CHINA: Special bimonthly FORB newsletter (01-15.04.2022)

General
13.04.2022 – Anti-Pornography rules: In China, religion can be pornography too
Last month, the Office of the National Working Group for Cracking Down on Pornography and Illegal Activities released a memorandum on its planned activities for 2022.
The Office has an interesting story. In 1989, the Office of the National Leading Group for Cleaning and Rectifying Books, Newspapers, and Periodicals, i.e., the office for Chinese censorship, was established. Already at that time, it was explained that there was a problem with clandestine pornography, and fighting it was a main task of the office.
05.04.2022 – Xie Jiao and unauthorized religion in China: Two reports note growing persecution
Bitter Winter was founded in 2018 to inform about violations of religious liberty in China, and when we are quoted in official or authoritative reports we have a feeling that our mission is accomplished. We are also grateful to those who read and quote us.
The annual report of the bipartisan and bicameral U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China, released on March 31, is a well-crafted and comprehensive summary of what it calls “the horrors the Chinese government and Communist Party perpetrate against the Chinese people.”
Protestants
13.04.2022 – ChinaAid greets concentration camp survivor to USA
Over the weekend, China Aid Association welcomed Obulbek Turdaqun and his family, Christians originally from Kyrgyzstan to the United States where they have been granted humanitarian parole status.
Turdaqun is a former detainee in the Chinese Communist Party’s concentration camp system in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. He was detained in 2018 and held for 10 months in a labor camp. Alongside 22 other prisoners, he experienced both psychological and physical torture including forced medical procedures.
06.04.2022 – Taiyuan Zion Reformed Church raided— seven Christians questioned
During Sunday service on April 3, local authorities raided Zion Reformed Church. Police took away seven Christians, including Yao Congya—Minister An Yankui’s wife, Guo Juan—Zhang Chenghao’s wife, Wang Yingjie, Wang Ying, and others in the name of the COVID-19 prevention.
They all were handcuffed and transported to the detention room. All seven Christians refused to sign the pledge, “No Longer Attend Zion Church”. Originally, police intended to give them 15-day administrative detentions and a fine of 500 yuan, but the administrative detention cannot be enforced due to the pandemic.
Buddhists
06.04.2022 – Tibetan self-immolations: An old man, a singer—and a woman is in jail for talking about the incidents
One of the saddest facets of the tragedy of Tibet is the self-immolation of monks and lay Buddhists who set themselves on fire to call the attention of the world to the persecution of Tibetans by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Self-immolations gather increasing attention in the West, but nobody has precise statistics about them. One of the reasons is the CCP’s strategy of censoring news. The CCP now claims information about self-immolations is part of “state secrets.” Divulging state secrets is a serious crime.
Falun Gong
15.04.2022 – After 19 years in prison, Hubei Man given three more years for his faith
Mr. Li Guangqing, a native of Yingcheng City, Hubei Province, was sentenced to 18 years for robbery in 1979 when he was 24 years old. He escaped three times and saw his term extended by 11 years. Though his fourth escape, which took place in 1989, was successful, he lived every day in fear and couldn’t go home to reunite with his family.
13.03.2022 – 69-year-old woman taken to brainwashing center for practicing Falun Gong
A 69-year-old Chongqing woman was doing Falun Gong exercises at home on the morning of March 9, 2022, when the police broke in and arrested her. After being held at the local police station for three days, she was taken to a local brainwashing center on March 15 and detained incommunicado.
08.04.2022 – Hunan Woman endured horrific torture during four-year term for practicing Falun Gong
While serving a four-year prison sentence for practicing Falun Gong, Ms. Xiao Yongkang was deprived of sleep, starved and subjected to constant beatings. Several inmates once poured urine over her head and wiped a used sanitary napkin across her mouth.
Others
15.04.2022 – Bigu: The CCP against Taoist grain-free diets and fasting
Some campaigns catch Chinese by surprise. In this month of April, we have seen CCP media, including the official Central Committee organ People’s Daily, publishing all of a sudden strong-worded attacks on bigu fasting. Some of these media have described bigu as “as dangerous as Falun Gong,” and this language normally announces police action.