Freedom of Religion

Local governments in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) continued strict controls in 2006 over the observance of the Muslim holiday of Ramadan. Local governments reported promoting rules that prevented students and teachers from observing the month-long holiday, which began in late September.

The Zhejiang provincial government issued an amended provincial regulation on religious affairs on March 29, making it the fourth provincial-level government to promulgate a new or revised comprehensive regulation on religious affairs since the State Council Regulation on Religious Affairs (RRA) entered into force on March 1, 2005. The Zhejiang regulation amends the provincial government’s 1997 regulation on religious affairs and will enter into force on June 1, 2006. The other new or amended provincial-level regulations on religious affairs were adopted by the governments of Shanghai municipality (amended from the 1995 regulation), Henan province (new regulation), and Shanxi province (new regulation).

The state-controlled Catholic Patriotic Association (CPA) ordained Wang Renlei as auxiliary bishop of the Xuzhou diocese, Jiangsu province, on November 30, according to remarks by a State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA) spokesperson reported in a December 3 Xinhua article (in Chinese and English). The CPA conducted the ordination without Holy See approval, drawing criticism from the Holy See for "subverting the fundamental principles of [the Holy See's] hierarchical structure," according to a December 2 statement (in Italian) on the Vatican Web site.

The nine defendants, who included the owner of the company that purchased the former Church property from the local government and eight of his employees, testified before a Xi'an court on October 17 that they saw the nuns being beaten but did not take part in the beating. Fourteen of the nuns also testified before the court. The judge suggested that the parties negotiate an out-of-court settlement, and negotiations ensued. On October 27, the nuns agreed to accept a payment of 260,000 yuan (US$ 31,000) in compensation for their medical expenses; this is in addition to 90,000 yuan paid to the nuns in 2005. A criminal case against the defendants appears to be pending; the Xi'an court refused the defendants’ request to dismiss criminal charges against them, according to the UCAN account. As of November 7, the nine defendants remained in detention.

Official government repression of Protestant house church members in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) continued in October and November, with three reported incidences of house church members being taken into custody, according to the China Aid Association (CAA), a U.S. NGO that monitors religious freedom in China.

The Gannan Intermediate People's Court in Gansu province sentenced Choekyi Drolma, a Buddhist nun, to three years' imprisonment in December 2005 for "inciting splittism," according to official Chinese information that has recently become available. She was among five Tibetan monks and nuns detained in 2005 in Xiahe (Sangchu), in Gannan (Kanlho) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (TAP) in Gansu. Public security officials detained Choekyi Drolma, along with nuns Tamdrin Tsomo and Yonten Drolma of Gedun Tengyeling Nunnery, and monks Dargyal Gyatso and Jamyang Samdrub of Labrang Tashikhyil Monastery, on May 22, 2005, on suspicion that they circulated and displayed letter-sized posters in Xiahe and other locations that were critical of the Chinese government, according to NGO and news media reports.