11.03.2008 - Source: US Department of State

Government labeled folk religions "feudal superstition" and sometimes repressed them ("Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2007") [ID 23312]

"Traditional folk religions, such as Fujian Province's "Mazu cult," were still practiced in some locations. They were tolerated to varying degrees, often seen as loose affiliates of Taoism or as ethnic minority cultural practices. However, the government labeled folk religions "feudal superstition" and sometimes repressed them. SARA established a new administrative division responsible for the activities of folk religions and religions outside the main five, including the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."

Document(s): Open document

10.10.2007 - Source: Congressional-Executive Commission on China

Local governments continue to shut down unauthorized Buddhist and Daoist temples ("Annual Report 2007") [ID 21402]

"Local governments continue to shut down unauthorized  Buddhist and Daoist temples. Towns and cities reported in 2006  on campaigns to address the presence of illegal temples through  measures that included closure and demolition. Some local  governments have targeted temples that include practices deemed  as superstitious beliefs. Other temples have registered  and submitted to official control. At a forum evaluating  implementation of the Regulation on Religious Affairs in 2007,  the president of the Daoist Association of China noted that the  regulation has led to the registration of previously  unregistered Daoist temples."

Document(s): Open document

06.03.2007 - Source: US Department of State

Continued crackdown on groups considered to be "cults" ("Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2006") [ID 19101]

"The authorities continued a general crackdown on groups considered to be "cults." These "cults" included not only Falun Gong and various traditional Chinese meditation and exercise groups (known collectively as qigong groups), but also religious groups that authorities accused of preaching beliefs outside the bounds of officially approved doctrine. Groups that the government labeled cults included Eastern Lightning, the Servants of Three Classes, the Shouters, the South China Church, the Association of Disciples, the Full Scope Church, the Spirit Sect, the New Testament Church, the Way of the Goddess of Mercy, the Lord God Sect, the Established King Church, the Unification Church, and the Family of Love. Authorities accused some in these groups of lacking proper theological training, preaching the imminent coming of the apocalypse or holy war, or exploiting the reemergence of religion for personal gain. The government accused the Eastern Lightning group and some other unregistered Christian groups of involvement in violence.

Actions against such groups continued during the year. Police also continued their efforts to close down the underground evangelical group Shouters, an offshoot of a pre-1949 indigenous Protestant group. Action against the South China Church (SCC) continued. In August 2005 approximately 40 SCC members were detained in Hubei Province after meeting with foreigners. According to an anonymous petition submitted to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, SCC founder Gong Shengliang and other imprisoned SCC members suffered serious abuses in prison. Gong is serving a life sentence for rape, arson, and assault, even though the women who testified against him in his original trial in 2001 reported that police had tortured them into signing statements accusing Gong of raping them. During the year Gong's daughters reported that Gong was in poor health and had been beaten by another inmate."

Document(s): Open document

15.09.2006 - Source: US Department of State

Government bans all cults ("International Religious Freedom Report 2006") [ID 18177]

"The Government has banned all groups that it has determined to be "cults," including the "Shouters" (founded in the United States in 1962), Eastern Lightning, the Society of Disciples (Mentu Hui), the Full Scope Church, the Spirit Sect, the New Testament Church, the Guan Yin (also known as Guanyin Famin, or the Way of the Goddess of Mercy), the Three Grades of Servants (also known as San Ba Pu Ren), the Association of Disciples, the Lord God Sect, the Established King Church, the Unification Church, the Family of Love, the South China Church, the Falun Gong, and the Zhong Gong movements. (Zhong Gong is a qigong exercise discipline with some mystical tenets.)"

Document(s): Open document

15.09.2006 - Source: US Department of State

Members of cult sentenced to prison ("International Religious Freedom Report 2006") [ID 18334]

"In July 2005 six members of the group Way of the Goddess of Mercy (Guanyin Famen), which the Government considers a "cult," were sentenced to two to four years in prison for using a cult organization resulting in the first criminal conviction of members of the group in Xinjiang. According to state-run media, Liu Shuming, Yang Huiqin, Li Yanxin, Liu Wangpeng, Wang Cahojun, and Wang Dexiu, all of Urumqi, Xinjiang, produced material about Guanyin Famen that they intended to circulate."

Document(s): Open document

04.2005 - Source: UK Home Office

Country Report April 2005 - Cults ("Country Report - April 2005") [#31975],  [ID 4011]

"6.106 Articles 300 and 301 of the Criminal Law set out the penalties for seeking to promote an evil cult. They state:

“Article 300 Whoever forms or uses superstitious sects or secret societies or weird religious organizations or uses superstition to undermine the implementation of the laws and administrative rules and regulations of the State shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years; if the circumstances are especially serious, he shall be sentenced to fixed- term imprisonment of not less than seven years.

Whoever forms or uses superstitious sects or secret societies or weird
religious organizations or uses superstition to cheat another person, and causes death to the person shall be punished in accordance with the provisions of the preceding paragraph.

Whoever forms or uses superstitious sects or secret societies or weird religious organizations or uses superstition to rape a woman or swindle money or property shall be convicted and punished in accordance with the provisions of Articles 236 and Article 266 of this Law respectively.

Article 301 Where people are gathered to engage in licentious activities, the ringleaders and the persons who repeatedly take part in such activities shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years, criminal detention or public surveillance.

