Religious persecution and issues – Bimonthly Digest July 01-15
General
09.07.2024 – China, “strict governance of religion” imposed on christians
Bitter Winter – The “China Christian Implementation of Strict Governance of Religion Exchange Meeting” was held in Xi’an, Shaanxi from June 27 to 28, 2024, immediately following the high-level national seminar on Sinicization of religion of June 26.
Apart from testimonies of “best practices” from different provinces and regions, keynote speeches were given by officers of the United Front Work Department in charge of religious work and by leaders of the government-controlled Three Self Church. The latter included Pastor Xu Xiaohong, Chairman of the China Christian Three-Self Patriotic Movement Committee; Pastor Shan Weixiang, Vice Chairman of the same organizations’s Standing Committee; Pastor Lin Manhong, Vice President and General Secretary of the China Christian Council; Pastor Geng Weizhong, Vice Chairman of the Council’s Standing Committee; Gu Mengfei, Secretary General of the China Christian Three-Self Patriotic Movement Committee; Pastor Gao Feng, Chief Supervisor of the Supervisory Committee of the Two Christian Councils; and Gao’s deputy, Wu Jianrong.
01.07.2024 – Seminar clarifies “sinicizing” religion means preaching obedience to Xi Jinping
Bitter Winter – What was presented as a “historical” seminar on “Sinicization” of religion was held in Beijing on June 26. In addition to top-level leaders of the five authorized religions, the conference featured high-level representatives of the Organization Department of the CCP Central Committee, the Ministry of Education, the State Council, the United Front Work Departments, the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Central Academy of Socialism, the China Tibetology Research Center, and all provinces and autonomous regions.
01.07.2024 – China accused the U.S. of defaming religious freedom report
Prensa Latina – The Chinese Foreign Ministry today rejected the latest report on religious freedom prepared by the United States and accused Washington of deliberately defaming Chinese policies.
Spokeswoman Mao Ning described the document as unfounded and assured that Beijing legally protects the freedom of religious belief of all its citizens.
The U.S. report claims that the Chinese government monitors and represses Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, while calling these actions ‘genocide’.
Xie Jiao
12.07.2024 – Yet another Xie Jiao: Crackdown on an offshoot of “human universal science”
Bitter Winter – Many in China remember Human Universal Scienc, one of the Qigong movements that became successful and fashionable at the end of the 20th century, only to be severely repressed as the year 2000 approached.
Actually, Human Universal Science both became successful and was repressed before Falun Gong. Its founder was Zhang Weixiang, the director of the veterinary station in Fengtun Town, Chiping County, Shandong Province. Born in 1942, Zhang reported that in 1978 he started receiving messages from “Great Ancestors” and “alien astronauts” through automatic writing. In 1982, he founded Human Universal Science to spread the messages, who taught an esoteric theory of the energies animating the universe, new Qigong exercises, and remedies for a wide variety of illnesses and for guaranteeing longevity. At its peak, the movement had at least 100,000 devotees.
Buddhists
02.07.2024- China clamps down on social media ahead of Dalai Lama’s birthday
RFA- The Chinese government is intensifying already stringent social media restrictions on Tibetans to keep them from celebrating the July 6 birthday of the Dalai Lama, two Tibetan sources said.
Authorities already ban the possession of photos of the Tibetan Buddhist leader, who turns 89, and posting images of him or religious symbols on social media.
Muslims
03.07.2024 – China’s Pro-Government Muslims launch “three loves” campaign
Bitter Winter – What can be more important and beautiful than love in Islam? For Muslims, God is the Loving One and his divine attribute of love resonates in his creatures. Muslims were thus not surprised when on June 23, Yang Faming, the President of the government-controlled China Islamic Association, during a visit to Zhejiang province together with leaders of the United Front Work Department, announced that he would devote his main lecture, which he presented in Yiwu city, to love.
Falun Gong
15.07.2024 – After a prior 1.5-year jail term, Liaoning woman gets another four years for practicing Falun Gong
Minghui – A 44-year-year-old Fushun City, Liaoning Province resident was recently sentenced to four years and fined 16,000 yuan for her faith in Falun Gong.
