Freedom of Religion
"I have not heard of Christians being arrested because of their faith," Cao Shengjie, president of the state-controlled China Christian Council, said on April 18, according to an article dated the same day in Xinhua (via People's Daily). "Believers have been arrested just because they conducted illegal activities, which should be punished by law," Cao said during an announcement about an exhibition of Chinese Bibles scheduled to go on display in the United States. In fact, such illegal activities include acts connected directly to the manifestation of one's faith. The government employs various legal and extralegal methods to penalize religious adherents engaged in religious practices that it deems illegitimate, including publishing Bibles without government permission.
Chinese authorities arrested Mr. Naguunbilig, a popular ethnic Mongol medical specialist, and his wife Daguulaa on June 7 for practicing what the authorities call "a Mongol version of Falun Gong" and for holding "illegal gatherings," according to the Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center. 41-year-old Naguunbilig is the author of 5 medical books and 11 scholarly papers, and a member of the Chinese Mental Health Society and Chinese Medical Qigong Institute. In 2002, he opened the "Inner Mongolia Aztai Mongol Senior's Health Center," which authorities shut down after his arrest in June. A former employee of the center denied any association with Falun Gong, stating that Mr.
The Chinese government continued to assert its control over the appointment of Chinese Catholic bishops during May, according to Chinese and foreign news sources. Government religious affairs authorities permitted the consecration of one registered bishop who was also approved by the Holy See, but authorities also installed another registered bishop who the Holy See did not approve. The government controlled press also reported prominently the government’s assertion of its right to appoint Catholic bishops. These events followed the consecrations of registered bishops not approved by the Holy See on April 30 and May 2.
Officials detained Chinese Protestants on five occasions since April 26, according to reports by the China Aid Association (CAA), a U.S. NGO that monitors religious freedom in China.
The China Islamic Congress convened its eighth session from May 8 to May 12, according to a May 12 article in Xinhua. The Congress met to define the Islamic Association of China's (IAC) goals for the next five years, the article reported. The IAC is one of the "patriotic religious associations" that the government and Party use to control religion in China. The Congress announced several changes designed to align IAC rules to national government regulations and to further enhance IAC authority over Islamic practice:
Unidentified assailants beat a group of registered Catholic nuns on November 23 in Xi'an city, Shaanxi province, according to a November 28 AsiaNews report. The nuns were protesting the demolition of a school that the government had promised to sell to the state registered Catholic Church. Five nuns sustained severe injuries and required hospitalization. Hundreds of Xi'an Catholics marched November 27 to protest the violence against the nuns, according to a November 30 AsiaNews report.
The Catholic Patriotic Association (CPA), which controls China’s registered Catholic community, consecrated two bishops without obtaining the Holy See's approval of the candidates, according to Chinese and foreign press accounts. On April 30 the CPA consecrated Ma Yinglin to be the bishop of Kunming diocese in Yunnan province, and on May 2 Liu Xinhong to be the bishop of Anhui diocese in Anhui province. Before the consecrations, Catholic clerics in and outside China asked CPA leaders to postpone the consecration and requested the candidates not to go through with the consecrations.
A Ministry of Public Security (MPS) official asserted at a February 28 MPS press conference that Falun Gong practitioners are subject to punishment under the recently enacted Public Security Administration Punishment Law (PSAPL). Ke Liangdong, Director of the Department of Legal Affairs of the Ministry of Public Security, said, "...Whoever violates the PSAPL by misusing the name of religion to harm the health of others or disturb social order will be punished according to the provisions of the PSAPL. Of course, Falun Gong is not an exception." The new law codifies administrative punishment of Falun Gong practitioners that has persisted since the 1999 crackdown.
Public security officials in Kunming city, Yunnan province, raided a meeting of Protestant house church leaders and briefly detained about 80 Chinese participants on March 23, according to an April 19 report by the China Aid Association (CAA), a U.S. NGO that monitors religious freedom in China. Five American participants, and two from Taiwan, were also detained in the same raid. Local officials interrogated the participants for approximately five hours before releasing them. The interrogators accused the American and Taiwan participants of being "foreign religious infiltrators." As of April 19, some of the Americans had returned to the United States, while others remained in China.
Officials in Hebei province released unregistered Catholic Bishop Jia Zhiguo on April 19, according to April 25 reports by AsiaNews and the Union of Catholic Asian News (UCAN). Jia, the unregistered Bishop of Zhengding diocese in Hebei, was moved from detention into 24-hour residential surveillance at his home in Wuqiu village in Hebei, according to the reports. Bishop Jia’s release came one day before President Hu Jintao met with President George W. Bush in Washington, D.C. during an official visit. Jia had been detained since November 8, 2005, and reportedly was interrogated and pressed to join the government-controlled Catholic Patriotic Association (CPA).