Religious issues and persecution – Bimonthly Digest August 01-15
The Church of Almighty God
07.08.2024 – Church of Almighty God member deported back to China from Italy
Bitter Winter – The Church of Almighty God (CAG), a Christian new religious movement, is the most persecuted religious group in China together with Falun Gong. More than 10,000 CAG members have escaped China and sought asylum in democratic countries. As Western scholars have increasingly studied the CAG and debunked the fake news about the movement spread by China abroad through its embassies, many CAG refugees have been granted asylum. But not all. In some cases, asylum commissions and courts are still not well informed about the CAG. In others, CAG asylum seekers, like other Chinese refugees, make mistakes in their applications because of lack of language skills and familiarity with Western laws.
Buddhists
12.08.2024- China’s anti-religious-freedom policy: A threat to world peace and stability
Bitter Winter – H.H. the Dalai Lama, a Tibetan spiritual leader and 1989 Nobel Peace Laureate, has said that all religious teachings carry important messages of love, compassion, forgiveness, and non-violence. All the major religions in this world have a great potential to generate and contribute peace and harmony at all levels: of the individual, the family, societal, national, and international. To have a peaceful world, we first need peace within ourselves at a personal level. This will have a ripple effect. For this, we need religion and moral ethics to guide us properly to find this peace within and outside ourselves. It is this important sacred potential of religions that we must uphold and promote for a better and peaceful world.
05.08.2024 – Stokes tension with India and Russia
Providence – On July 6th, the 89th birthday of His Holiness the Dalai Lama was celebrated in Dharamshala, India and observed by the Tibetan diaspora and supporters worldwide. Beyond marking a milestone for the leader of the Tibetan Buddhist faith, this event carries significant political implications for China amid great power competition. Ironically, the one place his birthday was not celebrated was in his native Tibet, where the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) forbids citizens from having any contact with their spiritual leader, who has lived in exile since 1959. Each year, as his birthday approaches, the repression in Tibet intensifies. This year, under the revised espionage law, police have been conducting random cellphone checks to ensure Tibetans have not downloaded his photo to pray for him.
02.08.2024 – Pro-CCP Buddhist monks told they should learn English—Why?
Bitter Winter – On July 3–5, the government-controlled China Buddhist Association held the “2024 Buddhist English Training Course” at Putuo Temple in Zhuhai, Guangdong, in cooperation with an organization called the Buddhist English Exchange Base. In addition to leaders of the China Buddhist Association, the course was attended by United Front Work Department bureaucrats specialized in controlling religion.
Catholics
08.08.2024 – Widely used global catholic app “Hallow” removed from Apple App Store by CCP authorities.
China Aid – The Cyberspace Administration of China recently removed the most popular Catholic app from the Apple App Store in July.
The Catholic app Hallow is a prayer app that offers audio-based Catholic devotional content. It is the first religious app to top the Apple App Store charts.
Since its launch in 2018, this American Catholic app has been downloaded over 14 million times and is widely used “in more than 150 countries/regions.” It is a very popular and well-received Catholic meditation and prayer app.
Falun Gong
13.08.2024 – Chinese agents in the U.S. plead guilty to anti-Falun-Gong conspiracy
Bitter Winter – In May 2023, “Bitter Winter” reported that Chinese agents in the United States had been caught while trying to bribe an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agent as part of a conspiracy against Falun Gong,
Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced on July 25 that John Chen and Lin Feng have entered guilty pleas to charges of operating as unregistered agents of the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”) government and offering bribes to an IRS official. This was in relation to a scheme to target U.S. practitioners. of Falun Gong. Chen’s plea was submitted before U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew E. Krause, with sentencing scheduled for October 30, 2024, by U.S. District Judge Nelson S. Román. Feng entered her plea today before Judge Krause and is set to receive her sentence on October 31, 2024, also before Judge Román.
15.08.2024 – Family forced to accept settlement offer in exchange for their silence on loved one’s suspicious death
Minghui – Mr. Wang Jian’s family was forced to reach an agreement with the Jidong Second Prison in Hebei Province on July 30, 2024 to receive a compensation of 150,000 yuan in exchange for their silence regarding his suspicious death on April 3, 2023 while he was imprisoned for practicing Falun Gong.
09.08.2024 – Shandong Woman secretly sentenced to five-year prison term for practicing Falun Gong
Minghui – The Minghui.org website recently confirmed that a 57-year-old Yi’nan County, Shandong Province resident was admitted to the Shandong Province Women’s Prison in Jinan City to serve a five-year term for practicing Falun Gong.
Ms. Wang Hongmei was arrested on October 24, 2023, after a plainclothes officer saw her distributing Falun Gong informational materials. That night, over 20 police officers raided her primary residence as well as another home she owned. A large number of Falun Gong books and informational materials were confiscated.
Protestants
14.08.2024 – Government-controlled Three-Self Church celebrates 70th anniversary
Bitter Winter – The Three-Self Church, the organization created by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to control all Protestants in China, was founded by the Beijing regime per the initiative of Chairman Mao in 1954.
On August 6, 2024, the Three-Self Patriotic Movement’s National Committee of the Protestant Churches in China commemorated the Three-Self’s 70th anniversary with a national symposium in Shanghai. Key bureaucrats from regional Three-Self churches and universities, leaders of the government-controlled YMCA and YWCA, and academic scholars convened. Officials from both national and Shanghai’s United Front Work Departments and the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau also attended. The symposium was an opportunity not only to celebrate the anniversary but to instruct religious leaders to preach the documents of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP held last July as part of their sermons and Bible studies.
13.08.2024 – Five Christians from Shengjia Church to stand trial for illegal business operations
China Aid – According to reports, the trial of five Christians from Shengjia Church in Shunde – Deng Yanxiang, Wang Weicai, Zhu Longjiang, Zhu Qiaoling, and Zhu Longfei – charged with “illegal business operations” is scheduled to take place from August 5 to 9, 2024.
Shengjia Church is a house church that has not joined the government-sanctioned Three-Self Church. On May 24, 2023, the church was raided by multiple departments including Shunde public security bureau, religious affairs bureau, department of education, and department of industry and commerce. Pastor Deng Yanxiang, Deacon Zhu Longjiang, Deacon Wang Weicai, and Zhu Qiaoling were arrested by Shunde police on suspicion of illegal business operations. Two bible study venues were also raided by over a hundred staff members, with a large number of books, tables, and chairs being confiscated that day. On August 9 of the same year, Elder Zhu Longfei was summoned by Shunde police and arrested on suspicion of illegal business operations.
12.08.2024 – Three Christians from Wuhu Mount Carmel church tried for “illegal business operations”
China Aid- On the morning of August 1, 2024, the People’s Court of Yijiang District, Wuhu City held a closed trial for three Christians – Han Yanlei, Lü Zhaojin, and Xie Zhifeng – charged with “illegal business operations”. The trial process was reportedly calm, and the court will announce the verdict at a later date.
The prosecution believes that the Xuande School, affiliated with the Mount Carmel Church, operated without permission from the education department, violating students’ right to education. Although the school was operating at a loss, it was still deemed to be profit-driven, potentially constituting the crime of illegal business operations.