Ms. Tian Lili’s trial stemmed from her arrest on the morning of January 26, 2024. She was changing into her work uniform at a local supermarket when a group of officers from the Xinfu District Police Department broke in. She fainted during an involuntary blood draw but was still taken to the Fushun City Detention Center (also known as the Nangou Detention Center).
11.07.2024 – 71-year-old woman arrested and roughed up by seven male police officers
Minghui – A 71-year-old woman in Xiangtan City, Hunan Province was arrested on May 21, 2024 after a surveillance camera recorded her distributing informational materials about Falun Gong. Seven male officers forcibly collected her fingerprints despite her resistance.
This isn’t the first time that Ms. Li Mengjun has been targeted for her faith in Falun Gong.
She was previously harassed on August 10, 2006 and questioned about where she got her Falun Gong books. Ms. Li was arrested again on May 15, 2007, had her home ransacked, and she was taken to the Wujiahuayuan Brainwashing Center. She was held in isolation and monitored by five staff members, who forced her to watch anti-Falun Gong propaganda every day.
06.07.2024 – Twice jailed for a total of 10 years, Guangdong man targeted again for practicing Falun Gong, bail recently lifted with lawsuit against police pending
Minghui – A resident of Zhaoqing City, Guangdong Province, had his bail lifted on May 10, 2024, after he filed an administrative litigation against a local police department for arresting him without any legal basis.
Mr. Li Jinghui was arrested on May 8, 2023 for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999. He went on a hunger strike and was released on bail on May 19, 2023. He filed complaints against the arresting officers in August 2023 and requested the information about his perpetrators be disclosed. After his complaints and requests were ignored, he filed an administrative litigation against the police agency responsible for his arrest.
Protestants
11.07.2024 – Pastor Jin Mingri blocked from leaving China: a family reunion denied
China Aid – According to reports, on July 5, 2024, Pastor Jin Mingri, the senior pastor of Beijing Zion Church who has been under border control for 5 years, was again intercepted at customs when leaving Macau. Pastor Jin Mingri was informed that his border control should have ended on March 22 this year. His wife and children live in the United States. After his five-year border control period expired, he hoped to go abroad to reunite with his family. However, he was intercepted at the customs again. The customs police asked him to contact Officer Zhang in Beijing and provided him with Officer Zhang’s phone number. However, when Pastor Jin called the number, it turned out to be an invalid number.
10.07.2024 – Beijing Zion Church: Sunday Service raided again, young devotee detained
Bitter Winter – Beijing Zion Church was once the large house church in Beijing. It was banned in 2018, but despite repeated arrests and harassment devotees have continued to gather, continuously changing sites to elude police surveillance.
On July 7, one of these sites was identified by the police and raided. As the church reports, “At about 10 a.m. on July 7, while a group of young members were gathered in Haidian District, Beijing, for a Sunday service, more than twenty police officers and law enforcement officers stormed the site. All the people present were questioned and their names were recorded. Several devotees were taken to Ganjiakou police station for inquiry in the afternoon.” One sister Zhou Sirui was detained.
10.07.2024 – Pastor Li Jie and Han Xiaodong detained way beyond legal limits
China Aid – On the afternoon of July 3, 2024, Li Shanshan, the wife of Pastor Li Jie, and Chen Ying, the wife of Han Xiaodong from Linfen Covenant House Church, came to the Yaodu District Court in Linfen City to request a meeting with judge Jia Jing and learn about the case progress. The staff informed them that the judge was ill, and they were unable to meet with the judge.
Pastor Li Jie and Han Xiaodong were arrested in August 2022 for their Christian faith and have been detained for over 1 year and 11 months. The case has been in court for 1 year and 2 months. The court neither holds a trial nor releases them, constituting a severe case of detention beyond legal limits. Their wives, Li Shanshan and Chen Ying, clearly expressed their desire to meet with Xie Binghua, the deputy chief judge in charge of criminal trials at the Yaodu District Court, as well as relevant leaders of the Yaodu District Court, to communicate face-to-face about this case.