Pastor Bob Fu Receives Threats, Local and Federal Police Protection
Editor’s Note: Later today, Charisma News will run an interview with Pastor Bob Fu discussing the current situation and the why behind the public threats and protests. Watch for it here on cn.mycharisma.com.
When Pastor Xiqiu “Bob” Fu and his family wake up this morning, they won’t be in their home. They are now under local and federal police protection.
As Fu prepared to step onto the stage to pray for his homeland at “The Return” Sept. 26 at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., he received a call from his wife. She told him members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) were outside their Texas home “harassing me and our children.”
Fu prayed anyway—in front of thousands of people. He asked God to transform China into a country of “missions.” He asked God to make members of the CCP repent.
As he spoke, protesters with signs intimidated his family. And in the days since, charter buses have brought these protesters back every morning. They spend the nights in a hotel and have vans onsite, using professionally produced supplies and signs. .
Day after day, they’re there—accusing Fu of being a communist and a spy for the CCP.
“When you see how this is happening, you have to take a good hard look at what’s really going on,” said Mayor Patrick Payton of Midland, Texas, who said he drives by the house daily. He is working with officials and has taken a stand against what he deems “communist agitators” and a “diversionary tactic.”
Some of the protesters have been arrested. They’re not local, and they’ve been hired and shipped to Midland to do a job, Payton said. He added, “They’re really victims themselves.”
The protesters are mentioned in video threats made by Guo Wengui, also known as Miles Kwok, against Fu. Guo is reportedly a self-exiled Chinese billionaire who lives in the United States. In a story in Mansion Global, Guo is said to often use his 15-room, New York City residence to “livestream about the political power struggle, corruption and other so-called top secrets in China.”
Guo has made threats against Fu in two different YouTube videos.
The first video was posted Sept. 27, the day after “The Return.” In it, Kwok is wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap. The video includes this statement: “Bob Fu, stop bluffing! What can you do with the two dozen people you called last time? You are nothing to us. We will send at least 100 to 200 comrades to your house tomorrow. We will show how much power you have in the U.S.”
He goes on: “Tomorrow, police will apply for an arrest warrant to get you. You are in big trouble, Xianmin Xiong (a Mandarin name for Fu).”
Guo opens the second video by smoking a cigar. As he speaks, he shakes his finger at the camera, threatening Fu and even Payton in an escalated tone. This video was posted Oct. 8, after some protesters had been arrested.
He said: “First, none of our comrades violated any law. Second, the police were exerting excessive force. Third, we will thoroughly investigate Bob Fu. Fourth, the mayor who claimed our comrades are ‘terrorists’ is a (obscenity). We will make him pay a price.”
When asked if he was under protection, Payton said, “I cannot say.”
Why Bob Fu?
Fu is the president and founder of ChinaAid, an organization based in Midland, Texas. The organization provides support for communities and people still living in China, many of them persecuted Christians.
Born and raised in mainland China, Fu was a student leader during the Tiananmen Square demonstrations for freedom and democracy in 1989.
Fu graduated from the School of International Relations at the People’s University in Beijing and taught English to Communist Party officials. He was a house church leader until he and his wife, Heidi, were imprisoned for two months for “illegal evangelism” in 1996.
The couple fled to the United States as religious refugees in 1997. They founded ChinaAid in 2002 to bring international attention to China’s gross human rights violations and to promote religious freedom and rule of law in China. {eoa}
