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Special Weekly FORB Newsletter 
(15-20.06.2020)

Bitter Winter: A magazine of religious liberty and human rights 
 
Bitter Winter and Human Rights Without Frontiers are partners on this Project

EU-China Summit: Europe can, and should hold China to account


22 June 2020
 
Website: www.hrwf.eu  

CHINA
Special Weekly FoRB Newsletter (15-20.06.2020)


20.06.20 - Nearly 100 folk religion sites suppressed in three provinces

As a result of crackdowns launched in April in the provinces of Zhejiang, Henan, and Hebei, some temples were demolished while others repurposed for government use.



20.06.20 - The Church of Almighty God refugees: remember them on World Refugee Day

The world remembers refugees. Do not forget the asylum seekers who were persecuted and tortured in China for their faith.



19.06.20 - Tibet, Tibetan refugees and the way ahead

While we celebrate the World Refugee Day, a Tibetan scholar reflects on the history and resilience of 150,000 Tibetan refugees living in exile.



18.06.20 - The US Uyghur Human Rights Act: The CCP finally unmasked

The Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020 (formerly known as Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2019) is a landmark piece of legislation, upholding the rights Muslim Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities. 



18.06.20 - China under Xi Jinping: more ideology, more repression

Introductory speech by Massimo Introvigne, editor-in-chief of Bitter Winter, at the plenary discussion in the Lithuanian Parliament on Lithuania’s strategy for Asia, June 18, 2020.



18.06.20 - Persecution of rebellious catholic churches intensifies

Pressure on China’s Catholic conscientious objectors to join the Patriotic Church continues, as churches are shut, priests hunted down, congregations intimidated.



17.06.20 - Over 90 Church of Almighty God members arrested in 2 days

Arrests were made in May during unified operations in Shanxi Province’s Linfen city after targets were tracked and monitored using mass surveillance systems.



17.06.20 - CCP curbs religious activities related to Hong Kong

Chinese authorities restrict mainlanders’ communication with the special administrative region while expanding influence on Hong Kong’s believers.



17.06.20 - Seven years of torture and forced labor

A member of The Church of Almighty God recalls his time in detention after he was arrested and later sentenced for his faith.



17.06.20 - China cracks down on Indian spirituality, calls it “Full of brainwashing”

Not coincidentally, border tensions with India are accompanied by a renewed campaign against Indian religious and spiritual movements active in China.



16.06.20 - House Churches and their schools suppressed in Xiamen

Protestant churches are raided in this southeastern China’s metropolis, as the CCP seeks to eliminate unregistered churches and educational institutions they run.



16.06.20 - New orders to suppress churches with ties to abroad

Recently issued guidelines across China demand to intensify crackdowns on “foreign religious infiltration,” mainly targeting US-affiliated places of worship.
EU-CHINA
EU-China Summit: Europe can, and should hold China to account
In dealing with China, the 'European Way' should be one of courage and integrity
By Yang Jianli & Aaron Rhodes


FOREF (20.06.2020) - https://bit.ly/2YhzyHq - As human rights advocates, we are appealing to European Union member states to condition trade relations with China on specific improvements in China's human rights practices, and on transparency as regards the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic. China's economy depends on European imports; trade between the two entities exceeds over one billion Euros per day. In this situation, Europe has a historic opportunity, and a responsibility to the moral principles upon which it was founded. The EU should use its immense soft power to help China stop persecuting religious, ethnic and political minorities, and start working with the international community to protect global public health.

China is the world's greatest threat to religious freedom and other basic human rights. Despite years of dialogue with the European Union, and increasing trade cooperation, human rights have deteriorated precipitously. China incarcerates and pressures its Muslim citizens, persecutes Christians, Falun Gong practitioners and other religious minorities, is ethnically cleansing Tibet, and persecutes human rights defenders; China has abrogated an international treaty guaranteeing freedoms to the people of Hong Kong. China has pushed an authoritarian approach to human rights in the UN system, one that degrades the sanctity of basic individual rights and freedoms. China is ranked 177 out of 180 countries in press freedom, and censorship allowed Covid-19 to get out of control. We can't even assess the loss of human life due to China's cynical malfeasance in suppressing, rather than dealing openly with the virus, and we need China's transparency to stop the crisis China created.

The episode has vividly confirmed that a state that mistreats its own citizens is not likely to respect the dignity and rights – and health — of others. But in the face of these threats, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell’s call for a “big, positive agenda for EU-China cooperation” without mention of human rights issues dividing Europe and China is discouraging.

Josep Borrell, EU High Representative to Foreign Affairs

Trade imbalances need to be addressed. But the main challenge for Europe should not be to cut a better deal and assume an equidistant posture between the United States and China, as Borrell emphasized. Instead, it is to use the EU’s huge moral and economic leverage to put China on notice that the regime cannot violate human rights, and the very idea of human rights, without consequences; that the people of Europe cannot have normal relations with a dictatorial, human rights-abusing government. The EU’s failed, German-inspired “Change through Trade” policy needs to be transformed into a policy of no trade development without change.

