CHINA: Freedom of religion or belief: FORB Bimonthly (16-31.05.2022)

General
27.05.2022 – Investigation of students’ religious beliefs in Chinese colleges and universities with new survey
Survey forms recently circulated about the religious beliefs of Chinese college and graduate students and their involvement or resort to violence, threats, and other similar methods. This form requires the applicant to indicate his ethnicity, name of religion, and the name of crime organizations they’re involved in.
Continue reading…
Protestants
27.05.2022 – Early Rain couple overcame harassment from authorities and got married
Zhang Qiang and Xiao Yue, congregants of Early Rain Covenant Church, finally got married even after several sabotage attempts from local authorities.
The couple had to pick another venue for their wedding after Chengdu Municipal police canceled their wedding twice. They moved their wedding to May 24, 7:30 PM, but the owner of the wedding venue had to cancel their reservation because of pressure from the police.
Continue reading…
25.05.2022 – Christian couple homeless after seven-year sentence
Mr. Chang Yuchun and Mrs. Li Chenhui are a Christian couple from Xi’an, Shaanxi Province. On November 16, 2021, Shaanxi Province Xi’an Municipal Intermediate Court gave each of them a seven-year sentence and a fine of ¥250,000(~$37,239) for printing Christian books. Reportedly, the court forcibly auctioned their car and house to pay for the fine. Their four children now live with Mrs. Li’s parents. Their family remains in financial peril.
Continue reading…
23.05 2022 – Case study: small group leaders’ requirements under Church lockdown

 During the epidemic, grassroots churches across the country have turned to small group meetings in accordance with the government’s prevention and control measures, allowing many believers to get close to God on online platforms. However, when Christians can’t worship and communicate with other believers in face-to-face services, smaller group gatherings have become normalized as part of the Christian lifestyle.

Continue reading…

18.05.2022 – Christian arrested for criticizing Shanghai’s zero-COVID policy

On April 25, 2022, Yan Zhihong, a young Christian from Shenzhen, was arrested by the local police for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” a crime punished by article 293 of the Chinese Criminal Code with a jail penalty up to five years. In fact, article 293 is a catch-all statute used to arrest and sentence dissidents of all kinds.

Continue reading…

18.05.2022 – Censorship surged for online religious forums as CCP shuts down 21-year-old Christian website

The Chinese Communist Party continues to crack down on Christian websites. An online website that served Chinese Christians for 21 years has now completely disappeared. Its domain name servers in mainland China have been blocked, the website has officially announced its closure, and users no longer have access to the site.

Continue reading…

16.05.2022 – Christian summoned to police station on suspicion of organizing an evil cult

May 12 was the 14th anniversary of the Wenchuan earthquake. When several Christian families’ teenage children were studying in a Christian’s house at around 10 am, suddenly police officers visited them and asked the teenagers to go home. Christian Xiao Luobiao was taken to the local police station.

Continue reading…

Buddhists

27.05.2022 – Drago County: Monks forced to take responsability for demolitions

A Tibetan source in exile has told Tibet Watch that last month, Chinese authorities forced Tibetan monks to sign a letter of confession claiming that it was them who destroyed the giant Buddha statue in December last year in Drago County, eastern Tibet.

Continue reading…

24.05.2022 – Tenzin Delek Rinpoche: A Strange Relation with Zhou Yongkang

In January this year, Bitter Winter reported about the persecution of the relatives of Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, the charismatic Tibetan monk from Sichuan who was accused of “terrorism” and sentenced to death in 2002. After an international mobilization, his death protest was commuted into life imprisonment. He died on July 12, 2015, in Chengdu Chuandong Prison. Protests erupted among Tibetans, who did not believe the official explanation of “heart failure,” and claimed the monk had been killed.

Continue reading…

19.05.2022 – Tibet: No religion allowed in social media short videos and webcasts

President Xi Jinping is obsessed with social media spiraling out of control, as censors are not quick enough when they cancel “dangerous” posts. Everywhere within the borders of the People’s Republic of China new forms of control are created and implemented.

Continue reading…

18.05.2022 – Having spent 15 years in prison, Sichuan Woman secretly sentenced to another 8 years

A Leshan City, Sichuan Province resident was secretly sentenced to eight years for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Ms. Zhu Mingrong, 48, was arrested on October 24, 2021 after being reported by a student’s parents for talking to the student about Falun Gong.

Continue reading…

17.05.2022 – 27th Anniversary Of Enforced Disappearance Of Tibetan Spiritual Leader 11th Panchen Lama

One of the most highly revered Tibetan spiritual leaders, the 11th Panchen Lama Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, remains missing since his abduction by the Chinese authorities at the age of six on 17 May 1995.

Gedhun Choekyi Nyima was recognised on 14 May 1995 by His Holiness the Dalai Lama during a ceremony in Dharamsala, India. His Holiness had said: “Today is the auspicious day when the Buddha first gave the Kalachakra teaching. The Kalachakra teachings have a special connection with the Panchen Lamas.

Continue reading…

Falun Gong

27.05.2022 – Mother and daughter secretly sentenced to prison for practicing Falun Gong

Ten months after a mother and daughter in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province went missing, their family finally confirmed that the two women are held at the Shenyang City No.1 Detention Center and that both of them have been sentenced to three years and two months for practicing Falun Gong.

Continue reading…

26.05.2022 – Yu Baiqing, Falun Gong practitioner, sentenced to 8 years in Qingdao

You may know Qingdao, in Shandong province, for its world-famous beer, but it has also been an epicenter of the 2021 repression against Falun Gong. On June 2, 2021, the police of Jiaozhou, a county-level city within Qingdao, dispatched hundreds of agents to simultaneously crack down on Falun Gong practitioners and arrest them in their homes.

Continue reading…

 

Other religions

25.05.2022 – Guangxi: Religious repression increases among Zhuang Minority

In November 2021, Bitter Winter reported on a crackdown targeting religious infiltration from Vietnam in Ningming county, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Ningming county is placed under the jurisdiction of the prefecture-level city of Chongzuo. To the north of Ningming county lies Napo County, which has the longest land border with Vietnam. To the south is the coastal prefecture-level city of Fangchenggang.

Continue reading…

Further reading about FORB in China on HRWF website