Two Tibetan Buddhists jailed for "splittism" have had their sentences reduced, but a rights group said yesterday that one year after China introduced new regulations on religious rights, freedom to worship remains restricted.
The rules that took effect in March last year enshrine religious belief as a basic right of all citizens, but China still forbids worship outside designated religious organizations, fearing the growth of groups that could challenge Chinese Communist Party rule.
"One year after China's Regulations on Religious Affairs came into force, Chinese citizens' ability to exercise their right to freedom of religion remains as subject to arbitrary restrictions as ever," New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a statement.
PHOTO: AFP
"Local officials continue to repress religious activities that they determine to be outside the scope of the state-controlled religious system," the group said.
Last year's regulations were deliberately vague, it added.
"There is nothing accidental about the vagueness -- it gives officials the room they need to legitimize closing mosques, raiding religious meetings, `re-educating' religious leaders and censoring publications," the group said.
Catholics who worship outside the state-backed Catholic Patriotic Association, Muslim Uighurs and Tibetan Buddhists are among those that risk punishment for practicing their religions.
Uighurs and Tibetans face the added problem of their religious beliefs being linked to movements for separatism or greater autonomy for Xinjiang and Tibet.
"Those who refused to accept that Tibet had always been a part of China or refused to denounce the Dalai Lama and accept the legitimacy of the Chinese-chosen Panchen Lama faced expulsion from their monasteries," the group said.
In Tibet, Jigme Tenzin had one year taken off his 19-year sentence imposed in 2000 for "splittism" -- the crime of advocating independence -- said the Dui Hua Foundation, which works to secure releases for political prisoners.
His wife, Nyima Choedron, was granted sentence reductions totalling two years off her 10-year sentence. The two ran an orphanage in Lhasa before being detained in 1999 following an anti-Chinese protest.
Beijing has also been seen as particularly harsh in Xinjiang, where rights groups say the government is using support for the US-led war on terrorism to legitimize a crackdown on Muslim Uighur activists.
The government has denied accusations it suppresses Islam in Xinjiang, saying it only wants to stop separatism, terrorism and religious extremism.
On Tuesday China ratified the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, giving it another tool to fight unrest.
SUPPORT: Elon Musk’s backing for the far-right AfD is also an implicit rebuke of center-right Christian Democratic Union leader Friedrich Merz, who is leading polls German Chancellor Olaf Scholz took a swipe at Elon Musk over his political judgement, escalating a spat between the German government and the world’s richest person. Scholz, speaking to reporters in Berlin on Friday, was asked about a post Musk made on his X platform earlier the same day asserting that only the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party “can save Germany.” “We have freedom of speech, and that also applies to multi-billionaires,” Scholz said alongside Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal. “But freedom of speech also means that you can say things that are not right and do not contain
FREEDOM NO MORE: Today, protests in Macau are just a memory after Beijing launched measures over the past few years that chilled free speech A decade ago, the elegant cobblestone streets of Macau’s Tap Seac Square were jam-packed with people clamouring for change and government accountability — the high-water mark for the former Portuguese colony’s political awakening. Now as Macau prepares to mark the 25th anniversary of its handover to China tomorrow, the territory’s democracy movement is all but over and the protests of 2014 no more than a memory. “Macau’s civil society is relatively docile and obedient, that’s the truth,” said Au Kam-san (歐錦新), 67, a schoolteacher who became one of Macau’s longest-serving pro-democracy legislators. “But if that were totally true, we wouldn’t
Two US Navy pilots were shot down yesterday over the Red Sea in an apparent “friendly fire” incident, the US military said, marking the most serious incident to threaten troops in over a year of US targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Both pilots were recovered alive after ejecting from their stricken aircraft, with one sustaining minor injuries. However, the shootdown underlines just how dangerous the Red Sea corridor has become over the ongoing attacks on shipping by the Iranian-backed Houthis despite US and European military coalitions patrolling the area. The US military had conducted airstrikes targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels at the
MILITANTS TARGETED: The US said its forces had killed an IS leader in Deir Ezzor, as it increased its activities in the region following al-Assad’s overthrow Washington is scrapping a long-standing reward for the arrest of Syria’s new leader, a senior US diplomat said on Friday following “positive messages” from a first meeting that included a promise to fight terrorism. Barbara Leaf, Washington’s top diplomat for the Middle East, made the comments after her meeting with Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus — the first formal mission to Syria’s capital by US diplomats since the early days of Syria’s civil war. The lightning offensive that toppled former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad on Dec. 8 was led by the Muslim Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is rooted in al-Qaeda’s
RSS