CHINA: Freedom of religion or belief: Special bimonthl newsletter (16-30.06.2022)
General
20.06.2022 – Talent agents new regulations: No agents for those active in illegal religion
The new rules come into force on June 30 and deprive of agents’ services performers who criticize the CCP, are suspected of ‘separatism,” or follow non-authorized religions.
Protestants
30.06.2022 – Early Rain service raided, elder summoned for questioning
Police raided Early Rain Covenant Church’s in person worship over the weekend. Multiple police vehicles parked near the meeting place, so congregants split up to avoid conflict with authorities.
Around 8:50 AM, Deyang police found Elder Li Yingqiang’s family near the worship venue in Chengdu and took them back to Deyang. Around 11:30 AM, Elder Li Yingqiang returned home safely after an interrogation at Longquanshan Police Station near his home. Early Rain Covenant Church’s Sunday service went smoothly.
29.06.2022 – Christian detained after trying to join Early Rain
Early Rain Covenant Church disclosed that Long Kehai, a Christian, moved from Gansu province to Chengdu to become a member of Early Rain Covenant Church. National security officers transported him back home before he could finish moving. Nobody could contact Long for three days, until a Christian of Early Rain called a national security officer. They confirmed that Long Kehai has been administratively detained.
27.06.2022 – Pastor Geng Zejun committed to trial
The preacher of the Church of the Rock in Shizuishan, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, remains in jail and may be sentenced in July.
Readers of Bitter Winter may remember the story of Pastor Geng Zejun, from the remote Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, whose name comes from the Hui Muslims, which represent roughly 33% of the region’s population.
17.06.2022 – Leader of Chinese bible church detained and fined for hosting gathering
On June 2, Yueyang public security officers gave Huang Lei, the leader of “Yueyang Lou District Rock Bible House Church,” a 10-day detention and a fine of 500 yuan (~$74) because Huang hosted a gathering of over 180 Christians.
ChinaAid sources received a copy of his penalty notice. The “Public Security Administrative Penalty Decision” is as follows:
Catholics
17.06.2022 – Jacob Pius: Chinese “Traditionalist Catholic” Remains in Jail
A young Catholic with a sense of humor proposed to establish a traditional Catholic monarchy in a part of China. The CCP was not amused. He was arrested in January 2021 and is still in prison.
Uyghurs
21.06.2022 – Hawagul’s Tears: What they tell a Uyghur
The iconic image of a crying female detainee in a Xinjiang camp has moved the world. For the Uyghurs, her tears have a deeper meaning.
Falun Gong
30.06.2022 – Doctor Strange Movie Banned in China for “Promoting Falun Gong”
Officially, a few-second-long scene where a kiosk selling “The Epoch Times” is visible is the reason for the ban. Unofficially, there is more.
For the series “it may happen only in China,” fans who hoped that the new movie “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” featuring the Marvel Comics hero Dr. Stephen Strange, would be available to Chinese audiences have been sorely disappointed. The film will not be released in China.
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28.06.2022 – Two women serving time for practicing Falun Gong denied family visits
Eighteen months after two Leshan City, Sichuan Province residents were transferred to a local prison to serve time for practicing Falun Gong, their families still haven’t been allowed to visit or call them even once. The two families are now very worried about their loved ones’ situation.
25.06.2022 – 68-year-old woman beaten daily and force-fed unknown drug in prison
A 68-year-old woman serving an eight-year term for practicing Falun Gong is being subjected to daily beatings by the inmates. The prison guards have also knocked out her teeth while forcibly administering unknown drugs she refused to take.
Ms. Wang Ruiling, of Zunhua City, Hebei Province, was taken to the Shijiazhuang Women’s Prison on April 16, 2021. She was held at the 13th ward. According to an insider, she is subjected to daily beatings, including in the morning, noon, and evening. Blood stains are often seen in her cell. As she refused to take the unknown drugs the guards gave her, they knocked out her teeth and force-fed her the drug.
21.06.2022 – Falun Gong practitioners systematically tortured in Kangjiashan Prison in China’s Shenyang City
The Kangjiashan Prison in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, formed by merging the former Kangjiashan and Yinjia Forced Labor Camps, is a municipal prison under the jurisdiction of Shenyang Municipal Bureau of Justice. It served as a provincial pilot prison in 2012 for the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, and its crimes were reported many times on Minghui.org.
From 2014 to 2018, Kangjiashan Prison ranked first in three aspects among prisons in Liaoning Province, namely: no mobile phones for inmates; no accidents in 20 years; and highest transformation rate of Falun Gong practitioners.
19.06.2022 – Shandong teacher repeatedly harassed for upholding her faith
A vocational school teacher in Jinan City, Shandong Province has been repeatedly harassed since 2019 for her faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been targeted by the Chinese Communist Party since 1999. When Ms. Chang Xinhong, 56, refused to renounce her faith, the police constantly came to her home or called her. They threatened to harass her every year and said that her child would also be barred from working for the government (government jobs are considered very stable jobs, which people compete for).