Are Christians In China Next In Line For ‘Re-Education’?
Chinese persecution. Creative Commons Image.
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(OPINION) In April 2021, Radio Free Asia reported that “authorities in China are detaining Christians in secretive, mobile ‘transformation’ facilities to make them renounce their faith.” According to that report, “A member of a Christian ‘house church’ in the southwestern province of Sichuan... said he was held in a facility run by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s United Front Work Department, working in tandem with the state security police, for 10 months after a raid on his church in 2018. It was a mobile facility, that could just set up in some basement somewhere. It was staffed by people from several different government departments.”
The man explained that “he was held in a windowless room for nearly 10 months, during which time he was beaten, verbally abused and ‘mentally tortured’ by staff, eventually resorting to self-harm by throwing himself against a wall.” He added that “They use really underhand methods. They threaten, insult and intimidate you.” These methods appear to be similar to the treatment described by Uyghurs held in concentration camps in Xinjiang, treatment that Beijing continues to strongly dispute.
While the allegations are yet to be investigated, they add to the ever-growing evidence of the deteriorating treatment of religious groups in China. Recent reports suggested that Uyghurs have been subjected to killings, torture and abuse, rape and sexual violence, forced labor, forced abortions, forced sterilizations and much more. Other reports suggests that Falun Gong practitioners are subjected to forced organ harvesting. Christians are subject to various methods of discrimination and persecution in China. Christians often complain of the closures of churches, bans on the sale of bibles online, the removal of crosses and the arrest of priests and worshipers. Reports also suggest there are plans to “contextualize” the Bible to make it more “culturally acceptable” and for Christian preaching to be adapted to include the core values of socialism.
On January 13, 2021, Open Doors, an international NGO advocating on behalf of persecuted Christians, released their annual World Watch List which assesses 50 countries where Christians face the most severe types of persecution. According to their assessment, China has entered the top 20 for the first time in a decade, due to ongoing and increasing surveillance and censorship of Christians and other religious minorities. As they reported, “the policy of ‘Sinicizing’ the church has been implemented nationwide, as the [CCP] limits whatever it perceives as a threat to its rule and ideology. Thousands of churches have been damaged or closed. In some parts of China, children under the age of 18 aren’t allowed to attend church—part of the country’s efforts to stunt future growth.” While China is ranked 17th, as a place where Christians are subjected to high levels of persecution, the situation of all religious groups in China is dire and has been deteriorating in recent years.
In May 2021, news outlets reported that Chinese authorities have been “removing Bible Apps and Christian WeChat public accounts as new highly restrictive administrative measures on religious staff went into effect Saturday.” Reportedly, “Bibles in hard copy are no longer available for sale online either.”
Furthermore, as the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) identified in its 2021 report: “Despite the Vatican-China agreement on Bishop appointments, Chinese authorities continued to harass, detain, and torture underground Catholic bishops—such as Cui Tai and Huang Jintong—who refuse to join the state-backed Catholic association. They also harassed, detained, arrested, and imprisoned members of Protestant house churches who refuse to join the state-sanctioned ‘Three-Self Patriotic Movement.’” They further added that “The government also continued to demolish both Catholic and Protestant church buildings and crosses under its ‘sinicization of religion’ campaign.”
Considering the current trends of persecution of religious groups in China, it is expected that China will soon be toping the Open Doors charts and competing with North Korea as the worst place to live as a Christian. The same applies to other religious groups. Further restrictions of the right to freedom of religion or belief, in all shapes and forms, are expected.
Ewelina U. Ochab is a legal researcher and human rights advocate, PhD candidate and author of the book “Never Again: Legal Responses to a Broken Promise in the Middle East” and more than 30 UN reports. She works on the topic of persecution of minorities around the world. This piece was re-published from Forbes with permission.