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Freedoms Herald A Voice for Human Rights and Human Dignity Home ← Older posts UCAnews: China to further clamp down on religions: rights group Posted on September 5, 2023 | Comments Off on UCAnews: China to further clamp down on religions: rights group The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) under the leadership of President Xi Jinping is all set to impose more restrictions on religious freedom when the new measures take effect next month, warned a rights group. The State Administration for Religious Affairs, the top CCP body overseeing religious affairs, announced the new measures on religious affairs on July 31 to be effective from September, ChinaAid reported on Aug. 10. The religious freedom of Chinese citizens, including those in Tibet , Xinjiang , and Inner Mongolia , will face further restrictions,” said the US-based group run by exiled Chinese Christians. All religious activities will be limited to official religious venues, and the display of religious symbols will be restricted indoors,” it added. The new rules–Measures on the Administration of Religious Activity Venues– severely restrain the establishment and registration procedures for venues. But the measures also set forth management rules and stipulations for managing personnel. The regulations specify the establishment of supervisors for religious activity sites and impose conditional limitations on internal management within these sites. Though China’s Constitution allows freedom of religion or belief, the CCP has been accused of violating the rights of religious groups for decades, though it recognizes five organized religions – Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholicism and Protestantism. The state runs seven bodies to oversee the affairs of all recognized religions and impose restrictions on groups that are not registered and whose activities are not pre-approved by the state. Since Xi became China’s president, religious groups have faced constant crackdowns under several repressive policies and regulations including sinicization of religions and the 2018 Regulations on Religious Affairs. ChinaAid alleged that the CCP seeks to assert more control over religions by suffocating” members of underground religious groups and placing official groups under more restrictions. This amounts to a complete ban on religious activities, whatever remains must align with the leadership and political propaganda of the CCP,” it warned. Article 3 of the new measures requires religious activity venues should uphold the leadership of the Communist Party of China. Those at the activities must uphold the socialist system and adhere to Sinicization. Managing personnel will be expected to implement Xi Jinping Thoughts on Socialism Article 16 of the Measures states that places of religious activity shall not be named after churches, sects, or persons. Article 27 stipulates that members of the management organization of venues should possess the qualities of loving the motherland and supporting the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the socialist system.” — more — Comments Off on UCAnews: China to further clamp down on religions: rights group Posted in CCP Interference , Eastern Turkestan , Human Dignity , Human Rights , Southern Mongolia , Tibet SMHRIC: Asia Freedom Institute webinar: Cultural Genocide under Xi Jinping and the CCP” Posted on August 27, 2023 | Comments Off on SMHRIC: Asia Freedom Institute webinar: Cultural Genocide under Xi Jinping and the CCP” SMHRIC August 2, 2023 New York The Chinese government’s policies towards ethnic and religious minorities have widely been characterized as genocide. Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have launched the second-generation ethnic policy (第二 代 民族 政策) through which the Uyghurs, Tibetans, and other minority non-Chinese communities are experiencing unprecedented suppression and eventual eradication of their language, religious practices, traditions, and independent histories. The end goal is assimilation and sinicization. There are credible and numerous reports of forced labor, mass surveillance, re-education camps, mass collection of DNA, massive colonial boarding school systems, forced sterilizations, increasing restrictions on religious practices, etc. How does the Chinese government policies amount to cultural genocide? What has been the impact on the targeted communities? How can the impacted communities and the international community counter the CCP policies? Comments Off on SMHRIC: Asia Freedom Institute webinar: Cultural Genocide under Xi Jinping and the CCP” Posted in CCP Propaganda , Eastern Turkestan , Human Dignity , Human Rights , Southern Mongolia , Tibet Safeguard Defenders: New report: China is threatening Uyghurs in Türkiye to spy on diaspora Posted on August 23, 2023 | Comments Off on Safeguard Defenders: New report: China is threatening Uyghurs in Türkiye to spy on diaspora The report, Targeted in Türkiye: China’s Transnational Repression Against Uyghurs , used interviews with Uyghurs living in Türkiye to show how Chinese police are using transnational networks involving local Neighbourhood Working Groups in China and mission staff and informants in Türkiye to monitor and manipulate Uyghurs living overseas. Chinese police leverage intelligence gathered from these networks to coerce Uyghurs into spying for them, keeping quiet about China’s human rights abuses or producing pro-China propaganda. In every case in this study, police used open or veiled threats against family members back home as part of the transnational repression. The findings in this report are consistent with results from other human rights reports focused on Uyghurs living in other countries in addition to Türkiye. — more — Comments Off on Safeguard Defenders: New report: China is threatening Uyghurs in Türkiye to spy on diaspora Posted in CCP Interference , Eastern Turkestan , Human Rights SMHRIC: Herders protest land grab, land-grabbers bulldozed through the protesters Posted on August 19, 2023 | Comments Off on SMHRIC: Herders protest land grab, land-grabbers bulldozed through the protesters SMHRIC June 15, 2023 New York On June 12, 2023, Mongolian herders from eastern Southern Mongolia’s Zaruud Banner gathered to block the road near their grazing land in protest of the local government’s land grab. Hired to advance the expropriation, a Chinese driver by the surname of Lu plowed into the protestors with a large bulldozer, crashing herders’ motorcycles, and injuring at least two. According to protestors on the scene, the Zaruud Banner Breeding Farm Ar-Hundelen Branch appropriated a large swath of grazing land and sold it to a Chinese business—all with the authorization of the Zaruud Banner government. A written statement from the local community notes that Without our prior and informed consent, the breeding farm sold our land to a Chinese business at a price of 2,000,000 yuan (approximately 280,000 USD),” and that the Chinese buyer is now bringing truckloads of cows and other animals to the land, attempting to graze them in disregard of our protest.” This happened before the eyes of government officials who are ganging up with violent Chinese invaders,” said an angry herder in a WeChat discussion group, in reference to the bulldozer attack. The lives of Mongolians are worthless here.” In a public statement, the Zaruud Banner Public Security Bureau confirmed the case while downplaying the violence as a dispute that escalated to a conflict between a herder and the bulldozer driver, Mr. Lu, and the accountant Ms. Lu, resulting in an injury to the herder Mr. Wu.” The next day, another attack took place in eastern Southern Mongolia’s Evenk Banner. A Chinese land-grabber struck a Mongolian herder with a vehicle while the herder defended his grazing land alongside other herders. The injured herder fell unconscious at the scene, but the state of his current health remains unknown. Violence by the Chinese toward Mongolians has happened two days in a...