Freedom of Religion
The Dalai Lama said that a "democratic Tibet" may not need a Dalai Lama, according to a June 20 report in the Hindustan Times, a major Indian daily newspaper. The Tibetan religious leader explained that if he dies in exile "there will be another Dalai Lama," but "if we cease to be a refugee community and can live in democratic Tibet, then I don't think there should be a successor to me after I die."
The Dalai Lama's premise is that if the political role historically filled by the Dalai Lama can be replaced by a democratically elected Tibetan leader, there would be no further need for the position. But most Tibetans revere the Dalai Lama as their religious leader and as a political figure, and when he speaks about the end of the line of Dalai Lamas, it raises concern in the Tibetan community.
Since the national Regulation on Religious Affairs (RRA) became effective in March 2005, central and local Party officials have held high-level meetings and training sessions to promote implementation of the new regulation in “standardizing” management of religious affairs. Reports this month from Anhui and Yunnan show local officials’ reaction to the implementation drive.
In Anhui, local officials reacted repressively. On June 13, officials in Lingbi county in Anhui province reported on their work to “standardize management” of religious affairs. Their report focuses on punishing religious organizations and venues for violations of the regulations. The punishments included banning 81 out of 119 privately established religious venues, seizing and detaining 21 illegal preachers, and eradicating 23 "nests of evil cult activity."
Chinese authorities convened a national Sweep Away Pornography and Strike Down Illegal Publications (SAPSDIP) Symposium on June 23 in Shenyang. Xinhua reports that Liu Binjie, deputy director of the SAPSDIP Task Force and the General Administration of Press and Publication, told the symposium that, since the launch of the Task Force in 1994, Chinese authorities have confiscated more than 1.4 billion illegal publications, and shut down over 40,000 print shops.
Public security officials raided unregistered Protestant house churches in Jilin province in northeastern China on May 22 and detained house church members, reports the China Aid Association (CAA), a U.S.-based NGO that monitors house church Protestants. Police released most of those detained after 48 hours, but some were still in detention as of June 10. The house churches that were raided are not affiliated with any of China's major house church networks, according to the CAA. Many of the members of these churches are said to be university-affiliated intellectuals. The repression seems unusual because Jilin provincial authorities do not have a history of repression of Protestant or Catholic Christians.
Unregistered Catholics in Hebei detailed the human rights abuses that local officials allegedly have been perpetrating against Catholics there in an unusual letter to the Italy-based Catholic publication AsiaNews. The letter identifies the officials as Chen Xiuyun, a provincial vice governor and director of the provincial United Front Work Department office and Wang Zhenguo, director of the county-level Administration of Religious Affairs office in Gaocheng county. The authors of the letter describe Chen and Wang as being nostalgic for the Cultural Revolution and unsuited to building the "harmonious society" that President Hu Jintao has advocated. The writers also claim that the two officials are using an anti-Catholic campaign to distract attention from their failure to develop the local economy.
Chinese security police released unregistered Catholic priest Zhao Kexun on June 1, reports the Cardinal Kung Foundation. Father Zhao serves as the diocesan administrator of Xuanhua diocese in Hebei province, and was detained on March 30.
Zhao Zhendong, the bishop of the diocese, has been detained since December 2004. According to the Cardinal Kung Foundation, currently 44 unregistered Catholic clergy languish in detention in China.
At a seminar held on June 20 to promote implementation of the new Regulation on Religious Affairs, Deputy Governor Li Hanbo described Yunnan's plan to "standardize management" over large areas of the internal affairs of religious sites. He said: "Yunnan province will hereafter guide, inspect, and supervise the management of the internal affairs of religious venues, and help the venues comply with regulations on personnel, finance, accounting, policing, fire prevention, cultural protection, and preventive healthcare."
In addition, Deputy Governor Li warned that, in the future, construction of Buddhist and Daoist temples and open-air religious images would be regulated.
Li added that the new Regulation also clarified punishment of those who violate the legal rights and interests of the religious community, including citizens' freedom to believe.
Local governments in China have reported on their efforts to implement "regulation of religion according to law" since the new national regulations on religious affairs became effective in March 2005. On June 13, officials in Lingbi County in Anhui province reported on their work to standardize the management of religious affairs. The report claims progress in punishing violations of the rights and interests of believers in 30 cases. Most of the report focuses, however, on punishing religious organizations and venues for violations of the regulations. The punishments included banning 81 out of 119 privately established religious venues, seizing and detaining 21 illegal preachers, and eradicating 23 "nests of evil cult activity."
Hu Chunhua, a Communist Party cadre who held positions in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) throughout the period of intensified repression of Tibetan culture and religion that began in the late 1980s, has been promoted to Executive Secretary of the TAR Party Committee, according to a report by Ta Kung Pao. When China's current President Hu Jintao was the TAR Party Secretary (1988-92), and while Lhasa was under martial law (March 1989-April 1990), Hu Chunhua's TAR portfolio included Deputy Secretary of the China Communist Youth League (CYL).
For the first time, a Chinese delegation attended a World Council of Churches Conference on World Mission and Evangelism. Speaking in Athens on May 11, Rev. Cao Shengjie, General Secretary of the China Christian Council (the state-approved Protestant church), addressed the theme of "Common Witness in China." According to Ekklesia, a British news service, Rev. Cao said that Christianity is often seen as a "foreign" religion in China, and that the challenge for Chinese believers is to discover a distinctly Chinese perspective on mission and evangelism. She also said that the next phase of the development of the Protestant church will be marked by the extension of grassroots education, social witness, personal evangelism, and the renewal of theological thinking.