China is waging war with faith. The nation should respect the sacred right of people to worship, said the U.S. ambassador for International Religious Freedom as he was speaking in Hong Kong last week.
The human rights situation in China has caused many concerns in recent past years. The current president, Xi Jinping, seems to be especially active in taking religious freedom away from the citizens of the world’s most populous nation. Foreign workers who have been living in China for years, are told to leave on short notice. Many unregistered churches who operated openly a few years ago, have now moved their work to secret places.
Nationwide crackdowns
The management of religious affairs lies with the Communist Party now, not just with government, and Christians are feeling this strongly. Crackdowns against Christians happen countrywide and in both state-approved and non-registered churches. The youth are increasingly being removed from church life, worship is monitored via CCTV and spies, and teachers and medical workers are told they are not allowed to have any religious affiliation, writes Open Doors in its 2019 World Watch list. The list describes and documents persecution against Christians worldwide. The World Watch list places China as the 27th worst persecutor of Christians. One year ago China was listed as number 43
All religions are affected
The deteriorating faith and human rights situation in China is monitored by several governments and organization. Sam Brownback, the US Ambassador for International Religious Freedom, underlines that the government’s policy does not only create problems for the Christians. Muslims and other religious minorities are equally affected. The ambassador states that the policy also creates new obstacles in a potential unification between Taiwan and China.
If they want to build some confidence in Taiwan, they should give religious freedom to their own people. It would be noticeable if they did that, he says according to Reuters.
Short notice
The Voice of the Martyrs reports that a government office in the Henan province has announced the establishment of a hotline to report “illegal religious activities”. People who break the religious laws can be fined up to 30,000 US dollars.
The public has been encouraged to aggressively monitor their community members for such violations, writes the Voice of the Martyrs.
Tentmaking Today is regularly in contact with several people who live and work in China. Many of them tell stories of foreign friends who have had to leave China on short notice. Among those remaining in the nation the situation is creating fear that the police one day will show up and put an end to their life and work in China.
By Steinar Opheim