A female CAG member, whose application was originally rejected, got asylum in January after her name appeared in the infamous Da Ai Wang list published in China.
February 11, 2025
“The Devil makes pots but not lids” is an idiomatic Italian expression. It means that often the plans of the evildoers, no matter how carefully prepared, backfire. Sometimes, it even happens to the all-powerful Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
“Bitter Winter” was the first media outlet to reveal the scandal of the lists of Chinese asylum seekers in Italy members of the persecuted Church of Almighty God (CAG) published with names, surnames, and all details in China on a web site called Da Ai Wang. The site is likely connected with China’s intelligence services. These lists are confidential and how Da Ai Wang obtained them is a mystery, probably involving Italian accomplices and several crimes punishable as such in Italy. Other media covered the scandal. Undaunted, Da Ai Wang went on to publish lists of CAG asylum seekers in the United States, South Korea, and other countries.
Like the proverbial Italian devil who made the pot but forgot the lid, the CCP intelligence did not consider a possible consequence of the Da Ai Wang operation, whose aim was to scare and terrorize the CAG refugees abroad. The publication of the names by Da Ai Wang provided definitive and unimpeachable evidence that the refugee was known as a member of the CAG to the Chinese authorities. As scholars and “Bitter Winter” have demonstrated, once you are known as a member of the CAG, if you return or are deported to China you face arrest and torture. This is not a private opinion of scholars only. The United Nations Committee Against Torture in a landmark decision rendered on July 27, 2021, against Switzerland ruled that if persons known to be members of CAG are deported to China from the countries where they have sought asylum they are “at risk of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”
As a consequence, having their names and details published in Da Ai Wang is certainly annoying for CAG refugees, who know that the long arm of the CCP may reach them abroad with various forms of harassment and that their relatives in China will also suffer reprisals. On the other hand, as evidence that they are known as CAG members by the Chinese authorities, being featured in Da Ai Wang should offer to them a sure way to be granted asylum, if only the asylum administrative authorities and courts in democratic countries know how to do their homework.
It is also irrelevant whether the refugee became a CAG member in China or converted “sur place” abroad. Once s/he is known as a CAG member, punishment if s/he returns to China is certain. Of course, this is even more obvious if, in addition of having had their names published in Da Ai Wang, refugees have appeared in public events or videos of the CAG abroad, which Chinese authorities are known to regularly monitor.
On January 13, 2025, the Section of Perugia of the Italian Territorial Commission for Recognizing the Status of Refugee, rendered a decision in the case of L.J., a CAG member from Henan. The decision is doubly interesting, because in first degree asylum was denied to L.J. up to the Italian Supreme Court of Cassation, as Italian judges were not persuaded that she had been a CAG member in China, although she may have converted to CAG after she arrived in Italy. As a consequence, L.J. filed a request for asylum for the second time after the first had been rejected, having a Supreme Court of Cassation decision against her, thus being in a very difficult legal situation.
However, L.J. had new cards to play, one of them crucial. She was able to prove that she had participated in CAG events in Italy, had been photographed and videotaped, and her image had appeared on social media. Even more importantly, her name had been published in the Da Ai Wang list. The commission relayed on screenshots from Da Ai Wang and articles from “Bitter Winter” and other media commenting on the Da Ai Wang scandal. COI (country of origin information) confirming that a CAG member known as such returning to China (irrespective of of whether s/he converted to the CAG in China or abroad) is normally put in jail or worse were also quoted. L.J. was thus granted asylum in Italy.
The CCP may go on with its Da Ai Wang operation—provided that it continues to find illegal channels to obtain the names of CAG asylum seekers in democratic countries—but should now know that by doing this, the harassment of refugees and their families will find a counterpart in making it easier for them to obtain asylum. The devil makes pots but not lids.
Source: bitterwinter.org
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