Whoever entices a minor to join people in licentious activities shall be given a heavier punishment in accordance with the provisions of the preceding paragraph.” [5bg] (p 92-93)

6.107 According to Jason Kindopp, writing in the September 2002 edition of the journal Current History, “China’s leaders are well aware of the dangers of precipitating a Falun Gong–style campaign against other religious groups, and appear eager to avoid doing so.”"

Document(s): Open document

13.09.2004 - Source: Forum 18

Xinjiang: Ethnic Mongolian Buddhists say they can generally practise their faith without serious government pressure, but contact with fellow Buddhists in nearby Mongolia is almost impossible ("Xinjiang: Mongolian minority isolated from fellow-Buddhists abroad") [#25502],  [ID 4012]

Document(s): Open document

10.2003 - Source: UK Home Office

Country Assessment - October 2003 - Sects ("Country Report - October 2003") [#49232],  [ID 4013]

"6.74. The government of the PRC makes a distinction between the five officially recognised religions and those which its deems to be “evil cults” or “sects”. Those groups that preach beliefs outside officially approved doctrine, such as the coming of the Apocalypse, are often singled out for harassment. Though the decision to persecute often appears arbitrary the authority of the CCP rests on its ability to maintain social order (under one party rule) and utilise this common sense of purpose towards the ultimate goal of socialist development. Groups that challenge this sense of order with apocalyptic visions of the future are at odds with this sense of order. [17a][9gaj][21d]

6.75. In Hunan province, 15 October 1998, the Xiangtan City Intermediate People's Court convicted Liu Jiaguo of rape, fraud and organising a subversive "evil" religious organisation. He was shot after sentence passed. Liu Jiaguo was a leader of the "Principal God Cult", the Zhu Shen Jiao. [4ai][4ct][4db] One source places the date of the cult's beginning as 1993, as an offshoot of a previous group "the Appointed King Cult" (the Bei Li Wang), alleging Jiaguo set himself up as the "principal god". When, in 1995, the "Appointed King" Wu Yangming was executed by the Anhui province authorities, the Principal God Cult took over. It peaked at 10,000 followers. [4db]"

Document(s): Open document

10.2003 - Source: UK Home Office

Country Assessment - October 2003 - Taoism ("Country Report - October 2003") [#49232],  [ID 4014]

"Taoism

Beliefs and Practices

6.145. Taoism is based on the teachings of Lao-tzu and originated in China around the sixth-century B.C. It advocates preserving and restoring the greater Tao (force) in the body and cosmos and has been open to many differing interoperations; evolving from philosophy into religion and then onto witchcraft, magic and occultism. [16ah.]

6.146. Taoism itself is very broad and factional: there are at least 86 sects within Taoism in modern PRC, and a very strong tradition of rejection of "organisation". [20k] Within the popular form of Taoism, the Taoist temple is a place where an individual will look to spiritual guidance in the form of divination (consulting the I Ching, Feng Shui, some more mystical elements of traditional Chinese medicine), and to officiate over rites of passage (marriage, funerals, etc). [20k]

Numbers

6.147. Official estimates place the number of Toaists at approximately 6 per cent of the population, but if Taoism is extended to social adherence and occasional usage rather than "believers", the number is likely to be much higher. Estimates of Taoist clergy (priests, nuns and holy men) range from 15,000 to 20,000. [20k] In its classical form of Taoism (see above) is accepted by the authorities as one of the five "official" religions. [2g]

Taoism in Modern China

6.148. The US State Department Report on Religious Freedom (Oct. 2002) reports that “Official tolerance for religion considered to be traditionally Chinese, such as Buddhism and Taoism, has been greater than for Christianity, and these faiths often face fewer restrictions then the other recognized religions.” [2h]

6.149. Reports on difficulties between Taoists and the Authorities centre on the pulling down of buildings being used by unregistered Taoist congregations: for example around Wenzhou, Zhejiang province in November 2000. [2x]

6.150. There is no evidence that classical Taoism is targeted for persecution, though there are reports that conflict has arisen between the authorities and congregations that are not registered. The authorities are however suspicious of breakaway groups that with populist agendas that may threaten social order. [2g][12h][20k][9gaj.]

Religious Activity in Fujian Province

6.151. For further information on religious practices and freedoms in Fujian province (as mayor source of migrants to the UK) please refer to the report by the Canadian IRB. This report concluded, "religious activities at the local level were generally tolerated... provided they kept a low profile and did not try to organize on too large a scale." [3i]"

Document(s): Open document

10.2003 - Source: UK Home Office

Country Assessment - October 2003 - Other Unregistered Religious Groups ("Country Report - October 2003") [#49232],  [ID 4015]

"6.153. Church of Latter Day Saints are permitted to meet in many large Chinese cities, but attendance is strictly limited to foreigners. [2h]

6.154. Jehovah's Witnesses in China are an unregistered group that the authorities consistently refuse to register. There have been reports in the past that members have been arrested and detained for participating in prayer study. There are reported to be Jehovah's Witnesses in many parts of the country. [3ag]

6.155. The Baha'i are not recognised or registered by the government in China. The Baha'i community is not organised and has not sought recognition or registration from the government. The Baha'i are generally well regarded by the authorities because of their philosophy of obedience to government. [3ak]"

Document(s): Open document