Welcome to China Voices, a quarterly update on freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) in China produced by CSW. As media coverage of China issues intensifies, we want to ensure that the voices and views of the people most affected by FoRB restrictions are at the centre of the conversation.
We should point out that this update is not intended to be an exhaustive list of recent cases and developments, and we have deliberately chosen to focus on issues which are receiving less attention from the international community.
From July to September 2021, we recorded 82 incidents, involving 10 faith groups and about 300 individuals. This includes 185 people currently held in pre-trial detention and 20 given custodial sentences in connection with their faith.
The cases cited have been reported publicly, some from various websites in China (*indicates Chinese language links), or privately through CSW sources. Our special thanks go to China Aid, Radio Free Asia, Weiquanwang (Rights Defense Network) and Tibet Watch.
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During Q3 2021, the crackdown on unregistered religious groups continued – or even intensified in some parts of the country, as did the tight grip on registered religious groups. The four images below, all taken in Taiyuan, the capital city of the northern province of Shanxi, may offer our readers a few glimpses into what China’s faith communities experienced during this period.
A banner put up by the Pingyang Road Police Station of Taiyuan invites people to “report any illegal religious activity for a cash reward of up to 2000 yuan”. (Image credit: China Aid)
A couple of rules titled “Religious Activity Venues” are painted on a wall of Sweet Dew (Ganlu) Buddhist Temple in Taiyuan. Two groups not allowed to enter: non- adults and party members (except for work-related reasons); two things not allowed to take place
outside of these venues: religious activities and participation in religious activities by religious staff. (Image credit: Ipkmedia)
In early September, leaders and staff members of the state-sanctioned Three-Self Church in Taiyuan paid tribute* to a revolutionary martyrs’ monument, led by Pastor Zhang Enlai, director of the church. Pastor Zhang said that China’s Christians today live “a happy and peaceful life”, and they should “love the Party, the country and Socialism”, and “actively explore the direction of developing the Sinicization of Christianity”. (Image credit: ccctspm.org)
State-sanctioned organisations in charge of the five major religions recognised by the government (Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholicism and Protestantism) instructed clergy and religious workers to hold similar events to “mark the 76th anniversary of victory of China’s war of resistance against Japanese aggression”.
See “Policy Watch” in Part 1 and “Sinicization of religion” in Part 2 below.
Mr Zhao Weikai of Xuncheng Reformed Church, Taiyuan, is facing terrorism charges in possibly the first such case involving a church leader in China. (Image credit: Facebook/Zhao Weikai)
During Q3 2021, Shanxi police arrested at least 15 Christian leaders on trumped-up charges, such as “fraud” (for collecting offerings), “illegal border crossing” (for attending a conference abroad more than a year ago) and “unlawfully possessing items that advocate terrorism or extremism” (as in Zhao’s case). A leader of an unregistered church remarked that the authorities had launched “a Cultural- Revolution-style campaign to eliminate Christianity”.
Mr Zhao has been particularly targeted by the local authorities for insisting on home-schooling his children. State control of religious education has been tightening throughout the country. See the crackdown on private Christian education in Part 4, and on Tibetan language education in Part 5 (including a female Tibetan teacher who was arrested shortly after Xi Jinping’s visit to Lhasa).
While China’s crimes against predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities in Xinjiang came under more scrutiny through the second set of hearings of the Uyghur Tribunal in London from 10 to 13 September and an international conference from 1- 3 September on the Xinjiang human rights crisis at Newcastle University, Q3 2021 also saw more domes and minarets removed from mosques in Qinghai and Yunnan provinces, including Dongguan Great Mosque, one of the largest mosques in northwest China (see Part 2).
In Hong Kong, the crackdown on civil society groups under the sweeping National Security Law has forced the Hong Kong Pastors Network (HKPN) and China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group (CHRLCG), as well as numerous unions, students’ groups and non-profits, to disband. The dismantling of these important supporting networks will have detrimental effects on FoRB defenders in both Hong Kong and mainland China. See “FoRB defenders” in Part 3.