Local authorities raid and close places of worship using various pretexts, from poverty alleviation to epidemic prevention.
by Jiang Tao
100+ venues shut down in Anhui Province's four cities
According to preliminary data, over 100 Three-Self and house churches were shut down this year in four prefecture-level cities in the eastern province of Anhui this year: 43 in Suzhou, 24 in Huaibei, 20 in Fuyang, and 16 in Xuancheng.
On August 7, the Linquan county government in Fuyang merged a state-run church with another venue for "disobeying the government," "being too close to a school," and "because the building was dilapidated." The authorities seized the building, 420,000 RMB (about $ 60,000) donation money, and all church belongings.
A provision allegedly introduced to cut foreign funding to Islamic radical groups may in fact severely limit the activities of hundreds of different religious movements
One provision of the draft law that was overlooked by many, and which is no less dangerous than others, is Article 38. Ostensibly, its purpose is to limit the activities of Islamic radical organizations that are funded by citizens or foundations based in Saudi Arabia, the Gulf Emirates, or Turkey. However, as is the case for the law in general, provisions targeting one specific religion would be unconstitutional and non-compliant with other basic legal principles. To avoid this risk, these provisions are formulated in general terms. But precisely these general terms endanger hundreds of peaceful and law-abiding organizations (also including the peaceful organizations that constitute the vast majority of the Islamic groups).
