Freedom of Religion

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.

The Chinese government State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA) issued legal measures on July 18, 2007, that if fully implemented could transform Tibetan Buddhism as it exists in China into a less substantial, more completely state-managed institution, and further isolate Tibetan Buddhist communities from their counterparts outside China. The "Measures on the Management of the Reincarnation of Living Buddhas in Tibetan Buddhism" (MMR) (Web site of the SARA (in Chinese), 18 July 07) take effect on September 1.

A court in Ganzi (Kardze) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (TAP), located in Sichuan province, sentenced the abbot (khenpo) of a Tibetan Buddhist monastery on July 16, 2007, to three years' imprisonment for endangering state security with "anti-government propaganda" and by "incitement of [the] masses," according to a February 2, 2008, Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) report. The Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) 2007 Annual Report named Abbot Jinpa of Taglung Monastery, located in Chogtsang village, Seda (Serthar) county, as one of nine Tibetans whom Ganzi authorities detained between March and August 2006, according to news media and non-government organization reports issued between June and September 2006.