Religious persecution and issues – Bimonthly Digest August 01-15
Buddhists
05.08.2025 – Chinese government has ‘final say’ in Dalai Lama reincarnation, Tibetan official says
Reuters – The discovery of the next Dalai Lama will be carried out by the Chinese government, and not under the current Dalai Lama’s directions, a Chinese Communist Party committee official for Tibet said on Tuesday.
China considers the Nobel laureate Dalai Lama a separatist and wants to bring Tibetan Buddhismunder its control, but the Dalai Lama and his huge following have been obstacles to that ambition.
At his 90th birthday celebration last month, he assured followers that he would be reincarnated, and a non-profit institution he has set up will have the sole authority to identify his reincarnation.
Falun Gong
14.08.2025 – Previously twice jailed a total of 8 years, Yunnan woman gets another 5.5 years for practicing Falun Gong
Minghui -A woman in Kunming City, Yunnan Province, was sentenced to five and a half years with a fine (amount unknown) for her faith in Falun Gong, Minghui.org learned recently.
Ms. Yan Derong, born in 1961, had just left her apartment building on August 16, 2023, when she was ambushed by several officers from the Xihuayuan Police Station. They targeted her after a student reported her for talking to him about Falun Gong.
The Xishan District Court sentenced Ms. Yan, a nurse who once worked for the Qujing Petroleum Oil Company, to five and a half years on an unknown date. Other details of her indictment, trial, and sentencing remain to be investigated.
11.08.2025 – Cases of Elderly Falun Gong Practitioners Who Died After Suffering Torture in Prison
Minghui – After 26 years, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) hasn’t let up in persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. In fact, they have ramped up the persecution against elderly practitioners. Minghui.org learned in June 2025 that Mr. Wei Jiuxiang, 82, and his wife Ms. Zhang Yanmiao, 85, from Mengyin County, Shandong Province, had been sentenced to four years in 2024 for practicing Falun Gong. Mr. Wei became blind and incapacitated a few years before he was arrested. The couple’s case is only the tip of an iceberg.
In the CCP’s constitution, lighter sentence should be given to those who are aged 75 and above. However, in the case of Falun Gong practitioners, practitioners as old as 80 years old are thrown into facilities such as the prison, brainwashing centers, or psychiatric hospitals simply for upholding their faith.
08.08.2025 – Disabled woman’s pension suspended after she serves a 1.5-year prison term
Minghui – A 66-year-old disabled woman in Huichun City, Jilin Province, was sentenced to a 1.5-year prison term because she practices Falun Gong. After she was released her pension was suspended and the police constantly harassed her.
Ms. Zhang Junling’s lower left leg was amputated after a train accident in 1981, and she had chronic back pain. In 2007, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and had a mastectomy. Just when she felt hopeless, she began to practice Falun Gong and the pain went away. Her many other ailments, including severe heart disease and kidney and liver problems, also disappeared.
Protestants
12.08.2025 – All Sphere (Word of Life) “Born Again” Churches raided throughout
China
Bitter Winter – A nationwide police operation is underway against a movement that has been criticized for its focus on emotional displays, but remains similar to mainstream Pentecostalism.
Between July and August, churches associated with the All Sphere or All Range, also known as the Word of Life network or simply “Born Again,” have been raided in Shenyang, Dalian, and Benxi (Liaoning), and Suizhou (Hubei). This suggests that a nationwide police operation is underway. Dozens of believers have been arrested and informed that they will be prosecuted under Article 300 of China’s Criminal Code. This article penalizes individuals involved in a xie jiao, a term often translated as “cult,” but more accurately referring to “organizations that promote heterodox [or anti-government] teachings.”
12.08.2025 – Prayer letter of Li Mei, wife of the elder Ma tao of Fuyang Maizhong reformed church arrested for his fait
China Aid – On June 29, 2025, Elder Ma Tao of Maizhong Reformed Church in Fuyang, Anhui, was detained on suspicion of “organizing illegal gatherings.” On the 6th, his wife, Sister Li Mei, issued a prayer letter recalling the many ways her husband served in their family, ministry, and daily life, and earnestly asked brothers and sisters to pray for their whole family.
12.08.2025 – Living Spring Church in Xi’an shut down by the authorities
China Aid – The Chinese government continues to tighten control over religious beliefs. Recently, authorities in Xi’an shut down a Christian house church, an action that has once again drawn attention to the state of religious freedom in China.
According to an announcement issued by the Xi’an Civil Affairs Bureau on July 29, the group known as “Xi’an Living Spring Church” was unregistered and “conducted activities in the name of a social organization without registration,” which was determined to be an illegal social organization and therefore banned. The announcement cited relevant regulations, including the Regulations on the Registration and Management of Social Organizations and the Measures for Banning Illegal Social Organizations.
12.08.2025 – Multiple pastors and co-workers from Chuxiong Lingshan church were arrested
China Aid – On Tuesday, July 30, Pastor Pu Jinshun, Elder Zhu Zhengwu, and several co-workers from the Lingshan Church in Chuxiong, Yunnan, were subjected to compulsory enforcement measures by Chuxiong Public Security and are currently being held at the Chuxiong Detention Center. The authorities have yet to provide the relevant departments or defense lawyers with a complete indictment. The specific charges involved have not been made public and await official announcement.
