests and Protestant pastors and lay workers.<ref>Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 116 and House Concurrent Resolution No. 302, 98th Congress, introduced on May 9, 1984.</ref>