December 2024 – The China Corner by CSW

General Briefing: China (2024)

Legal framework Under Article 36 of the Constitution, the state protects all ‘normal’ religious activities. The five officially-recognised religious traditions – Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Protestantism and Catholicism – are overseen by seven state-sanctioned associations. In reality, ‘normal’ religious activities refers to those carried out by religious communities registered with these associations. There is no space […]

Human rights lawyers and religious leaders decry systematic accusations of ‘fraud’ against unregistered churches

2024-12-05

A group of lawyers, human rights activists and religious leaders have released an open statement decrying the Chinese government’s systematic violation of freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) by accusing house churches not registered under the government of being illegal, and declaring that offerings made to these churches are therefore fraudulent. The statement, published on X (formerly Twitter) on

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