ELLIS HEASLEY, of UK-based religious freedom advocacy CSW, says it’s important – even as many around the world face an different Christmas this year – to remember those for whom Christmas isn’t something they’ve been able to experience for many years…
Wherever you are in the world, there’s no question that Christmas is going to look quite different to how it usually does this year. Some of us may be forced to self-isolate. Others may be unable to visit loved ones owing to lockdown restrictions. Others still may decide that the continuing spread of the coronavirus means it’s just not worth the risk and opt for a quiet affair in our own homes.
But while for many of us it won’t be the Christmas we might have expected say a year ago, it is important to remember that, for many others, the idea of a ‘normal’ Christmas isn’t something they have been able to experience for years.
Pastor Wang Yi of Early Rain Covenant Church in China’s Sichuan Province. PICTURE: Facebook (supplied by CSW)
Take, for example, Pastor Wang Yi of Early Rain Covenant Church in China’s Sichuan Province. This Christmas will mark the pastor’s third behind bars as he continues to serve a nine-year prison sentence on charges of ‘inciting to subvert state power’ and ‘illegal business operations.’
Few people familiar with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s policies towards unregistered churches will be surprised to learn that the charges against Pastor Wang are entirely unfounded and arbitrary. He was initially detained along with over 100 other members of his church on 9th December, 2018, as part of a large-scale crackdown by the authorities. It is believed that Pastor Wang and Early Rain Church were targeted in part because of the pastor’s willingness to speak out on FoRB in China, and in particular regarding the situation of unregistered and independent churches (often referred to as house churches).
“[W]hile for many of us it won’t be the Christmas we might have expected say a year ago, it is important to remember that, for many others, the idea of a ‘normal’ Christmas isn’t something they have been able to experience for years.”
While many of those initially detained have since been released, including Pastor Wang’s wife Jiang Rong, the pastor has now spent over two years in prison. In August, 2019, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention adopted the opinion that the detention of Pastor Wang and his wife was arbitrary. However, even this has not prevented the Chinese authorities from continuing to punish this church leader solely for his willingness to stand up to Xi Jinping’s repressive regime.
Pastor Wang is by no means alone. Also spending this Christmas in detention is the Christian human rights defender and former lawyer Zhang Zhan. Zhang was one of a few citizen journalists who travelled to China’s Wuhan city, the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic, in early February.
Even after several of her other citizen journalists disappeared, Zhang continued to bravely report on the pandemic, posting videos and articles to Twitter and YouTube, both of which are blocked in China. She was eventually detained on 14th May, when Shanghai police came and took her away from the hotel she was staying in. Since then, she has remained in detention at the Pudong District Detention Centre in Shanghai as she faces a charge of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”.
Now, after more than seven months in detention, there are serious concerns for Zhang’s health and wellbeing. She has reportedly been on hunger strike in protest of her detention since the beginning of summer, with staff at the detention centre force-feeding her as she refused to eat or drink anything. CSW sources have also reported that, for reasons which remain unclear, Zhang’s lawyer Wen Yu is no longer responsible for her case.
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The picture for both Pastor Wang and Zhang Zhan is a bleak one, and it is one shared by many religious adherents and human rights defenders across China. In recent years the CCP has overseen a rapid and significant decrease in the level of freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) in the country, alongside ever increasing human rights violations. Hundreds of places of worship have been demolished or shut down; thousands of religious adherents have been arrested and imprisoned, in many cases facing torture; and the space for civil society continues to shrink.
“As we prepare ourselves for a Christmas like no other, it is vital that we do not forget those who cannot realise their right to freedom of religion or belief, and fellow Christians for whom this Christmas is yet another day under a government whose disregard for human rights draws few, if any, parallels in the world today.”
Other religious communities are also under pressure, be they Buddhists in Tibet or Falun Gong adherents across the country. Perhaps one of the most well-known aspects of China’s ongoing human rights crackdown is the situation in the country’s Uyghur region, where between one and three million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and members of other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups are believed to have been detained since 2017.
A strong and growing body of evidence which includes satellite images, witness testimonies, academic research and leaked government documents leave no doubt that the detentions are taking place. Additionally, credible reports have emerged linking the detentions to forced labour, which has in turn been linked to much of the world’s cotton industry – something else that bears thinking about when considering the socks and festive outfits many of us are sure to unwrap on 25th December.
As we prepare ourselves for a Christmas like no other, it is vital that we do not forget those who cannot realise their right to freedom of religion or belief, and fellow Christians for whom this Christmas is yet another day under a government whose disregard for human rights draws few, if any, parallels in the world today.
Ellis Heasley is public affairs officer at CSW.