According to sources, Pastor Pu Jinshun and Elder Zhu Zhengwu, along with his wife, were taken from their residences in Suzhou. They had just returned to Suzhou in June for a family visit. The two have ministered in Chuxiong for 23 years. In recent years, due to government pressure, the church has been unable to use its purchased office building as a meeting place. In May of this year, police conducted a raid on one of the church’s small groups and interrogated relevant members, followed by the arrests of church members that began in July. Christian human rights lawyers are now involved in the case.
11.08.202-5 – A faith under siege: Pastor Ma Chao and the struggle of Guangzhou’s Guangfu Church
Bitter Winter – In the heart of Guangzhou, a quiet but resolute Christian community faces relentless pressure from the state while it celebrates its 20th anniversary. Guangfu Church, a house church founded in 2005 by Pastor Ma Chao—also known as Pastor Mark—once welcomed over a thousand believers. Today, it stands battered by years of persecution, its congregation scattered, and its future uncertain.
Since 2015, Guangfu Church has endured an escalating campaign of harassment from multiple government agencies, including the Religious Affairs Bureau, Public Security, and local administrative offices. Authorities have sealed worship venues, welded shut doors, forced evictions, and obstructed Pastor Ma’s overseas theological education. In one ruthless episode during the church’s tenth anniversary celebration, officials raided the premises, assaulted church workers and congregants, and confiscated materials.
05.08.2025 – Pastor John Cao still subject to “exit ban’ one year and seven months after release, unable to reunite with family in the US
China Aid – Pastor John Cao, a native of Hunan who was imprisoned for seven years, shared bittersweet news on social media yesterday (July 27). He joyfully announced that his son, Cao Qianxing, and his wife, Jenny, welcomed a baby boy on July 18 in the United States, officially making him a grandfather. Pastor Cao expressed profound gratitude to God for this blessing upon his family.
However, he also revealed that despite being released from prison a year and seven months ago, the Chinese government has still refused to allow him to renew his passport, preventing him from traveling to the U.S. to be with his wife, children, and newborn grandson to share their joy together, to which he expressed profound sadness over.
Pastor Cao pointed out that he continues to live without fundamental civil freedoms since his release. His Chinese passport expired while he was serving his prison sentence, and it has not been renewed.
01.08.2025 – Pastor formally arrested on charges of ‘illegal business operations’
CSW – A prominent Protestant pastor in Wenzhou in China’s Zhejiang Province was informed that he had been formally arrested on charges of ‘illegal business operations’ for selling recordings of sermons on 30 July.
Pastor Huang Yizi was taken into custody by Pingyang Public Security alongside four other church members from Ningbo, Quzhou and Taizhou, all also in Zhejiang Province, on 26 June. All five were administratively detained the following day; two were released on bail on 25 July, while two others remain in detention; the charges against them are unclear. Another church member was reportedly detained on 17 July and remains in detention.
Others
13.08.2025 – Raided and terrorized: China cracks down again on Life Zen Temple
Bitter Winter – On July 3, 2025, a sudden and sweeping crackdown shattered the lives of members of the Life Zen Temple (Lifechanyuan) in China. Coordinated by China’s Ministry of Public Security, the operation detained 82 members (and possibly more) across multiple provinces. Homes were raided, phones and computers seized, and individuals interrogated, threatened, and coerced into signing ideological documents denouncing their beliefs.
“Bitter Winter” has been the only Western media outlet to report on the story of the Life Zen Temple, an idiosyncratic but peaceful mixture of Maoism, Buddhism, and free love, and the massive crackdowns of 2021, followed by the state-sponsored deprogramming of the arrested members. Meanwhile, the leader and several members had moved to Canada, where the Life Zen Temple is now headquartered. I am also the author of the only scholarly articles on the Life Zen Temple published in languages other than Chinese. I have interviewed a member who lives in Thailand about what happened last month in China.
06.08.2025 – Quanzhen: How China weaponizes Taoism for global propaganda.
Bitter Winter – Evidence exists suggesting that the UFWD may previously have intended to take a more hands-on approach to Quanzhen Taoism within Taiwan’s borders. On YouTube there is a nearly two-hour-long video with the grandiloquent title “The Magnificently Arranged Opening Ceremony for The Ninth ‘Both Sides of the Taiwan Strait Tao Culture Exchange Forum,’ Hosted by the Taiwan Province Taoist Association on 6 August 2017 at the Grand Hotel Taipei” (Taiwan Province Taoist Association posted August 21, 2017, accessed February 7, 2025).
This event, which had an audience of hundreds, was sponsored by the Taiwan Province Taoist Association, an organization that includes members of several Quanzhen-adjacent Taoist temples (meaning that although they have clergy who formally joined Quanzhen lineages in China, the temples still remain primarily affiliated with other forms of Taoism or folk religion) as well as the Tzu-Hui Society (see Taiwan Province Taoist Association Facebook profile, accessed February 7, 2025. “Religioscope” attempted to contact this organization via Facebook direct message and email but received no response).
