Whether they lead independent or state-sanctioned worshipping communities, religious leaders in China who do not adhere to Chinese Communist Party ideology and submit to intrusive state control face severe persecution, a new report from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom states.
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“Chinese authorities attempt to exert total control over religion through an extensive, complicated web of laws, regulations and policies that the CCP and various government agencies enforce,” according to a recently released factsheet from the commission, “China’s Persecution of Religious Leaders.”
Religious leaders who resist state control face a wide range of punishment — from surveillance and fines to retribution against family members, imprisonment, forced labor and torture, the report states.
Forced adherence to ‘sinicization’ policy
The Chinese government officially recognizes Buddhism, Catholicism, Islam, Protestantism and Taoism as religions and operates seven state-controlled organizations to manage their affairs.
Religious communities from the recognized religions are required to register with the state, and their leaders must support the Chinese Communist Party leadership and “sinicization” policy.
The policy requires state-sanctioned religions to conform their beliefs, activities, expression, attire, leadership, language and houses of worship to government ideology.
“The objective of this policy is to transform religious sites and communities into extensions of the CCP, eliminate non-CCP influences —w hich the government often disparages as “foreign” — and forcibly assimilate ethnic minorities,” the factsheet states.
“The government’s approach to enforcing sinicization has resulted in particularly severe violations of religious freedom, including against religious leaders.”
The government has ordered Protestant state-sanctioned churches in China to remove crosses from their buildings and display Chinese Communist Party slogans. The state also has demanded ministers preach communist ideology.
Pastors accused of ‘dubious financial crimes’
Protestant churches that refuse to register — including house churches — face even greater persecution, the commission factsheet notes.
“Law enforcement routinely targets unrecognized house church Protestant pastors and other senior-ranking church members on dubious financial crimes tied to their communities’ collection of donations or selling of religious goods,” the factsheet reports.
In January, a district court sentenced a pastor, two deacons and two other leaders of the Shengjia Church in Guangdong Province to terms ranging from one year and two months to two years in prison for “illegal business operations” — reportedly printing and selling religious literature.
A house church pastor in Anhui Province, Wan Changchun, was sentenced to five years in prison in March. He was detained nearly two years earlier. In 2018, he signed a letter criticizing Chinese treatment of Christians.
Authorities in Shanxi Province sentenced about a dozen house church members to prison on fraud charges, including Pastor Yang Rongli, who received a 15-year sentence.
‘Anti-cult’ provision used to target churches
Government authorities also have used the “anti-cult” provision in China’s Criminal Code to target Protestant house churches, the factsheet reports.
In May, local authorities in Shaanxi Province detained 10 religious leaders from the Zion’s Light house church, including Pastor Gao Quanfu, on cult charges. Gao reportedly signed onto the same 2018 letter Wan Changchun signed, denouncing the government’s treatment of Christian communities.
In June, law enforcement detained on cult charges the pastor of the Shenyang Youth Fellowship in Liaoning Province, allegedly physically assaulting and abusing him in custody to elicit a false confession, the commission factsheet states.
“Chinese authorities target underground Catholic religious leaders for refusing to join the state-controlled Catholic religious organizations. Underground Catholics do not recognize the spiritual authority of government-backed religious clergy and instead view the Vatican as the sole legitimator of spiritual authority, which the CCP views as a threat,” the factsheet states.
“While the Vatican and China signed an undisclosed agreement in 2018 reportedly to cooperate on the appointment of bishops in the country, the Chinese government has unilaterally installed CCP-aligned bishops without the Vatican’s consultation and approval.”
Ethnic religious minorities under fire
Ethnic religious minorities face particularly severe persecution under China’s sinicization policy, the report notes.
“Law enforcement has targeted Uyghur and other Turkic religious leaders because of their roles as transmitters of local religion, language, and culture, thus threatening the government’s goal to sinicize Islam and forcibly assimilate the population in Xinjiang,” the factsheet states.
“Chinese authorities have committed genocide and crimes against humanity against predominately Muslim Uyghurs and other Turkic ethnic groups in Xinjiang under the guise of combating ‘religious extremism, terrorism, and separatism.’”
Likewise, the Chinese government has targeted Tibetan Buddhists for their role in preserving Tibetan culture, language and religion.
“China has ruthlessly repressed its Tibetan Buddhist religious communities for their devoutness to the Dalai Lama, whom the government views as a political threat but the vast majority of Tibetan Buddhists recognize as the true leader of Tibetan Buddhism,” the factsheet states.
In its latest report, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom again recommended the U.S. Department of State redesignate China as a Country of Particular Concern for engaging in systemic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious freedom.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Ken Camp and originally published by Baptist Standard.
