Christianity Today

Activist-pastor Bob Fu once called himself "God's double agent" because he taught English during the day at a Chinese communist school and conducted home Bible studies at night.

But now Fu is based in Midland, Texas, where he heads ChinaAid, which provides legal assistance and support to pastors, political dissidents, and couples resisting China's one-child policy. This new focus brings Chinese and American Christians closer together in common cause. His advocacy against China's brutal one-child policy is proving to be highly effective in drawing believers from both nations into the fight for the unborn as well as for greater religious freedom.

In May and early June, Fu played an influential role in three events that drew global attention to the one-child policy and forced abortion:

• Dissident blind lawyer Chen Guangcheng, whose 2005 research uncovered 130,000 forced abortions in one province in China, fled house arrest in a dramatic nighttime escape to the American Embassy in Beijing. With assistance from Fu and many others, Chen traveled to New York on a student visa.

• Feng Jianmei, a woman from Shaanxi Province, was pregnant without official permission. Authorities arrested her and forced her to undergo a late-term abortion. A photo of her and her dead baby went viral on the Internet. Many pro-life websites, including All Girls Allowed and ChinaAid, drew global attention to the illegal practice of forced late-term abortion.

• Cao Ruyi and her husband Li Fu were expecting a child without official permission. Officials arrested Cao and threatened abortion. The couple contacted ChinaAid, which drew global attention to the couple's plight. This, in part, motivated family-planning officials to back down.

In each instance, Fu located key pressure points and used a global network of resources to help bring about change. This spring, Christianity Today deputy managing editor Timothy C. Morgan interviewed Fu several times for his perspective on change inside China and its growing Christian community.

Who inside China is taking up the fight against forced abortion, forced sterilization, and the one-child policy now that lawyer-activist Chen Guangcheng is in New York?

There are really thousands of Chens in China. House churches, individual Christians, and human-rights lawyers are taking up the cause to defend life. We receive lots of cries for help. Some are suffering and are more miserable than Chen was.

The Chinese government makes the one child per family a basic national policy. In the minds of even the Christians, one child per family has been there for so long and it was executed so strictly that nobody thought much about it. Government propaganda made people really believe that there are too many people in China.

Even with the strict enforcement and violence, people rarely complained or had any chance to complain much about the brutality of this policy.

But in recent years, there is more awareness within the church and a consensus for protection of unborn babies.

There's been speculation on how pro-life Chen really is. Would he favor the overturn of Roe v. Wade? Will he take a clearly and openly pro-life stance in the United States?

It's too early to say. Congressman Chris Smith had a meeting with Chen and I was there.

Smith shared about one of his congressional hearings where a lady from Chen's hometown area testified how a terrible poison was used to kill her baby. Chen was visibly sad and shaking. He's a man who cherishes the dignity of life.

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