Beijing enlists Chinese priests against Xinjiang denunciations
Priests from Fujian travelled to the province of repressions against the Uyghurs to ‘educate the patriotic spirit’ and ‘grow in the path of Sinicisation’. They were led by Bishop Vincenzo Zhan Silu, one of the two Chinese bishops who will participate in the Synod. Tourism promoted as the Party's preferred path to cover up the detention of figures like Ilham Tothi and other human rights violations.
Milan (AsiaNews) - The Chinese Communist Party is also involving Catholic priests in its campaign to counter allegations about Xinjiang, China's westernmost province, which has long been the focus of concern of human rights organisations over the forced assimilation of the Uyghurs, the local Muslim population.
Local Church bodies controlled by the Party in Fujian Province - one of those where the Catholic presence is historically strongest in China - organised a trip to Xinjiang for a group of Catholic priests and religious at the end of last August. The declared objective: ‘to educate the patriotic spirit’ and grow ‘in the path of the sinicisation of religions’ as outined by Xi Jinping.
The initiative was reported yesterday by the American website China Aid, at the forefront of tracking religious freedom in China, quoting the contents of a communiqué that appeared on chinacatholic.cn, the official Catholic website of the Patriotic Association.
In the note - also accompanied by some photos of the trip - it is reported that the group was led by Bishop Vincenzo Zhan Silu, the bishop of the diocese that the Vatican calls Funing and the Beijing government calls by the administrative name of Mindong.
Msgr Zhan Silu is one of the two bishops that Pope Francis has appointed for the upcoming second session of the Ordinary Assembly of the Synod and is therefore expected in the Vatican any day now.
Ordained without a pontifical mandate in a Chinese government snub on 6 January 2000, he is one of the eight bishops returned to communion with Rome in 2018 when the Provisional Agreement between Beijing and the Holy See on the appointment of bishops was signed, the renewal of which is expected in recent weeks. Msgr Zhan Silu is also vice-president of the Chinese Council of Catholic Bishops, the collegial body not officially recognised by the Holy See
The communiqué issued by the Fujian Church bodies states, "through these patriotic education’s practical activities,” the report added, “participants recognized that Xinjiang is an inseparable part of China’s territory, and that all ethnic groups in Xinjiang are closely connected members of the Chinese nation.” It is also reported that Bishop Zhan Silu, commenting on the trip, hoped it would serve to raise a clergy that is ‘are politically reliable, have noble characters and religious accomplishments, and are able to play their role at critical times.’.
Since May 2014, the PRC government has launched an ‘anti-terrorism campaign’ in Xinjiang, targeting Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims living in the province with policies that include mass and arbitrary detentions, forced labour, family separations and torture.
Just recently, Human Rights Watch launched a new appeal for Ilham Tohti, a Uyghur economist and activist, sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of ‘separatism’ for founding the website ‘Uyghurs Online’. A symbolic figure in the Uyghurs' struggle for respect for their identity and winner of the Sakharov Prize, his family has not even been allowed to visit him since 2017 and he is believed to be confined to solitary confinement. In 2022, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights - after repeated attempts by Beijing to prevent it - published a report concluding that abuses on Uyghurs ‘may constitute crimes against humanity’.
In response to these complaints - which also raise the issue of the use of forced labour by Uyghurs in the supply chains of large multinational groups - in recent years Beijing has focused heavily on promoting Xinjiang as a tourist destination, using local folklore to spread the image of peaceful coexistence in a context fully integrated with the rest of China. An effort in which the Catholic clergy is now also called upon to collaborate.
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18/09/2020 11:50
17/09/2020 11:39
