Story number 2 for 18 Feb 2002

(China)–Next, on the eve of President Bush’s State visit to China, a group of Christian organizations is asking him to raise the issue of persecution. Voice of the Martyrs, Open Doors and The Committee for Investigation on Persecution of Religion in China today publicly presented government documents proving an officially sanctioned campaign against believers. VOM’s Todd Nettleton says the tricky part will be confronting China and demanding change. “That will be an area where our president, and other leaders who are meeting there, need to have a lot of wisdom-to provide a way to save face, but at the same time, provide a clear impetus for the Chinese government to improve the treatment of people of faith there.” Nettleton asks people to pray. “We need to pray not only for the president as he is going, and not only that there will be changes in the government, but we need to pray on a daily basis for the believers there as they go through things that many of us will never face.”