STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT, FEB 13 (ZENIT).- The Cardinal Kung Foundation today reported that the Chinese government has arrested another underground Bishop, faithful to the Holy Father. On February 10, Archbishop John Yang Shudao of Fuzhou was arrested at about midnight by some 150 policemen. Archbishop Yang is eighty years old, at least thirty years of which have been spent in prisons. His first arrest (which brought a sentence of life imprisonment) was in 1955, on the charge of treason for refusing to denounce the Pope as supreme authority of the Catholic Church and refusing to cooperate in the formation of the Catholic Patriotic Association. Since his release in 1981, he has been re-arrested several times.

    Joseph Kung, President of the Cardinal Kung Foundation, said, "Contrary to the claims by the Chinese totalitarian government that there is religious freedom in China, there are at least eight Roman Catholic underground bishops, scores of priests and lay persons now in jails. In addition, many underground Catholic bishops and priests are also under house arrest or under severe surveillance. For every person we reported as arrested, many of others arrested are unreported because we do not have the information."

    Kung continued by appealing to the world that China not be permitted to join the World Trade Organization. He holds that "any invitation or encouragement to China's entry into the WTO would be immoral and amounts to condoning the five decades of religious persecutions in China." ZE00021324