Faith in the world's second most populous country has been under constant suppression for 74 years.

The report, which delves into the challenging task of collecting data in a nation known for tight media control and atheistic indoctrination, paints a striking picture.

China appears, on the surface, to be "the least religious country in the world," according to Pew demographer Conrad Hackett.

Only 10% of Chinese identify with a religion, and merely 3% consider religion "very important" in their lives, starkly contrasting to 98% in Indonesia and 37% in the United States.

Pew faced government barriers in conducting field surveys, relying instead on data from government reports, Chinese universities, private polling firms and the Sweden-based World Values Survey.

The report acknowledges the complexities and limitations of these data sources, highlighting discrepancies such as the government's claim of 34,000 registered Buddhist temples compared to experts' count of 190,000.

Beneath the surface, Chinese society remains steeped in spiritual beliefs and superstitions. Rituals, incense-burning, fortune-telling, and belief in Buddha and Taoist deities persist, even among those not formally affiliated with a religion.

However, questions linger about whether believers are hesitant to discuss their faith under the ever-watchful eye of China's government.

Targeted harassment

Religious persecution has intensified since 2017, coinciding with President Xi Jinping's tenure.

Muslims in Xinjiang, Buddhists in Tibet, unregistered Protestants and Catholics, and the Falun Gong movement have faced targeted harassment. Despite this, China has experienced a significant Christian revival, largely attributed to unregistered Protestant "house churches."

Pew reports that China now boasts 109.65 million evangelical Protestants, with 64% in unregistered groups and 20 million Catholics, divided between unregistered churches and the government-approved Catholic Patriotic Association.

While the Christian community has grown substantially since the 1980s, Pew notes a plateau in registered Protestant churches during Xi's leadership, suggesting a potential underground surge. However, reliable data remains elusive due to recent repression.

Sources

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Protesters threw water bottles at officers with helmets and shields outside the blue-domed Najiaying Mosque in Yuxi, a city in Yunnan province, according to videos on social media. One punched a police officer's helmet, but little other violence was shown.

The Associated Press confirmed the location of the protest. Videos showing the protests were removed from Chinese social media.

Police called on "criminal suspects" to turn themselves in following Saturday's incident and said those who do might receive a lighter punishment.

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USCIRF Commissioner David Curry (pictured) says "USCIRF is disappointed that the Vatican had decided to renew the provisional agreement with the Chinese government on Catholic bishop appointments".

He and other commissioners think things have become worse for Catholics and other Christians and religious minorities in China since the deal was first brokered in 2018.

The secretive provisional deal between the Vatican and China was first agreed to in September 2018. It was renewed for another two years in October 2020 and again last month.

"USCIRF has observed significant deterioration in religious freedom conditions for all religious minorities, including Protestant Christians and Catholics, during the 10-year rule of Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping," Curry says.

Rather than improvements in religious freedom for Catholics in China, Curry says it's likely the deal has been used by the Chinese government to justify its crackdown on underground Catholics who refuse to join the state-controlled Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association.

The Vatican announced the renewal of the "Provisional Agreement regarding the appointment of Bishops" on 22 October.

"The Vatican Party is committed to continuing a respectful and constructive dialogue with the Chinese Party for a productive implementation of the Accord and further development of bilateral relations, with a view to fostering the mission of the Catholic Church and the good of the Chinese people," the Vatican said when announcing the renewal.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican's secretary of state, is defending the deal.

"Pope Francis — with determination and patient foresight — has decided to continue along this path not under the illusion of finding perfection in human rules, but in the concrete hope of being able to assure Chinese Catholic communities, even in such a complex context, of the guidance of pastors who are worthy and suitable for the task entrusted to them," Parolin says.

However, the USCIRF's 2022 annual report assessed that "despite the Vatican-China agreement on bishop appointments, authorities continued to harass and detain underground Catholic priests who refuse to join the state-controlled Catholic association".

It added Beijing "also intensified persecution of Protestants by harassing, detaining, arresting and physically abusing leaders of Protestant house churches who refuse to join the state-controlled Three-Self Patriotic Movement.

"Authorities throughout China routinely raided churches, detained Christians and confiscated religious materials.

"The government also continued to demolish church buildings and crosses ... under its ‘sinicisation of religion' campaign."

The USCIRF made similar warnings in 2021.

It said "Chinese authorities continued to harass, detain and torture underground Catholic bishops" despite the Vatican deal.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said last month "the two sides will continue to maintain close communication and consultation, work for the sound implementation of the provisional agreement, and continuously advance the process of improving relations".

