Freedom of Religion

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.

The Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal (CFA), in a decision announced on May 5, overturned the convictions of eight Falun Gong practitioners for willful obstruction of police and assault. Hong Kong police arrested the practitioners in 2002 for obstructing a public thoroughfare in the course of a peaceful protest outside the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government. Several demonstrators resisted police efforts to arrest them for the obstruction. In 2002, a Hong Kong trial court convicted the demonstrators of obstructing a public place, willful obstruction of police, and (in the case of one demonstrator) assault. In 2003, a lower appeals court overturned the public obstruction convictions but upheld the willful obstruction and assault convictions.

On April 28, public security bureaus in several Hebei province locations released seven unregistered Catholic priests who had been detained the previous day, reports AsiaNews. Security officers detained the priests while they were attending a religious retreat with Bishop Jia Zhiguo. Local sources said that public security officials detained the priests because the retreat was held outside their home county.

AsiaNews also reports that Yao Liang, auxiliary bishop of Xiwanzi in Hebei province, was detained on March 30, released about April 20, and subsequently detained again. According to the news account, Chinese security authorities are subjecting Bishop Yao to a program of "re-education" to force him to register with the Catholic Patriotic Association, the government-approved Catholic organization.

The Chinese community of Orthodox Christians conducted their first public Easter prayer service since 1957 in a Beijing Catholic Cathedral on May 2, report RIA Novosti and ITAR TASS. Beijing religious authorities granted permission for the prayer service (Easter matins, not the divine liturgy), which was conducted by laymen, since no Chinese Orthodox priests remain in Beijing and Chinese law forbids foreign priests from conducting religious services for Chinese citizens. The Catholic cathedral was the venue because the Chinese government has not permitted Orthodox churches in Beijing to reopen or a new church to be built.

The China Intercontinental Press will soon publish a new edition of "The Jews in China," according to an April 21 Xinhua article. The new edition will be published with text in Chinese, English, and, for the first time, Hebrew. The book provides an introduction to the history of Jews in China, from the Tang Dynasty through the departure from Shanghai of World War II refugees. To read a review of the first edition of this book, click here.