AP

China today is facing the worst crackdown on human rights since the Tiananmen massacre 31 years ago and the most severe assault on freedom of thought, conscience and religion since the Cultural Revolution, UCA News reports.

Repression has intensified across the board under Xi Jinping’s rule, but religion is particularly targeted. In what jailed pastor Wang Yi describes as “a war against the soul”, all faiths have been impacted, as a recent report documents.

“Repressed, Removed, Re-Educated: The stranglehold on religious life in China” tells the stories of Chinese people oppressed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime. In publishing this report, international human rights group CSW says it stands with the people of China, particularly those of different religious communities oppressed by the regime. It says it researched this report by listening to the Chinese people and documenting their first-hand experiences.

In an era where the CCP wants us to conflate the regime with the country, and accuses its critics of anti-China racism, CSW emphasises that the exact opposite is true. “We are pro-China when it comes to the Chinese people and nation. Indeed, it is because we are for the people of China that we are speaking out on this issue,” writes CSW’s Benedict Rogers.

“At a time when, in the context of the coronavirus pandemic, there has been real — and appalling — anti-Chinese racism, it is all the more vital that the distinction be made between the brutal, repressive CCP regime and the ordinary Chinese people who are its primary victims.”

Read the UCA report here:
https://www.ucanews.com/news/chinas-war-against-the-soul/87728