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Sun May 13, 2012, 10:01 AM May 2012

Echoing Out of Texas, Chinese Voice of Dissent for Religious Freedom

By ANDREW JACOBS
Published: May 12, 2012

MIDLAND, Tex. — When the Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng stole the show at an emergency Congressional hearing this month by calling into the chamber during a live television broadcast, few people noticed who was holding the cellphone.

But those within the tightknit community of Chinese dissidents in the United States, and their supporters, immediately recognized the man, who had arranged for Mr. Chen’s voice to be carried to Washington directly from his Beijing hospital bed: Bob Fu, a Chinese-born pastor who operates out of a squat, whitewashed house opposite a Family Dollar store here in Midland.

- snip -

The attention has also highlighted the increasingly defiant role that Chinese Christian lawyers, pastors and church members are playing in the struggle for human rights, including sometimes smuggling dissidents out of China when the heat on them becomes too intense.

But some critics say that Mr. Fu’s high-profile role as an advocate for religious freedom is a double-edged sword. It has raised awareness of human rights abuses. But his close association with Republicans and evangelical Christians, the critics say, risks stoking China’s fears that foreign forces are plotting to subvert the ruling Communist Party.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/us/bob-fu-echoing-out-of-texas-is-a-chinese-voice-of-dissent.html

His website.

http://www.chinaaid.org/

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