Christian funerals are banned in some areas of China as the government begins to enforce new regulations on religious practices. In the eastern province of Zhejiang, a set of Regulations on Centralized Funeral Arrangement are being enforced. These regulations ban priests from attending funeral prayers outside a religious place. The new rules – enacted in Read more
Cardinal Joseph Zen has taken aim at the Vatican for its silence on Hong Kong, the Uyghur concentration camps in Xinjiang and growing religious repression in mainland China. The city’s cardinal emeritus, who has been politically active in protests against any encroaching power by Beijing, used international media to take aim at the Holy See Read more
The Chinese Communist Party has affirmed its determination to control religion by issuing new translations and interpretations of “classic” religious works. The aim is to provide a state-ordained basis for spiritual life. The move signals a profound shift in the Communist Party’s approach to religion, where it is moving from political management to uncompromising constraint. Read more
Police are being accused of using excessive force in arresting protesters at Holy Cross Catholic Church, Hong Kong. CNA reports the excessive force was deployed as peaceful pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong escalated into violence. Video on social media shows at least four riot police officers entering offices at the Church and violently subduing a Read more
Christian churches in China have been ordered to take down displays of the Ten Commandments and replace them with quotes from Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to reports. According to Bitter Winter, a magazine covering religious liberty and human rights in China, churches belonging to the country’s state-run “Three-Self Patriotic Movement” Protestant denomination have been Read more
Opposing student sentiments at The University of Auckland (UoA) are causing ongoing protests between those supporting mainland China’s right to rule Hong Kong and those against it. The university has launched an investigation after Chinese students were filmed verbally threatening another group of students who were protesting against a proposed extradition bill in Hong Kong. Read more
Over the past decade, rash optimism that China was finally moving past the era of former Communist dictator Mao Tse-tung’s influence has given way to president Xi Jinping’s reconsolidating his power. One of the major ways he’s done that: persecuting religious believers. Demanding psychological submission to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), teachers in China are Read more
Two new reports conclude that China is engaging in organ harvesting and a child separation campaign against the country’s Uighur Muslim minority. China’s ambassador to the U.K., Liu Xiaoming, has denied a BBC investigation’s findings, which concluded that Muslim children in the Uighur-majority region of western Xinjiang are being systematically separated from their parents. The Read more
At least three Filipino Catholic bishops have joined growing protests in Manila against what they described as China’s “continuous bullying of the Philippines.” Bishop Arturo Bastes of Sorsogon said the sinking of a Filipino fishing boat and the abandonment of its crew by a Chinese vessel last week was a “manifestation” of China’s lack of Read more
In China, the Communist Party’s high-tech means to control Chinese Christians’ religious observance include facial recognition surveillance and a smartphone app that ranks citizens’ party loyalty. Chinese authorities in the Xinjiang region use high-tech surveillance with facial recognition and an app tracking its user’s location to monitor the Uyghur ethnoreligious minority intensely. Between 800,000 to Read more