CHINA: Freedom of religion or belief – Special bimonthly FoRB newsletter

Notwithstanding almost uniformly negative and often humorous reactions on social media, Professor Li Shen and his book “The Principles of Scientific Atheism” continue to be heavily promoted in China through a major campaign to divulge Marxist atheistic principles. As Bitter Winter mentioned in a previous article, this campaign will continue because it does not come from the private initiative of some propagandists of atheism but follows instructions coming directly from Xi Jinping and the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.

Xu Jincui, the wife of human rights activist Xing Wangli from Xinyang, Henan province, was forcibly placed under house arrest by local government officials. Authorities warned Xu Jincui not to contact human rights lawyer Jiang Tianyong, also a native of Xinyang.

ChinaAid sources report that Li Yu, a Christian human rights activist in Zaozhuang, Shandong province, was threatened by Zaozhuang national security officers and held under designated residential surveillance for over 10 days. Li Yu followed the Xuzhou chained woman case and called on the Chinese government to investigate the incident. While under surveillance, she could access her cell phone and contact friends. However, her friends could not get hold of her three days ago. It is possible that she has been illegally detained, and her cell phone was confiscated.

Two young members of the Mayflower Church sent letters to a fellow believer in mainland China, Joshua Wang.

Yesterday was Joshua Wang’s 15th birthday. Joshua is the son of Pastor Wang Yi of Early Rain Covenant Church who currently serves a nine-year sentence. Wang Yi’s family has been subject to 24-hour surveillance. Joshua previously attended a Christian school, but now authorities escort him to public school every day.

Li Yu, a Christian human rights activist, was taken away by Zaozhuang police for investigating the Xuzhou chained woman case. Li called on the government to hold a formal investigation, but she forcibly disappeared over 10 days ago.

Li Yu left a voice message to a friend of her before being disappeared, saying, “Police came by yesterday, asking Zhao Zhongxiang who is responsible for monitoring me to contact me.

The Church of Almighty God (CAG), a Chinese Christian new religious movement, is the most persecuted religious organization in China. From 2019, when a report covered the year 2018, the CAG has published yearly reports offering statistical details of the persecution. They show how, year after year, the implacable machine of the CCP repression made the persecution worse.

Human rights activists are denouncing on social media that a well-known Tibetan monk’s health is seriously deteriorating as a result of torture he is subjected to in Lhasa’s Qushui Prison.

Go Sherab Gyatso is a monk born on September 9, 1976, in Khashi village, Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, an autonomous prefecture in Sichuan province that has a majority of Tibetan inhabitants. It is also known as the world capital of self-immolation by Tibetans who set themselves on fire to protest CCP oppression.

Chinese authorities have banned major religious activities in monasteries in and near Tibet’s regional capital Lhasa during the Lunar New Year, citing COVID-19 concerns. But critics call the move a further encroachment by China on Tibetan religion and national culture.

Since September 2021, officials of Political and Legal Affairs Committee in Guangshun Town, Chongqing, began to harass Ms. Gao Xingfang almost daily and ordered the 78-year-old woman to renounce her faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

A Beijing resident was sentenced to 5.5 years and fined 11,000 yuan on February 21, 2022, for her faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

A 27-year-old man in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province was ordered to serve 5.5 years for telling people how Falun Gong cured his depression. Mr. Song Yucen has been subjected to strict management and denied family visitation after he was taken to the Dalian City Prison on August 15, 2021.

From November 2021, Zhejiang authorities are cracking down on temples of a Taoist syncretic sect that dates back to the 16th century, and goes as it is common in China under various names, including Huangtian Jiao and Huang Jijiao. Temples have been raided and closed, and devotees detained. The campaign of repression is still in progress. Media call the devotees simply “Taoist,” although theirs is an old syncretic order with Taoist, Buddhist, and Confucian elements.