Freedom of Religion
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At this CECC Roundtable, panelists examined the Chinese government's policies toward spiritual movements and the factors that drive its treatment of members of spiritual groups. The Chinese government has allowed space for some spiritual movements to operate in China, but has banned other groups, such as Falun Gong.
New measures have entered into force on a trial basis in China that regulate the financial affairs of registered venues for religious activities in China. The State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA) passed the Measures on the Supervision and Management of Financial Affairs of Venues for Religious Activities (Trial) (Financial Affairs Measures) on January 7, 2010, effective March 1. Like the other sets of measures on religion-related issues issued by SARA in recent years, the Financial Affairs Measures elaborate on provisions in the Regulation on Religious Affairs (RRA), which entered into force in 2005. While stipulating more specific oversight for religious venues, the Financial Affairs Measures also provide a measure of protection for venues' property and income.
The Communist Party-controlled Women's Federation in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) has strengthened measures in the past year to regulate the religious activities of Muslim women, according to recent reports from the region. It carried out at least one prefectural campaign in coordination with government offices, while a separate Communist Party office in another locality reported it would increase monitoring of Muslim women religious specialists. The efforts build on previous official steps in recent years to interfere in the religious activities of Muslim women. See previous Congressional-Executive Commission on China analyses (1, 2, 3) for more information. Recent developments include:
Regulating Women Religious Figures
In early February, central Party leaders and top officials from the State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA) held meetings with representatives of China's "patriotic religious organizations" to commend them for their work in 2009 and to outline the Party's priorities for 2010. Two of the six state-led organizations in attendance―the Committee of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) of Protestant Churches and the China Christian Council (CCC)―are responsible for managing Protestant churches on behalf of SARA and the Party's United Front Work Department (UFWD).
In early February, central Party leaders and top officials from the State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA) held meetings with representatives of China's "patriotic religious organizations" and the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Commission of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference to commend them for their work in 2009 and to outline the Party's and government's priorities for 2010. Six patriotic religious organizations attended these meetings, representing the five officially recognized religions in China: the Buddhist Association of China, the Chinese Taoist Association, the Islamic Association of China, the Catholic Patriotic Association, the China Christian Council and the Committee of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) of Protestant Churches.
The following text was retrieved from the Chinese government's official Web site on February 6, 2013.
A new regulation that took effect in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) on December 1, 2009, includes provisions addressing the "negative impact" various religious activities have on minors, according to a November 19 Xinhua report. Although the full text of the XUAR Regulation on the Protection of Minors appears to be unavailable on the Internet and in legal databases, if the final version retains provisions included in the draft regulation considered for deliberation in June, it will expand existing legal controls over children's right to freedom of religion in the XUAR and parents' right to impart religious teachings.
Three provincial governments have issued new or amended regulations on religious affairs to take effect in the summer and fall of 2009, continuing a trend in issuing revised or new provincial-level legislation on religion since the State Council Regulation on Religious Affairs (RRA) entered into force in March 2005.
In the early morning hours on September 13, 2009, Fushan county authorities in Shanxi province led over 400 public security officers in a violent raid against an unregistered Protestant church called the Shanxi Linfen Christian Church, according to eyewitness accounts reported by ChinaAid on September 15, AsiaNews Italy (ANI) on September 17, and Radio Free Asia (RFA) on September 21. The raid lasted for several hours and reportedly involved the use of two bulldozers to raze the factory building that served as a meeting place for the church. Linfen municipal officials characterized the raid as an effort to "ban illegal buildings," according to the RFA report.
In recent months, two local governments in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) published reports on the government and Communist Party-led political training of Muslim women religious figures known as büwi. (Büwi is a Uyghur word transliterated in the Chinese-language reports cited here as buwei.