A Ministry official also claimed in late September: the Vatican-China deal "has been successfully implemented thanks to the efforts of both sides".

Source

• Washington Examiner

The State Administration of Radio and Television published the draft regulation titled: "Provisions on the Administration of Radio, Television, and Online A/V Programme Production and Business" last month and asked all for "soliciting comments" by 8 September - so reported Bitter Winter, a magazine on religious liberty and human rights.

The new regulation will put all such platforms under strict surveillance in line with orders from President Xi Jinping, who reportedly claimed they were "chaotic" and not fully controlled by the Communist Party of China (CCP).

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The way the government of President Xi Jinping views it, nothing really changed.

The accord was supposed to end decades of disagreement between the church and Beijing by making the appointment of bishops a joint decision of the Pope and Chinese authorities.

A few days after the accord was reached, the Pope declared the agreement a breakthrough. He told reporters: "What is there is a dialogue on potential candidates, but Rome nominates, the Pope nominates, that's clear."

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In the three decades following the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, one of the ways China sought to rebuild its image abroad was by systematically forging partnerships with Western universities.

At first, these partnerships mainly focused on research collaboration.

Later, they grew to include the Confucius Institutes for language education, generous funding for various joint projects, and the establishment of Western universities' branch campuses in China.

At a time when China was undemocratic but liberalizing, such engagement seemed like a sensible strategy.

Values

There have always been uneasy moments in Western universities' relationships with China, whether prompted by tensions over hosting the Dalai Lama or controversies over university self-censorship on China-related topics. But these might have been dismissed as growing pains on China's learning curve toward a more enlightened regime.

It seemed that everyone—even Beijing—shared the same ultimate goal of a more liberal, more democratic China.

Now that China has tilted toward full-blown totalitarianism at home and military expansionism abroad, the "values transfer" rationale for engagement with China has evaporated.

It has become crystal clear that Chinese President Xi Jinping has no intention of leading China toward convergence with the West.

As a result, Western universities can no longer argue that they are pursuing a larger civilizing mission in their dealings with China.

All that is left is the pure, crass hunger for Chinese money.

Money, of course, is where it all began.

In the 1990s, Western universities started developing a cottage industry in offering bespoke short courses to teams of visiting Chinese officials.

By the turn of the millennium, their large-scale recruitment of Chinese students had begun.

Then, in 2004, China issued a bold invitation to the world's universities: If you host a centre for the study of Chinese language and culture, the People's Republic of China will pick up the tab. That was the birth of the Confucius Institutes.

Billed as China's answer to the British Council and the Alliance Française, China's 541 Confucius Institutes are housed at universities abroad, not run as independent outlets for public diplomacy like their European competitors.

Critics worry that Confucius Institutes promote Chinese government propaganda, but these concerns are probably overblown.

The reality is that Confucius Institutes are not so much designed to indoctrinate the students who take their courses as to influence the administrators of the universities that host them.

China provides the start-up funds, the salaries, the teaching materials, and sometimes even the buildings for Confucius Institutes.

Perhaps just as important, China supplies the teachers.

It's no easy task to find qualified Chinese teachers in Conway, Arkansas, or Las Cruces, New Mexico, to say nothing of Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria, or N'Djamena, Chad.

In an era of strained university budgets, it must be very attractive when a foreign government offers to fund and staff a revenue-generating language learning centre. Confucius Institutes at most Western universities focus on offering noncredit classes to the public, while ordinary faculty teach for-credit classes to degree students.

That at least some university administrators have been compromised seems likely.

• In the United Kingdom, Parliament has held hearings on the potential of Confucius Institute funding to influence university policies.
• The University of Queensland in Australia has experienced a governance crisis over its moves to expel a student activist who has been highly critical of the university's Confucius Institute ties.
• And, of course, in the United States, the umbrella organization coordinating Confucius Institutes has recently been designated as a foreign mission by the State Department.

Point missed

But this debate misses the main point.

For three decades, universities have attempted to play a pivotal role in Western public diplomacy toward China.

They have collaborated with Chinese institutions, opened campuses in China, and educated hundreds of thousands of Chinese students.

Along the way, they generated millions of dollars in revenues, but always with the promise that the money ultimately supported progress toward the larger goal of a more liberal China. Collaboration would help professionalize Chinese institutions; overseas campuses would be island outposts of academic freedom; Chinese students would internalize Western values and take them back to China.

