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
A southern Chinese city is offering cash rewards for information about “illegal religious groups” as the ruling Communist Party continues to tighten its grip over faith communities. A notice posted on the official website of the Guangzhou Department of Ethnic and Religious Affairs said up to 10,000 yuan ($15,000) would be paid for verified information Read more
Fairly and otherwise, the media often gets criticized for not speaking truth to power, especially on human rights issues. At this week’s post-Cabinet press conference, PM Jacinda Ardern gave us a glimpse into how formulaic the raising of such concerns has become. Read more
A new Human Rights Watch report says young Burmese women are being trafficked to China as ‘brides’ then locked in rooms and raped until they become pregnant. Read more