Freedom of Religion
Authorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) have continued widespread censorship campaigns in 2010 and 2011, according to recent reports. The censorship work in the XUAR hews to a countrywide campaign to "Sweep Away Pornography and Strike Down Illegal Publications," but with special emphasis on religious and political items and "reactionary materials" that authorities deem are from organizations connected to the "three forces" of terrorism, separatism, and religious extremism.
Documents Detail 2010-2012 Campaign Against Falun Gong Practitioners
Government and Party Leaders Instruct Catholics To Practice Religion in Conformity With Government and Party Policies
On November 19, 2010, the Chengnan Church—a government-registered church in Tinghu district, Yancheng city, Jiangsu province—was demolished, according to a November 22, 2010, report from ChinaAid (CAA). According to a November 17, 2010, CAA report, officials from the Yancheng Municipal Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau, Tinghu District Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau, Yancheng Municipal Administration Office of Major Public Construction Projects, and Tinghu District Party Discipline Inspection Commission went to the site of the church in early November and told church members that they were working on demolition projects.
Since 2006, villages in Hoten district, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), have been regulating village behavior through a system of pledges known as zungui shouyue chengnuoshu (literally, "promises to respect the rules and observe customs," also described in a Uyghur-language source, discussed below, as a mes'uliyetname, or accountability certificate). Under the pledge system, village residents and village officials enter into agreements with the local villagers' committee to abide by the village "code of conduct" (cungui minyue) or face fines for non-compliance. The pledge system has no explicit basis in Chinese law, though it builds on legal provisions that allow villages in China to pass village codes of conducts. A Congressional-Executive Commission on China survey of online articles that mention the pledges suggests that this specific type of institutionalized pledge system based on village codes of conduct may be unique to the XUAR, with limited exceptions.
On November 24, 2010, public security officers in Beijing took legal scholar and religious freedom advocate Fan Yafeng, along with his wife and three-year-old son, into custody from his home for questioning for approximately four-and-a-half hours, according to a November 26 South China Morning Post report (subscription required).
Authorities Intimidate Unregistered Protestants Who Seek To Attend Lausanne Congress
The following text was retrieved from the Chinese government's official Web site on February 6, 2013.
Henan House Church Members Appeal After Court Refuses To Hear Lawsuit