Perhaps through no fault of the universities, those public diplomacy missions have failed.

Chinese universities have been forced to abandon "freedom of thought" pledges in favour of "Xi Jinping Thought." Continue reading

In 2003, after the SARS epidemic, attempts were made to introduce a national security law.

Similarly, it is happening now as the coronavirus recedes. But this time we fear there will be no happy ending.

It is difficult to find words that we have not already written to tell about the danger Hong Kong is facing.

For some, we are alarmists: the tanks have not been seen in Hong Kong, and therefore we can think that things have not got out of hand.

The world has its head elsewhere, and we seem repetitive.

On May 18, 15 well-known leaders of the democratic opposition appeared in court. Their case will be resumed on June 15. For five of them, including our friend Lee Cheuk-yan, the charges have been extended, and they foresee very severe penalties, up to five years of imprisonment.

But the worst news comes from Beijing, where the National People's Congress has been formally endorsing what has already been decided by the Central Committee of the Communist Party, the real body that governs China.

But even the Central Committee (politburo) counts less since President Xi Jinping concentrated all powers on himself, as only Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping had done in the past.

It is therefore a decision by Xi that we are talking about.

A bill has been introduced that sends a chill down the backs of those who love Hong Kong, its young students and its people, freedom and democracy.

The new law introduces national security regulations in Hong Kong. It will be included as a new "third annex" to the Basic Law, the mini-constitution that governs the "high degree of autonomy" of the city.

The law, which consists of seven articles, provides provisions punishing offenses such as treason, secession, sedition, subversion and foreign interference.

It is not difficult to imagine how the provisions will be conveniently used to suppress the popular protests that began in June 2019 and any other form of opposition.

With such laws in China, every form of dissent is condemned, with punishments up to the death penalty.

Particularly disturbing is the fourth article: "If necessary, the central government will establish bodies in Hong Kong with the task of implementing the safeguarding of national security."

This provision would lead to the emptying of the power of parliament and of the local government in favour of an entirely political office, which has never been seen in Hong Kong.

The drastic downsizing of the parliament is particularly concerning because in the elections due in September the opposition parties will have, according to all forecasts, a larger representation, as happened for the district elections of last November.

It will be the end of the "one country, two systems" framework and the "high degree of autonomy," the two principles that govern Hong Kong today.

We will have important tests in the coming weeks: the vigil for the massacre in Tiananmen Square on June 4; the first anniversary of the start of the protests on June 9; and the traditional protest march of July 1.

Can they be done? And how?

In the summer of 2003, as many certainly remember, attempts were made to introduce a national security law.

It happened in the aftermath of the SARS epidemic. But the then chief executive, the Beijing-appointed Tung Chee-hwa, withdrew the proposal after a single mass demonstration on July 1 of that fateful year. Various ministers resigned, and Tung himself paid the political price with his early departure from the political scene — a choice that restored some dignity to the man. And Hong Kong, for many more years, was saved.

Today's government, led by Carrie Lam, has faced hundreds of demonstrations, most of them more immense than that of July 1, 2003.

Carrie Lam, 'I am writing it with pain', will go down in Hong Kong history as the single political figure that has done the most damage ever.

There has been a new pandemic, and plans are back to introduce a liberticidal law that will not only prevent Hong Kong from having what it was promised — a progressive and full democratisation — but would also remove what it already has now.

Lam rushed to say that the Hong Kong government will "fully cooperate" in the implementation of this law.

The education minister says students will have to study it well.

There is a shiver!

Allan Lee, a long-time politician from the business world, founder of the Liberal Party and part of the pro-Chinese camp (he had been a communist as a boy), recently died.

He was perhaps little known internationally but in Hong Kong he was a familiar face.

I remember him well. He had the good of Hong Kong at heart: after the demonstration on July 1, 2003, he pledged to persuade Beijing to desist from the implementation of the national security law.

He had courage.

He was heard.

And Allan Lee, who in the meantime had become a moderate right-wing man, spent the last years of his life asking for full democracy and freedom for Hong Kong.

Today the pro-government camp lacks men with Allan Lee's wisdom.

In power today we have figures without political dignity and without courage, opportunists enslaved to the power of the strongest.

It is not true that democracy in Hong Kong is only wanted by "reckless young people" and "opponents without a sense of responsibility."

Hong Kong's democracy and freedom are a serious matter, desired by the best people of our beloved city.

After all, it is not difficult too difficult to understand what's going on.

