Interviews with Xiqiu "Bob" Fu

I was always yearning to really ask people, or to change people, change society, to treat people equally and with respect. And in 1989, I was in the third year in college when the student movement started in Tiananmen Square. And I became a leader of that student movement from my university. I led our students, went to Tiananmen Square, and occupied part of the square, holding demonstrations and protests.

But when the so-called People’s Government started ordering its People’s Liberation Army shooting its own people, when the real police start shooting, when the tanks were ordered to cross, many of the innocent citizens, including students all over, student leaders’ dreams were broken. And I was deeply despaired and disappointed. And thinking, how can I really make my dream come true?

I was thinking, why those people who were so loyal to me during the student movement suddenly became the betrayers of their ideals by even telling lies to show their loyalty to the Communist Party at that time? It was during that time I came to Christian faith; I accepted Christ as my savior in the Lord. Because I just lost hope on myself and on the political system, on the Party, in general, even on the human being, how much we could do.

And so by reading a book, it is a biography of a Chinese pastor who was a drug addict and turned to become a Christian, and then he established hundreds of thousands drug prevention centers motivated by his Christian faith, and helped thousands of thousands of Chinese not only get rid of their drug addiction, but also have a new life. So I was deeply, deeply touched and became a follower of Christ. That’s how I start being involved in the Chinese independent house church movement.

Bob Fu was a leader in the student democracy movement at Tiananmen Square in 1989. He later converted to Christianity and became a house church pastor and a founder, along with his wife Heidi, of a Bible school. In 1996, he was arrested and jailed for running a secret bible school. After his release, he and his wife escaped to Hong Kong. They were admitted to the United States as refugees a few days before the handover of Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China in 1997.

Fu founded the China Aid Association (CAA) in 2002. CAA monitors and reports on religious freedom in China, particularly focusing on the fate of believers who belong to banned or unofficial house churches, which encompass 60 to 80 million followers. CAA issues frequent news releases on cases of religious persecution involving Protestant house church congregations and assists victims to assert their right to freedom of conscience and freedom of religious practice in China.

CAA also provides a forum for discussion and information exchange among experts on religion, law, and human rights in China through its bilingual journal, the China Law & Religion Monitor, and a bilingual website. Its headquarters are in Midland, Texas, where Fu now lives and works.