China: Religious persecution and issues – Bimonthly Digest January 01-15

General

 

08.01.2025 – China’s middle class searches for faith and meaning

 

Asiasociety – Members of China’s urban middle class — long assumed to be the most secular segment of Chinese society — are turning to religion and spirituality in greater numbers. Rejecting officially sanctioned religious institutions and state-promoted ideology, many urbanites are seeking alternatives considered less tainted by party-state interference.

 

Independent Christian churches, Tibetan Buddhist teachers, and New Age workshops are attracting increasing numbers of affluent, well-educated urban Chinese looking for authentic spiritual experiences and a sense of community, some of whom mix aspects of different religions to create their own personal spiritual practices.

 

 

 

06.01 2025 – Hubei, CCP salutes January 1 with a party denouncing “Cults and Illegal Religion”

 

Bitter Winter – The Western New Year is not the Chinese New Year but celebrations are now becoming popular in various parts of China. It is an opportunity for fireworks, and Chinese look for creative schemes to join the rest of the world in celebrating this non-Chinese holiday.

 

In Tongshan County, Hubei, which is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Xianning, the CCP invented its own original way of celebrating January 1, 2025. It organized a festive gathering to incite citizens to fight “xie jiao” (banned organizations promoting “heterodox teachings,” sometimes less correctly translated as “evil cults”) and “illegal religion,” and promote “science.”

 

 

  

Muslims 

 

14.01.2025 – China: Exams for Muslim Imams—on Xi Jinping’s thought on religion

 

Bitter Winter – In Hunan, Hui imams should pass a test: but the main subject matters of the exam are the Secretary General’s speeches and the new regulations on religions.

 

Shaoyang, a prefecture-level city in Hunan province, has a sizeable minority of some 40,000 Hui Muslims. The Shaoyang Islamic Association, which is part of the government-controlled China Islamic Association, has launched in December 2024 a program to test the quality of “theoretical knowledge” of the imams and other personnel overseeing the 24 local mosques.

 

 

 

10.01.2025 – Uyghur woman sentenced to 17 years for teaching Islam to her kids and a neighbor

 

rfa – A Uyghur woman has been sentenced to 17 years in a Xinjiang prison for giving religious lessons to her two sons and a neighbor, officials in the region told Radio Free Asia.Seylihan Rozi, 49, was sentenced for providing “illegal underground religious activity” by teaching others the 10 Quranic verses that Muslims recite when they perform namaz, the practice of praying five times a day, said a policeman in Saybagh village who oversaw her case. He did not provide further information about her imprisonment.

 

 

 

Buddhists

 

 

13.01.2025 – Thailand, China’s United Front and the “Buddha teeth diplomacy”

 

Bitter Winter – Bringing abroad Buddhist relics kept in China is used as a tool for Chinese propaganda and for spreading the lie that the CCP promotes religious liberty.

Until February 15, 2025, Thai Buddhists can venerate in Bangkok an important relic, a tooth of the Buddha. The relic comes from the Lingguang Temple in Beijing and arrived with great fanfare in Thailand on December 4.

 

The relic landed at Don Muang Military Airport and went to Bangkok through a boat parade and a procession.

 

 

 

13.01.2025 – China bans monks, aid workers from visiting quake-hit areas of Tibet

 

rfa – Chinese authorities in Tibet have forbidden aid workers and Buddhist monks from entering areas of the region struck by deadly earthquakes last week, three residents of the region and a Tibetan in exile told Radio Free Asia.On Jan. 7, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck Dingri county, near the border of Nepal. Chinese state media says it killed 126 people, but Tibetan sources said the toll was likely higher given that at least 100 people were killed in the town of Dramtso alone.State media also said the disaster injured 337 people and displaced more than 60,000 people.

 

 

  

Falun Gong

 

13.01.2025 – Liaoning man gets one year for mailing letters bearing Falun Gong information

 

Minghui – A Changtu County, Liaoning Province resident was sentenced to one year with a 5,000-yuan fine in late 2024 for mailing letters exposing the Chinese Communist Party’s ongoing persecution of his faith, Falun Gong.

 

Mr. Wu Bo and his wife were arrested by Tienan Police Station officers a little past 6 p.m. on July 11, 2024. The couple were targeted because they drove to Siping City, Jilin Province in November 2023 to mail out some Falun Gong informational letters to the public and their license plate was captured by surveillance cameras. 

 

The arresting officers turned over the case to their supervising agency, the Changtu County Police Department, which had the couple taken to the local Legal Education Center at around 6 p.m. on July 12, 2024. About two hours later, Mr. Wu was moved to the Changtu County Detention Center while his wife was released.

 

 

 

11.01.2025 – 57-year-old Heilongjiang woman secretly sentenced to 7 years for practicing Falun Gong

 

Minghui – Ms. Wang Zhengyong, 57, from Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province, was sentenced to seven years and fined 50,000-yuan in late 2024 for practicing Falun Gong.

 

Ms. Wang, who works for a property management company, began practicing Falun Gong in March 1998 and credits the practice for resolving her severe stomach problems, rhinitis, gynecological inflammation, breast lobular hyperplasia and other diseases. After the persecution began the following year, she held firm to her faith and was repeatedly targeted.

 

 

 

07.01.2025 – Fujian Woman stands trial for her faith, having previously served 4 prison sentences totaling 17.5 years

 

Minghui – A Fuzhou City, Fujian Province, resident, stood trial on December 13, 2024, for her faith in Falun Gong.

 

Ms. Zuo Xiuyun was arrested on May 21, 2024, after being spotted dropping a letter thought to contain information about Falun Gong into a mailbox. The arresting officers from the Jin’an District Domestic Security Division in Fuzhou City raided her home and submitted her case to the Minqing County Procuratorate.

 

During the trial at the Minqing County Court on December 13, 2024, Ms. Zuo’s lawyer pointed out that the arresting officers had no jurisdiction over her case, the reason being that the letter his client mailed out had a recipient’s address in Wuyishan City (also in Fujian Province).

 

 

 

03.01.2025 – Guangdong, Falun Gong husband and wife get record sentence of 10 years in jail

 

Bitter Winter – On December 20, 2024, relatives of Li Zhuozhong and his wife Liao Yuanqun learned that they had been both sentenced to ten years in jail by the Meixian District Court of Meizhou City, Guangdong. Although even harsher judgements have been pronounced against Falun Gongpractitioners, this one is a record of sort for spouses receiving the same sentence for comparatively mild offenses such as having been found in possession of Falun Gong literature and duplicating and sharing it with others.

 

 

 

 

Protestants

 

 

09.01.2025 – Yunnan, New Update on Brother Chang Hao: Out of Jail, but Under Heavy Surveillance

 

Bitter Winter – “Bitter Winter” has closely followed the saga of Yunnan preacher Chang Hao, the “Christian anti-COVID mask man” who became popular by distributing masks inscribed with Bible verses and incurred the wrath of the CCP.

On October 15, 2024, while he was conducting baptisms with well-known pastor John Cao, Brother Chang was arrested and put in administrative detention for twelve days. He was released on October 27.

As reported by his co-religionists, both Brother Chang and Zhenxiong Thanksgiving Reformed Church where he preaches are kept under heavy surveillance.