China’s Crackdown on Religion Threatens Human Rights
Presenter: Barrie Webster
February, 2019
China’s Constitution Allows Religious Belief; the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) defends freedom of religion – ‘China’ is a signatory (but the 1949 Chinese Revolution was still to come; the ‘China’ signatory was actually Nationalist China, i.e., Taiwan)
https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/religion-china
From Muslims in the NW to Christians in the Central South – is the intention to eradicate religion or to bend it to become an agent of the Chinese state?
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/china-islam-mental-illness-cured-181127135358356.html
Podcast on China’s Muslim detention camps
https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2019/jan/14/china-muslim-uighur-detention-camps-podcast
The Chinese State also sees the Christian Church as a potential force for change – in fact, a threat
Protestant Missionary History in China – a result of European Imperialism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant_missions_in_China
Western Religions See a Tremendous Opportunity in China
https://www.omusa.org/areas/country/china
https://www.ft.com/content/69a41f7e-6b96-11e7-bfeb-33fe0c5b7eaa
History of Islam in China – also opportunistic?
http://www.reviewofreligions.org/1595/islam-in-china/
Questions:
1. As Humanists, we defend human rights but we also are non-theistic (and principled) and defend the secular life-stance. And we know the dangers of binary thinking. So where should we stand on the issue of Chinese official oppression of religious minorities ?
2. Should we expect current day China to observe the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? It is inconvenient for them in an analogous way that the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was to Canada for many years. So what should be our interpretation?
3. China is fast emerging as a world superpower. Should we fear its rise? What of human rights in this context? Is oppression of human rights on the horizon for Canadians?
4. What is the reasonable course of action for Humanists on Chinese religious oppression? Are we completely free of religious oppression in Canada? What can we learn from this?