The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) continues to trample on human rights and religious freedom, arresting political dissidents and religious followers, data compiled by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) showed.
About 20 Chinese nationals were questioned by the Chinese Public Security Bureau after they held a gathering in Chongqing City to celebrate President William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20.
Among them was Li Xuezhi (李學志), who was indicted for posting online footage of people toasting the “democratically elected president of Taiwan,” the council said.
Photo: Reuters
In a separate case, a Chinese farmer, Zhang Liping (張立平), was last month detained and interrogated by Chinese police who demanded that he recant a message he wrote in an open letter in support of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and asking people to donate to Kyiv, the MAC said.
With regard to suppression of freedom of expression, Chinese online platforms Douban, Weibo and others have removed all mentions of Chinese director Lou Ye’s (婁燁) latest work, An Unfinished Film (一部未完成的電影), a docufiction film focusing on the lockdown in Wuhan during the COVID-19 pandemic, the MAC said.
The screening of the film Hengyang 1944 (援軍明日到達) has also been canceled as it allegedly portrayed then-Nationalist Army general Fang Hsian-chueh (方先覺) in a favorable light and as a patriotic hero during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the council said.
The CCP is also tightening its grip nationwide, the council said, citing as an example Hubei Province’s Suizhou Government forcing local residents to buy plots at a public cemetery, and protesters being taken away by police.
More than 100 parents whose children perished during the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake when the main building at Juyuan Junior High School in Dujiangyan City came crashing down were chased away by plainsclothes police when they recently gathered to commemorate the loss, the council said.
Religious oppression persists, with Bishop Peter Shao (邵祝敏), leader of the Roman Catholic Yongjia Diocese, being arrested again for refusing to join the state-sponsored Catholic Patriotic Association, the MAC said.
Members of the All Sphere Church are being arrested throughout China, with Chinese authorities labeling the organization a cult and accusing it of encouraging superstitious beliefs, it said.
Chow Hang-tung (鄒幸彤), former vice chairman of the now-defunct Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, and seven others were arrested for allegedly spreading articles about the Tiananmen Square Massacre online and contravening Article 23 of Hong Kong Basic Law, the MAC said.
Hong Kong artist Chen Sanmu (陳式森) was arrested for miming the act of pouring wine on the ground — a Chinese ritual of mourning the dead — in an apparent tribute to victims of the massacre, outside Causeway Bay on June 3, the council said.
Separately, 17 people who said they experienced adverse effects from Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccines were arrested by Chinese police on June 19 after they went public about their appeal calling on the Chinese government to establish measures of restitution for people who were negatively affected by the vaccines, the MAC said.
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