Tag: China

China: Henan churches told to sing national anthem at services

July 12, 2018 China Catholics, China, Henan, House churches, Religious freedom

The outside of a registered church. Churches in Henan are now required to have a Chinese flag on display and to sing the national anthem at each service. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Local authorities in China’s central Henan province have stipulated that all churches must have a Chinese flag on display and sing the national anthem at each gathering. In the “Special Emergency Notice” circulated earlier this month, they also asked clergy to collect data on their members, especially on those from . . . Read More

Myanmar: Peace talks resume but ethnic autonomy not on the agenda

July 12, 2018 Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi, Chin, China, Churches, Human rights, Kachin, Karen, Ma Ba Tha, Minorities, Myanmar, Myitkyina, Panglong, Rakhine, Rohingya, Sanctions, Tatmadaw

Myanmar's defacto leader Aung San Suu Kyi leaves the 2016 Panglong Conference. (Photo: AUNG HTET/AFP/Getty Images)

A third round of peace talks are taking place in Myanmar this week between armed ethnic groups and government forces, but the military has ruled out discussions on the autonomy that ethnic groups crave. The six-day meeting, which has been dubbed the 21st century ‘Panglong Conference’ after the historic 1947 . . . Read More

China: New book explains ‘explosive’ growth of Christianity

June 25, 2018 China China, Communism, Crosses, Henan, Mao Zedong, Shandong, Wenzhou, Zhejiang

One of the largest Chinese state approved Three Self churches in the world is located in Hangzhou city, the capital of southeastern Zejiang province, and seats 5,000 people. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

A new book describes the growth of Christianity in China, despite attempts by the government to clamp down on religion. “Things are heading back to how they were in the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and ’70s. Believers in some provinces have already told us things there are ‘just like . . . Read More

Increase in religious harassment globally – Pew

June 22, 2018 Global News -- No Particular Country Bangladesh, China, Hindu nationalism, India, Sinicisation

Restrictions on religion around the world continued to climb in 2016, as more governments tightened controls on religious practices, populist parties increasingly used rhetoric to attack religious minorities, and the harassment of religious groups increased. A 138-page report by the Washington-based Pew Research Center into global restrictions on religion in . . . Read More

China’s ‘underground’ churches told to seek ‘guidance’ from state-approved bodies

June 22, 2018 China Catholics, China, Communism, Henan, House churches, Jiangxi, Religious freedom, Sinicisation, Three-Self Patriotic Movement, Xi Jinping, Zhejiang

A house church meeting in China in 2005. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

A newly implemented directive from the Chinese government forces Protestant ‘house churches’ and Catholic ‘underground’ communities to seek “guidance” from recognised religious organisations. A notification from the State Administration for Religious Affairs, issued earlier this month, requires organisers of religious activities at temporary sites to also apply for a permit . . . Read More

Chinese pastor released after two and a half years in prison

June 20, 2018 China China, Churches, Guizhou, Huoshi Church, Prisons, Religious freedom, Su Tianfu, Yang Hua

A Chinese pastor was released yesterday (19 June), after being detained for two and a half years for “illegally possessing state secrets”, reports Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW). Pastor Yang Hua of Huoshi Church (which means Living Stone), in the south-western province of Guizhou, was arrested in December 2015. He was . . . Read More

China: Beijing house churches investigated and ordered to close

May 21, 2018 China Beijing, China, House churches, Religious freedom

Cross of a state-sanctioned Three-Self church in Beijing is visible just above the facades of the city while China's government is trying to get more control over house churches. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Authorities in China’s capital Beijing investigated two house churches earlier this month and also pressured landlords to cancel the leases of their meeting places, China Aid reported. Officials from the Xicheng District Public Security Bureau attended a church meeting on Sunday 6 May. Without interrupting the service they investigated proceedings . . . Read More

Report: China’s ‘re-education’ camps could hold over a million people

May 18, 2018 China China, Communism, Uyghurs, Xinjiang

View of Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang region, the ‘world’s most surveilled area’. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

“Re-education” camps in China’s far-western Xinjiang region hold hundreds of thousands of people – possibly even over a million – a new report says. The paper, published on Tuesday (15 May) by the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington DC-based think-tank, said there is a “substantial body of PRC [People’s Republic of China] . . . Read More

China: Pastor and 200 church members detained for commemorating earthquake

May 17, 2018 China Chengdu, China, Churches, Communism, House churches, Mao Zedong, Religion Law, Religious freedom, Sichuan, Sinicisation, Xi Jinping

People are sifting through the rubble to look for personal items after their homes were destroyed in an earthquake. (World Watch Monitor, 2008)

A church in Chengdu, the capital of China’s southwestern Sichuan province, was raided by police on Saturday (12 May) as it prepared to commemorate the 10th anniversary of an earthquake that killed almost 90,000 people and left millions homeless. Pastor Wang Yi of Early Rain Covenant Church was arrested alongside . . . Read More

China: Protestant pastor found guilty of ‘intentionally divulging state secrets’

May 17, 2018 China China, Churches, Guizhou, Huoshi Church, Religious freedom, Su Tianfu, Yang Hua

The pastor of a high-profile church in China has been sentenced to one year in prison, suspended for two years, with a further six months’ residential surveillance, for “intentionally divulging state secrets”. Pastor Su Tianfu of Huoshi (Living Stone) Church in the south-western province of Guizhou had already been under . . . Read More

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