Christians want international community to pay attention to Chinas religious and human rights situation

UCA News reporter, China, May 5,2020

Chinese Christians have welcomeda damning US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) report butsaid religious oppression in China is more severe than what is reported.

Christian leaders say the spacefor religious freedom has severely shrunk in the past two decades, with thecommunist regime implementing a series of policies aiming to eradicate religionfrom society.

The US State Department hasconsidered China a country of special concern since 1999, followingthe USCIRF recommendation. The recent 2020 report of the commission kept Chinaamong the global worst performers in terms of religious freedom.

But some religious scholars toldUCA News that the most serious but often overlooked form of religious suppressionin China is to make Christians sign a declaration rejecting religion under thethreat of denying them government benefits such as pensions.

Since 2018 in areas such asZhejiang province, Christian teachers in schools and colleges have been forcedto sign such documents, without which they are denied pensions.

The oppression continues subtly, blocking people from practicing their faith, said a religious leader who requested anonymity.

The USCIRF report, released onApril 28, said that the state of religious freedom in China has continuedto deteriorate over the last year, with authorities using facialrecognition and artificial intelligence to monitor religious minority groups.

Series of violations

Independent experts estimate thatbetween 900,000 and 1.8 million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyzstans and other Muslimsare being held in more than 1,300 concentration camps in Xinjiang, the reportsaid.

It also referred to attacks onChristians, saying that authorities had raided or seized hundreds of Christianhouse churches. They released members of the Autumn Rain Covenant Church inDecember 2018, but a court last December charged its priest, Reverend Wang Yi,with subversion of state power and sentenced him to nine years inprison.

The report also explicitlymentioned Auxiliary Bishop Guo Xijin of Fujian Mindong Diocese and CoadjutorBishop Cui Tai of Hebei Xuanhua Diocese. Authorities harassed and jailed themfor refusing to join the official state-sanctioned church.

It also alleges that various localgovernments, including Guangzhou, are offering cash incentives to people whoreport underground church groups.

In addition, crosses fromchurches across the country have been removed, people under 18 are banned fromparticipating in religious liturgies, and images of Jesus or Our Lady arereplaced with those of President Xi Jinping.

The report recommended that theUS government again designate China as a country of special concern under theInternational Religious Freedom Act.

It wanted the US to impose targetedsanctions on institutions and officials that commit serious violations ofreligious freedom by freezing the property of the individuals involved orbarring them from entering the United States.

They also suggested that if theChinese government continues to suppress religious freedom, US governmentofficials will not participate in the Winter Olympics hosted by Beijing in2022.

The report also asked forintensified efforts to fight back against the Chinese governments attempts toexert influence in the United States to suppress information or propagandaabout religious freedom violations.

China defends freedom

Chinese Foreign Ministryspokesman Geng Shuang responded to the report at a regular press conference. Hesaid the US committee was biased against China and has published reports overthe years denigrating Chinas religious policy.

He claimed that China has nearly200 million people of all kinds of religious communities, more than 380,000religious staff, about 5,500 religious groups and more than 140,000 religiousactivity sites registered by law.

Geng reiterated that China wouldnever allow anyone to engage in illegal criminal activities under the guise ofreligion.

He also urged the US to respectbasic facts, reject arrogance and prejudice, stop the misguided practice ofreleasing reports year after year, and stop using religious issues to interferein Chinas internal affairs.

But a Chinese religious scholarwho wished to remain anonymous argued that the report was basicallytelling the truth.

Chinese authorities have beenincreasingly cracking down on religion in recent years, with the worstcrackdown on Christianity in Henan province in 2018.

More severe than the demolitionof crosses and churches is the coercion of citizens to sign declarationsrejecting religion under the threat of denying them benefits, he said.

It is a serious violationof human rights and contempt for the law, causing regression of the legalsystem in society, he added.

Religious oppression as culturalrevolution

The scholar said suppression inHenan province is like a rehash of the Cultural Revolution, which will causemajor social trauma and great stimulation to peoples minds, triggering mutualhatred and creating a social group psychological distortion.

After all these years sincethe Cultural Revolution, people have just regained a little bit of sanity, butthey didnt expect to go back all of a sudden, which is a disaster, hesaid.

He pointed out that just 10 daysbefore Geng Shuang responded to the report, the cross of Our Lady of the RosaryChurch in Anhui province was removed. On the following day, the cross ofYongqiao Catholic Church in Suzhou City was also removed.

But the Chinese communistauthorities did not produce any legal documents for their action, saidthe scholar.

Chinese official Geng Shuang waslying, said Cebu parishioner Paul Li. The officials accused this USreport of denigrating Chinas religious policy. Is it Chinas religious policyto tear down the crosses of churches? And to spend public money to demolishcrosses despite churches objections,? Li asked.

Father Thomas Wang, who has beenfollowing the developments, said authorities have never responded positively tothese accusations of religious persecution, either dodging them oroutrightly evading them, or accusing others of interfering in internalaffairs.

Father Wang said the Chinese sidesees it as a domestic fight. I beat my wife and children behind closeddoors; it has nothing to do with you, I just beat them to death, its ourfamily business, its none of your business.

Maria Li in Guangdong said Chinais no longer worried about international pressure and condemnation.

They have bribed a lot of smallcountries and organizations; even international agencies like the World HealthOrganization defended it. So what are they worried about? she asked.

However, she wanted theinternational community to pay attention to the religious and human rights situationin China.

If more countries unite andput pressure on China, authorities will desist from blatant oppressions, whichwill help the Church to breathe, she said.

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