Kung Pin-Mei (Gong Pinmei)

Kung Pin-Mei was the first Chinese Roman Catholic bishop of the Shanghai, Suzhou, and Nanjing dioceses. He spent 30 years in Chinese prisons for defying attempts by the CCP to exert state control over Roman Catholics. On September 8, 1955, Kung and over 30 other priests, along with over 300 Catholics in Shanghai, were arrested. In March 1960, Kung was sentenced to life in prison and deprivation of political rights for life on charges of being the leader of the “Kung Pin-Mei counterrevolutionary clique.” In July 1985, he was released on probation but kept under house arrest and under the watch of the “Patriotic Catholic Church.” In 1988, under pressure from the international community, the regime finally agreed to give him full freedom. Kung left China for the U.S. in 1988 for medical treatment and lived there until his death in 2000.

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