Things are what they seem.

The threats of a regime opposed to freedom, democracy and human rights are not intended to strike emptily.

As long as possible, we will say it: the end of Hong Kong is being prepared.

• Father Gianni Criveller of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions is dean of studies and a teacher at PIME International Missionary School of Theology in Milan, Italy. He taught in Greater China for 27 years and is a lecturer in mission theology and the history of Christianity in China at the Holy Spirit Seminary College of Philosophy and Theology in Hong Kong.
• First published in UCANews.com. Republished with permission.

The Chinese Communist Party also wants Guo to attend a meeting of the "independent" clergy of the Fujian, where he is the bishop, after he signs the document.

The Party's aim is to show Guo's submission to its rule. In doing so, it hopes to weaken the resistance of underground priests, who are the majority of the clergy of the diocese.

The authorities have been exerting pressure, blackmailing and threatening priests to push them to sign up to the independent Church in exchange for government recognition.

Without government recognition, their ministry is forbidden.

China's President Xi Jinping says an "independent Church" subject to the Chinese Communist Party is the condition for Catholics to live in China.

Guo is part of a group of bishops many religious and human rights experts feared would be persecuted after the Vatican and Beijing signed a deal (called the Sino-Vatican agreement) last year about ordaining bishops.

The deal followed years of Chinese government insistence that it approve clerical appointments, which clashes with absolute papal authority to pick bishops.

The agreement aimed to pave the way for formal diplomatic ties between the Holy See and the Chinese government. However it also stoked fears that the Chinese state would have too much power to regulate religion.

For underground Catholics, the notion of an "independent" Church is unacceptable.

Guo is described as one of the "victims" of the Sino-Vatican agreement, which has made the diocese of Mindong a "pilot project" for implementing the agreement.

Prior to the agreement, Guo was the ordinary bishop of the diocese - recognised by the Holy See, but not by the government.

The government has shut down all places of worship not sanctioned by the Party.

However, the government claims people have freedom of religion - provided that they worship in state-sanctioned temples, churches, and mosques.

It says all religious believers must "be subordinate to and serve the overall interests of the nation and the Chinese people," making it explicit that they must also "support the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party."

Source

• Asia News
• The Telegraph
• Image: Reuters

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 feeding school-age children intensely anti-Christian propaganda, building on the new Regulations on Religious Affairs that ban anyone under the age of 18 from entering a church.

Bitter Winter, an Italy-based publication reporting on Chinese persecution of religious groups, published anonymous accounts of children returning home from school and chastising parents for their faith.

Their kids are told that Christianity is a "xie jiao" (Chinese for "cult") and that if they love their parents, they will warn them not to participate.

"If you believe in it, you will leave home and not take care of me. You might set yourself on fire, too," one young boy told his mother.

In his textbook titled "Morality and Society," his mother found lessons on how to resist the xie jiao.

She began hiding any religious symbols in her house, reports Bitter Winter, but one day she accidentally left out a religious pamphlet.

Her son proceeded to take a knife from the kitchen, aggressively stabbing it several times.

Chinese policy dictates that anyone holding religious activities outside of a church will be arrested.

That means no church camps, no Bible studies, no youth groups, no orphanages, no Church-run health clinics, and since 2017, police have begun disrupting funerals for any faith, including native Taoists, Catholic News Agency reported.

It's all part of the Xi Jinping government's hard-line approach to religious issues.

"There's only one allowed religion in China, and that's secular socialism,"

Steven Mosher, president of the Population Research Institute, tells National Review.

"And the Church is the community party, the acolytes, its members, and their pontiff, Chinese president Xi Jinping himself."

Mosher, author of Bully of Asia, explains that the Chinese officials do not simply want to contain Christianity; they ultimately want to eradicate it.

They see human rights as a Western plot to subvert their control of the country, centered on the growing cult of personality around Xi Jinping.

This is referred to as China's campaign to "sinicize" religion, meaning that all citizens must convincingly profess their ultimate loyalty to the Communist Party — or else.

For those who resist, the consequences can be horrifying. Continue reading

The plan aims to develop the Catholic Church altering religious principles and practices to match Chinese communist ideals and eliminate "foreign influence" ensuring governmental control of all religious activities.

Neither organisation is recognised by the Holy See. However, both acknowledge the Communist Government in Beijing as the primary authority in China.

Religious leaders will need to have Communist Party approval.

