Xinjiang Authorities Target Christian-Owned Businesses for Closure

Authorities in western China have closed four businesses owned or headed by local and overseas Christians, reflecting their concerns over perceived instability and "foreign infiltration" from overseas religious groups. According to a series of reports published by the U.S.-based nongovernmental organization China Aid Association (CAA), in September, authorities in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) shut down two businesses owned or headed by local Protestants, accusing both businesses of conducting illegal religious activities. Officials accused one business of "seriously endanger[ing] the security of the state and social and political security" by "illegally preaching Christianity" among ethnic Uighurs in the region. Authorities cited a series of Chinese legal and policy directives, including the Regulation on Religious Affairs, to accuse the head of a second business of "illegal religious infiltration activities," including proselytizing and preaching outside of approved religious venues. XUAR authorities levied similar charges the same month against two American businesspeople and ordered them to leave China. (For more information, see two CAA reports from October 10 (Report 1, Report 2) and one report from October 9.)

The September business closures come amid a series of reports and incidents indicating heightened concern over religious activities in the region and throughout China:

• In an October interview, Cao Shengjie, head of the state-controlled China Christian Council, expressed concern about "social problems" stemming from a lack of properly trained preachers and resulting misinterpretations of doctrine, according to an October 14 Xinhua article. She also stated that the official Chinese Protestant church "faces the problem of foreign infiltration." She stressed that the church would "persist in the principles of autonomy, self-cultivation, and self-propagation" to uphold government policy to prevent foreign influence over domestic religious communities.
• In July, XUAR government Chair Ismail Tiliwaldi called on local government officials to strengthen oversight of local Catholic and Protestant communities and guard against foreign infiltration in the name of Christianity, according to a July 11 report from Tianshan Net.
• On July 10, the CAA reported that authorities had initiated a campaign earlier that year to expel missionaries from China, including over 60 (later reported as over 50) from the XUAR.
• Minister of Public Security Zhou Yongkang (promoted in October to the Politburo Standing Committee of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party) stated in March that the government would "strike hard" against hostile forces inside and outside the country, including religious and spiritual groups, to ensure a "good social environment" for the Olympics and 17th Communist Party Congress, according to Agence France-Presse (via Open Source Center, March 20, 2007, subscription required).

XUAR government authorities exercise harsh control over various aspects of religious practice in the region. At the same time recent actions indicate increased attention to Christian groups, XUAR authorities also continue to maintain a longstanding policy of religious repression over Muslims in the region.

For more information on conditions in the XUAR and on religion in China, see the Congressional-Executive Commission on China 2007 Annual Report (via the Web site of the Government Printing Office), Section II--Religious Freedom, and Section II--Ethnic Minority Rights, subsection on Rights Abuses in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.