Religious persecution and issues – Bimonthly digest October 01-15
General
13.10.2023 – Chinese human rights lawyer held in prolonged solitary confinement
ChinaAid – According to the latest reports, human rights lawyer Qin Yongpei is still being held in prolonged solitary confinement. He insists on his innocence and advocates for the abolition of two charges commonly used to suppress other Chinese activists.
Qin Yongpei’s defense lawyer recently went to his client. During the meeting, he learned that guards continue to hold Qin in prolonged solitary confinement. The Chinese government’s sentenced him to five years on charges of inciting subversion of state power adds to the Chinese Communist authorities’ long history of crime. He believes that both the incitement and subversion charges should be abolished.
Buddhists
12.10.2023 – Mongolia’s Jebtsundamba Khutuktu Reincarnation: How the Dalai Lama Holds Beijing in Check
Bitter Winter – The CCP did not want the Dalai Lama to endorse the new leader of Mongolian Buddhists. He blessed one of two identical twins. Only, the Chinese don’t know which one.
For the believers, reincarnation is determined by superior powers, but it is not disrespectful to note that how a reincarnated Tibetan lama is educated and protected also derives from his mentors’ political skills. Nowhere are they appearing more clearly than on how the Dalai Lama is playing the very delicate game around the 10th Jebtsundamba Khutuktu, the head of the Gelug lineage of Tibetan Buddhism in Mongolia, and the de facto leader of Mongolian Buddhists.
09.10.2023 – China’s repressive new law on religious activity venues: A Tibetan view
Bitter Winter – Order No. 19 that came into force on September 1 negatively affects all Chinese territory and all religions. But it is even worse for Tibet and other occupied regions.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership has announced that “Order No.19,” “Administrative Measures for Religious Activity Venues,” has started being implemented from September 1, 2023. This is another CCP’s heinous and lethal move to subjugate and gain control over the religious institutions in China and the China-occupied regions of Tibet, East Turkestan (Ch. Xinjiang), and Southern Mongolia (Ch. Inner Mongolia). It is perhaps the last deadly corrosive sword used to annihilate and smear the fundamental principles of all religions with Communist ideology.
Falun Gong
13.10.2023 – Reported in September 2023: 104 Falun Gong practitioners sentenced for their faith
Minghui – The month of September 2023 recorded 104 cases of Falun Gong practitioners sentenced to prison for upholding their faith.
Among the 104 cases, 8 took place between 2019 and 2022, 14 in the first half of 2023, 9 in July 2023, 15 in August 2023, 36 in September 2023, and another 11 cases with unknown months in 2023, as well as 11 cases with unknown months and years. The delay in reporting was caused by the strict information censorship under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which aims to keep the persecution underground to avoid international scrutiny.
The sentenced practitioners were from 18 provinces, centrally controlled municipalities, and autonomous regions in China. Jilin had the most cases, 21, followed by Liaoning (14) and Hebei (10). The remaining 15 regions had between 1 and 9 cases.
10.10.2023 – Falun Gong practitioner barred from traveling abroad to seek medical treatment for paralyzed son
Minghui – Ms. Li Aiping (also known as Li Xiaohong),of Jingshan City, Hubei Province, applied for a passport in mid-May 2023, but her local police department refused to process her application. She was later told that she was on the blacklist of Falun Gong practitioners barred from traveling abroad. She was thus unable to seek better medical treatment overseas for her 25-year-old son, who became disabled from bone tuberculosis (a condition in which the tuberculosis spread beyond the lungs and affects the joints)
05.10.2023 – Falun Gong practitioners from Yi ethnic minority heavily persecuted
Bitter Winter – A 75-year old woman, Miao Xiuqiong, was sentenced in two decisions of 2016 and 2021 to a total of eight and a half years in jail.
In 2021, “Bitter Winter” reported that a campaign of indoctrination against groups banned as xie jiao and “illegal religion” was being conducted among villagers of the Yi ethnic minority in in Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture, in the southeastern part of Yunnan province, which borders Vietnam.
04.10.2023 – NGOs at the UN against organ harvesting, while Falun Gong asks Italy to save lives
Bitter Winter – In the year marking the 75th anniversary of the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, two NGOs with ECOSOC consultative status at the UN, the Coordination des Associations et des Particuliers pour la Liberté de Conscience (CAP-LC), based in Paris, France, and the Romanian Independent Society of Human Rights (RISHR), based in Bucharest, Romania, submitted a joint statement to denounce organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) at the 54th session of the UN Human Rights Council (11 September–13 October).
Muslims
06.10.2023 – CCP promotes Ma Minglong’s thought as a tool to “sinicize” Islam
Bitter Winter – The 17th-century Muslim scholar is used to reduce Islam to a moral philosophy rather than a religion.
The CCP continues to promote the “Sinicization” of Islam among Hui Muslims by looking for historical precedents of “Confucianized” readings of the Holy Quran. In a previous article, we mentioned the use of the 17th-century Jinling School in an effort to create an Islam that, having been “de-Islamized,” would be reduced to a mere propaganda tool of the Communist Party.
Protestants
11.10.2023 – Chinese communist officials intensify crackdown on Wang Quanzhang’s family
Bitter Winter – The Chinese government’s crackdown on human rights lawyers continues. Now, the Communist Party shifts its suppression toward their children by hindering educational prospects. The education rights of Wang Quanzhang’s son were stripped away, and he is now unable to attend school.
Lawyer Wang Quanzhang lost his freedom during a nationwide crackdown operation in July 2015. Authorities revoked his legal license and arbitrarily detained him. Since his release, he has been forced to move more than 10 times in Beijing. During the new school year in China, his child Quan Quan went to two different schools for a short period. After passing an interview, a written test, and paying the fees, the second school rejected him the same.
10.10.2023 – Pastor of banned Xiamen’s Xunsiding Church and Wife should pay a fine of $55,000
Bitter Winter – The historical house church was liquidated in 2019 but its pastor Yang Xibo and his family continue to be harassed.
In 2019, “Bitter Winter” reported the liquidation of Xunsiding Church in Xiamen, Fujian. In another article, “Bitter Winter” told the story of this venerable house church, which continued a ministry that had operated in Fujian for more than one hundred years.
03.10.2023 – Christian school raided and shut down in Henan
Bitter Winter – Those running Yabo Academy in Jinshui district of Zhengzhou city were also hit by the maximum fine, 200,000 yuan (more than $27,000).
Documents supplied to human rights activists at the end of September confirmed that the successful Christian school Yabo Academy in the Jinshui district of Zhengzhou, Henan province, has been raided and ordered to cease operations.
Those running it have also been fined 200,000 yuan, or in excess of $27,000, an astronomical sum for the struggling independent Christian community.
02.10.2023 – UN experts demand the release of Lu Siwei
ChinaAid – Human rights advocates continue to battle for the release of Lu Siwei, a Chinese human rights lawyer imprisoned in Laos. Meanwhile, experts from the United Nations called on the Lao government to release Lu in a now public document.
In their statement, UN experts called on the Lao government not to release lawyer Lu into Chinese custody. “In such circumstances, should Mr. Lu Siwei be returned to China, his deportation could result in a violation of his right to be free from torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,” they wrote. “While awaiting a reply, we ask that prompt steps be taken to stop the imminent deportation of Mr. Lu Siwei and prevent any irreparable harm to his life and personal integrity.” The experts also firmly established they would continue to express their concerns publicly because they deserve the UN’s “undivided attention”.