Wang Qiang has never met his son. His wife was seven months pregnant when he was violently arrested outside his workplace in Linfen, China on 1 November 2022, and he has not seen his family – including also his four-year-old daughter Mimi – since then.
Xixi hasn’t seen her father Han Xiaodong since he was arrested in August 2022. She was just five years old at the time, and she and her two younger brothers have been afraid to sleep in their own beds ever since.
Preacher Li Jie and his wife Li Shanshan were among the earliest members of Covenant Home (“Shengyue Jiayuan”) Church which was founded in early 2018, the same year that the revised Regulations on Religious Affairs came into force and the Chinese government began a sweeping crackdown on unregistered ‘house’ churches like Covenant Home which continues to date.
On the tenth anniversary of the death of Cao Shunli, the international community must honour her memory by standing up for all human rights defenders in China who have followed in her footsteps and incurred the wrath of the CCP as a result.
Under the rule of Xi Jinping the situation for almost every religion or belief community in China has deteriorated amid a worsening picture for human rights across the country, but for groups labelled ‘xie jiao’, this has been a reality for decades.
The disappearances of Fang Bin and other citizen journalists who reported the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan drew the attention of world media. People who are familiar with him hesitated in mentioning his faith background when calling for his release. Why? Being a Falun Gong human rights defender means double vulnerability, as shown by the story of Fang Bin and his wife.
Being blocked from leaving China by the authorities has become common under Xi Jinping’s rule. Jiang Tianyong, Guo Feixiong and Tang Jitian’s stories show how China uses exit bans to inflict suffering on human rights defenders and their loved ones.
Lu Siwei is the latest name on a long list of Chinese nationals who have been disappeared in Southeast Asia, demonstrating the long reach of China’s authorities beyond its borders, often with the collusion of the authorities in these states, in a phenomenon known as transnational repression.
Yunnan is something of a testing ground for the management of religious and ethnic affairs in China. The ‘Yunnan model’ is a warning that the situation for religious and ethnic groups across the country could be about to get even worse.
Earlier this month, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) voted to elect 14 new members to the Human Rights Council (HRC) to serve from 2023 to 2025. Among those elected were Sudan and Vietnam…The election of both of these states is deeply disappointing.
