Freedom of Religion

In 2004 the State Council issued the Regulation on Religious Affairs (RRA), marking the first national-level comprehensive regulation on religion. Since then, the government has not issued one consolidated set of implementing provisions, as some observers anticipated, but rather expanded upon specific articles within the RRA by issuing legal measures (banfa) regarding these articles. In addition, the State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA) continues to publicize a book of interpretations of the RRA that elaborates on each article of the regulation. See the SARA Web site for more information.

The list below provides a brief chronology of the central government's legislative activity in the area of religion since the RRA's promulgation.

Authorities in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) will make "illegal" political and religious publications the focal point of their campaign to "Sweep Away Pornography and Strike Down Illegal Publications," according to a January 18 report from Xinhua. Li Yi, head of the XUAR Propaganda Bureau, made the announcement at a January 17 conference at which he stressed the importance of censoring illegal publications and taking actions such as eliminating pornography and removing "harmful information" from the Internet to ensure reforms develop in a stable manner and to promote a "sound cultural environment." He described the situation regarding "illegal" religious and political publications as "severe," and called for enforcement agencies to maintain vigilance against such publications.

Introduction

The 17th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which concluded on October 21, 2007, resulted in the promotions of two high-ranking Party officials, Zhou Yongkang and Liu Yandong, whose recent posts associate them with harsh policies that contribute to the repression of human rights such as the freedoms of religion and expression, and that undermine ethnic minority rights guaranteed by China's Constitution and system of regional ethnic autonomy. The Party’s elevation of Zhou and Liu to the highest levels of Party power is likely to signify strong endorsement of their work, and ensure the continuation and perhaps strengthening of the policies associated with them, especially during the period of the Party's 16th Central Committee (2002-2007).

At a Politburo study session held December 18, Chinese President and Communist Party General Secretary Hu Jintao reaffirmed the Party's policies for controlling religion and called on religious communities to play a "positive role" in promoting state goals and to "closely unite" around the Party. Hu's statements, which outlined direction for carrying forward Party policy on religion, also continued a trend in mentioning a "positive role" for religious communities at high levels of the Communist Party. According to a description of the study session posted December 20 on the Web site of the State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA), Hu called for "closely uniting religious personages and the religious masses around the Party and government" and outlined three "requirements" for carrying out the Party's work on religion under what he described as "new historic conditions":

The state-controlled Catholic Patriotic Association (CPA), which oversees China's registered Catholic church, ordained three bishops in late 2007 who had received approval from the Holy See, continuing a trend that was interrupted in 2006 by several bishop ordinations without Holy See approval. Although the CPA appoints and ordains bishops according to its own internal procedures and does not recognize the authority of the Holy See to make such appointments, in recent years it has tolerated discreet involvement by the Holy See in the selection of some bishops. After breaking with this practice for some bishop appointments in 2006, the CPA ordained a total of five bishops in 2007 all of whom had Holy See approval. Recent ordinations include:

Authorities in Hunan province have passed new legislation that strengthens legal protections for folk belief practices, but that also subjects them to increased government scrutiny. The Hunan Province Provisional Measures for the Management of Venues for Folk Belief Activities (Provisional Measures), issued by the Hunan province Religious Affairs Bureau (RAB) in August 2007, mark China's first comprehensive provincial-level legal measures dedicated solely to activities related to folk beliefs [minjian xinyang huodong]. The Provisional Measures follow earlier steps from Hunan province to regulate such practices.

Local governments and educational institutions in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) continued in 2007 to impose religious restrictions on Muslims' observance of the holiday of Ramadan. Local governments and schools called for increased controls over religious activities during Ramadan, banning students from fasting, forbidding teachers and other state employees from engaging in religious activities, and requiring local restaurants to remain open during the holiday.

Authorities in western China have closed four businesses owned or headed by local and overseas Christians, reflecting their concerns over perceived instability and "foreign infiltration" from overseas religious groups. According to a series of reports published by the U.S.-based nongovernmental organization China Aid Association (CAA), in September, authorities in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) shut down two businesses owned or headed by local Protestants, accusing both businesses of conducting illegal religious activities. Officials accused one business of "seriously endanger[ing] the security of the state and social and political security" by "illegally preaching Christianity" among ethnic Uighurs in the region.