Feature Story from 2024
The persecution of Christians in mainland China is spreading to Hong Kong according to persecution watchdog Release International.
It warned on the 35th anniversary of the notorious Tiananmen Square massacre that Christians in China are facing their worst levels of persecution since the Cultural Revolution.
China has never revealed how many people died or were punished because of the events of June 4, 1989, which brought a brutal end to pro-democracy protests and set off a steady escalation in the persecution of Christians over the decades that followed.
The threat is now impacting Hong Kong where a new security law passed by the territory’s government last March could force Catholic priests to reveal secrets from the confessional.
Both the Hong Kong government and the Catholic Church deny that will be the case.
But Release International believes Catholic priests could be jailed for up to 14 years if they refuse to disclose so-called crimes of treason shared during confession.
Bob Fu who was a Tiananmen Square protestor and now campaigns for religious freedom in China noted: “For Catholics, the confessional is supposed to guarantee absolute confidentiality between the priest and the confessor.”
“If priests are forced to violate that, China will go down a very dangerous path towards persecution.”
Asia News reports that: “Since July 2020, Hong Kong has been subject to strict national security legislation imposed by China, following mass protests that saw hundreds of thousands of people take to the streets vainly demanding democracy, under the one country, two systems principle that was the basis for the territory’s return to Chinese sovereignty.”
Beijing’s national security legislation has meant that hundreds of Hong Kong pro-democracy activists now find themselves on trial or in prison following surreal charges of “subversion” or “foreign influence”.
Critics say that under the 2024 legislation known as Article 23, the repression of freedom of expression in Hong Kong is set to get worse.
According to Asia News: “If Hong Kong’s national security law is adopted in its proposed form (and there is no reason to doubt that), it will be possible to be sentenced to life in prison for crimes like treason, insurrection and threats to China’s sovereignty.”
For the crime of sedition, often used in court against pro-democracy protesters, the maximum penalty goes from two years in prison to seven years, with the possibility of ten in the case of collusion with an “external force”.
The new law defines “seditious intention” as inciting people to bring people into hatred, contempt or disaffection against China, its offices in Hong Kong, the government and the region’s legal system.
Protestant pastor Garry Pang Moon-yuen was the first Hong Kong clergyman to be convicted under the draconian National Security Law.
He was jailed in 2022 after being accused of preaching sedition.
Asia News writes that the Hong Kong Assembly “which is controlled by pro-Beijing groups following the liquidation of any semblance of democracy in the Special Administrative Region,” fast tracked approval of the 212-page-long Safeguarding National Security bill.”
It was introduced just nine days after a one-month “public consultation” process, which did not take into account concerns expressed by human rights groups.
According to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) the National Security Law “has led to self-censorship among Hong Kong’s religious leaders and closures of some religious groups.”
Mr. Fu claimed thousands of Christians had already left Hong Kong and that “their preferred destination is the United Kingdom.”
He asserted that Britain has a moral obligation to stand up for religious freedom in its former colony.
“Hong Kongers are expecting the UK to stand strong for their religious freedom and to speak up for them, and to take all necessary measures to protect those who flee persecution,” he said.
Premier Christian News reports that after many Christians fled Hong Kong for the UK, a study by the British and Foreign Bible Society found the Chinese Church is now the fastest growing in Britain.
