Freedom of Religion

Officials in the Lhasa area are increasing both supervision of "patriotic education" programs conducted in Tibetan monasteries and nunneries and examinations of monks and nuns, according to a report by the India-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) on October 13.

Reporters Without Borders ranked China 159th out of 167 countries in its 2005 Worldwide Press Freedom Index, released on October 20. China ranked ahead of Nepal, Cuba, Libya, Burma, Iran, Turkmenistan, Eritrea, and North Korea in granting press freedom, according to the Index. The authors note that, despite some media privatization in China, "the government's propaganda department monitors the media, which were forbidden to mention dozens of sensitive subjects in the past year."

Public security officers detained two house church evangelists in Henan province on September 26 and October 2, reports the China Aid Association (CAA), a U.S.-based NGO that monitors the religious freedom of Chinese Protestants. The report says that public security officers took Ma Yinzhou, a house church pastor, into custody on September 26 and demanded that he reveal the whereabouts of Ma Shulei, his son, who is a house church evangelist. Ma Shulei turned himself in to authorities on October 2. According to CAA, public security officers in Beijing detained Ma Yinzhou and Ma Shulei in 2002 during a raid on a meeting of house church leaders.

Public security officials detained nearly 50 Protestant leaders in Hebei province, according to an October 20 report by the China Aid Association (CAA), a U.S.-based NGO that monitors the religious freedom of Chinese Protestants. The 50 are leaders of house churches from over 20 Chinese provinces who were meeting in retreat in Gougezhuang village, Laishui county, in Hebei province. On October 20, public security and religious affairs officials from Baoding city raided the meeting and detained those present, including the well-known evangelist Zhang Mingxuan (in Chinese). Public security officials beat at least one person, a woman named Dai Hong (in Chinese).

Xinjiang police confiscated the passports of a group of Uighur pilgrims seeking to cross the border by bus at Qonjirap in Xinjiang on August 25, according to the East Turkistan Information Center (in Uighur). The group had planned to spend the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in Mecca.

The local divisions of the General Administration of Press and Publication, Ministry of Public Security, State Administration of Industry and Commerce, State Copyright Office, and the Sweep Away Pornography and Strike Down Illegal Publications Task Force are launching a joint campaign to "discipline" printing enterprises in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, according to a September 1 report on Xinhua's Web site. The report said that among the targets of the campaign are enterprises engaged in publishing illegal political publications.

Public security officials released Zhang Yinan, a Protestant house church historian, from a re-education through labor (RETL) camp in Henan province on September 25, according to the China Aid Association, a U.S. NGO that monitors religious freedom for Chinese Protestants. Officials instructed Zhang about what he could say in public about his case, and they refused to return his ID card.