Although details have not been released, the plan will involve "understanding the history of the church" in China, theological research, and evangelism. Architecture, arts and liturgy will change to fit better with Chinese ideals.

Religious conformance to Chinese principles has been an expectation in China for many years.

This expectation has strengthened recently. As an example, in 2015, President Xi Jinping spoke to the United Front, calling for outside influences on religion to be eradicated.

The United Front is answerable to the Communist Party Central Committee; it has powers to impose state control on religions.

China and the Vatican are currently at odds with each other at present and will meet again next week to discuss their expectations.

Three weeks ago the South China Morning Post quoted the Pope as saying he will not "compromise Catholic principles" by giving China the power to appoint their own bishops.

However, China does not want to allow the Pope to appoint religious leaders, seeing it as a means to keep the influence of Western ideals in China.

Source

• Catholic Herald
• The Tablet
• Image: Business Insider

A priest says removing the Christian images involved officials giving money to poor households in return for hanging Xi's portrait.

Officials from China's Yugan County in eastern Jiangxi province say Christians have "recognised their mistakes and decided not to entrust to Jesus but to the (Communist) Party".

The officials also say they are "converting" Christians to party loyalty by alleviating poverty and other schemes to help the disadvantaged.

Nearly 10 percent of Yugan County's one million people is said to be Christian.

A priest in northern China says he thinks Xi has become "another Mao" Zedong since the National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in October.

The priest thinks officials around the country will probably imitate the Jiangxi province's actions.

Next February, new "Regulations on Religious Affairs" will be implemented.

Chinese Christians and observers believe this policy will closely follow Xi's "Sinicization" model.

Sinicization is a process where non-Chinese societies come under the influence of Chinese culture.

The director of the divinity school at the Chinese University of Hong Kong has pointed to the dangers of 'Chairman Mao'-style personality cults.

During the Cultural Revolution, religious intolerance and Mao Zedong's dogma prevailed.

Young Red Guards used to arrest and publicly humiliate anyone thought to be deviating from Mao's teachings.

Although Chinese priests don't think there will be a return to the Cultural Revolution conditions, they say they are afraid religious and social controls will intensify.

Videos urging children to spy on their families and other videos teaching children to report family members who could pose a threat to national security have been released.

An official notice said the videos were produced to match Xi's strategy of incorporating national security objectives into the education system.

Source

• UCA News
• Catholic Herald
• Catholic Philly
• Image: China Christian Daily

Speaking at the country's five-yearly Communist Party conference, Xi said religion poses threats to national security. He told the conference that separatism promoted under the guise of religion would not be tolerated.

Although China officially recognizes Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Protestantism and Catholicism, it is strongly against Muslim and Buddhist groups suspected of separatism.

It is also against Falun Gong, a meditation-focused spiritual group that was banned in 1999. Falun Gong supporters suffer state persecution.

Critics say Xi's comments were directed toward Tibetan Buddhists, many of whom have advocated for independence from China.

The critics also say the speech is part Xi's push to suppress religion or drive it underground. Churches have been forming in private homes in the mainly atheist country.

This specifically affects the country's 12 million Catholics.

Despite nominally supporting Catholicism, China refuses to recognise Pope Francis's role or authority. Nor does the government recognise many of the country's Vatican-appointed church leaders.

Instead, the government has established the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (PA). The PA is "a sort of alternative ecclesiastical hierarchy officially recognized by the Chinese authorities".

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has called the PA "incompatible with Catholic doctrine" since it recognises both legitimately and illegitimately appointed bishops.

The Vatican and the Chinese government are having talks about recognising and appointing bishops.

The current proposal would allow the government to select possible episcopal candidates and send the names to the Pope for approval or denial.

Source

• Catholic News Agency
• Newsweek
• Image: BBC.com

Soon after crossing into Chinese airspace on August 14, the Pope dispatched the message which read: "I extend the best wishes to your excellency and your fellow citizens, and I invoke the divine blessings of peace and well-being upon the nation."

The Pope traditionally sends a message to the leaders of countries he flies over.

But the case of China is a special one.

The last time a pope traveled to East Asia, when St. John Paul II flew to the Philippines in 1995, Chinese authorities denied permission to fly over their territory, forcing the papal plane into a long detour.

This time, Beijing allowed Pope Francis to fly over China.

The gesture is significant, particularly in light of the poor relations between China and the Holy See.

These have hit a low in recent years after Chinese authorities placed a Catholic bishop under house arrest.

Pope Francis is in Korea for five days.

Continue reading