More mercantilism and naiveté on the part of the EU will make the Union into an enabler of human rights atrocities. The Chinese Communist Party’s grand strategy seeks to avoid direct confrontation with the United States, and to use global “rural areas,” including Europe, to encircle the US. It wants to join the EU in a united front against the US, a Maoist strategy. The EU is thus a main battle- ground in China’s cold war for world dominance. China is pretending to be a peace loving, benevolent authoritarian ruler to get a foothold in relations with the EU and to expand its political and economic influence. Central Europe is a particular target because the CCP believes it to be a weak link in the chain, where democracy has not firmly rooted — a region where China can achieve a breakthrough.

Since its formation, European Union leaders have claimed it to be a “community of values,” that is, “European values,” diametrically opposed to the totalitarian ideologies the EU was founded to protect citizens against. In fact, the European Union’s basic political principles of individual human rights, democracy, and the Rule of Law are considered universally applicable in the international human rights framework. But the Chinese Communist Party subverts these principles at every opportunity, claiming that human rights are a gift from the state, and defending oppression as “human rights with Chinese characteristics.” China is a one-party, essentially fascist state, and increasingly aggressive in its efforts to stamp out any dissent at home, while confronting opposition to its land-grabs in the South China Sea with bullying and violence.

To make a significant, not merely symbolic stand against these fearful trends will require moral discipline and a willingness to sacrifice. Referencing the Frank Sinatra song, High Representative Borrell spoke of the virtue of a European Way. Let that be the way of integrity and courage. Europeans, and people around the world, need the EU to stand firm for human rights, and refuse to be China’s puppet against America.
 
Dr. Jianli Yang, a survivor of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, is President of Citizen Power Initiatives for China. Dr. Aaron Rhodes is President of the Forum for Religious Freedom-Europe and Human Rights Editor of Dissident Magazine.
Disclaimer: Human Rights Without Frontiers (HRWF) publishes information from a variety of outside sources which express a wide range of viewpoints. The positions taken in these communications are not necessarily those of HRWF.
Willy Fautré is the Editor-in-Chief. 


Other HRWF newsletters: Freedom of Religion or Belief | LGBTQI People & Human Rights | Religion & Security | Women's Rights & Gender Equality

Some activities of HRWF Int'l in 2020

Publication of an article about the scapegoating of Shincheonji Church in EU Political Report (10.06.2019)

Submission of a complaint to the UN about children’s rights in Croatia (27.05.2020)

Co-signatory of a submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on FORB about the scapegoating of the Shincheonji Church in South Korea (25.05.2020)

Publication of an article in EU Today about the integration of Western Balkans countries into the EU (22.05.2020)

Publication of an article in the EU Political Report by the director of HRWF titled “Serbs’ continued fight for property rights in Croatia” (21.05.2020)

Publication of an article in the EU Reporter by the director of HRWF titled “Fascism and anti-Serb sentiments in Croatia”
(11.05.2020)
 
Publication of an academic paper in the Journal of CESNUR by the director of HRWF titled “Coercive Change of Religion in South Korea: The Case of the Shincheonji Church”
(05.05.2020)

Publication of an article in EU Political Report about CESNUR & HRWF White Paper (27.03.2020)

Publication of an article in EU Reporter about CESNUR & HRWF White Paper (24.03.2020)

Publication of a White Paper in English and French
about the Coronavirus and the Shincheonji Church in South Korea (17.03.2020)

Publication of a 60-page brochure titled "Coercive change of religion in South
Korea" (12.03.2020)

Presentation about forced change of religion in South Korea at an academic conference at the University of Vytautas Magnus in Kaunas, Lithuania (06.03.2020)

Interview of HRWF board member Hans Noot by a South Korean media outlet about the persecution of the Church of Almighty God in China (20.02.2020)
 
Publication of an article about the Kokorev case in EU Political Report (19.02.2020)
 
Publication in International Policy Digest of an article about Spain's rule of law (06.02.2020)
 
Participation of Hans Noot, HRWF board member, in Peace World Summit in Seoul
(01-04.02.2020)
 
Publication in EU Today of an article about Spain's human rights record (30.01.2020)
 
Publication of an article in The Parliament Magazine about the exploitation of foreign workers in Qatar (28.01.2020)
 
Advocacy on the issue of pretrial detention at Spain's UPR in Geneva (20-23.01.2020)
 
Published an article in EU Reporter (Brussels) about the upcoming UPR of Spain at the UN in Geneva (18.01.2020)
 
Published an article in EU Reporter (Brussels) about the abuse and misuse of pretrial detention in Spain (08.01.2020)
Human Rights Without Frontiers Int'l | www.hrwf.eu | Phone: +32 2 345 61 45