CHINA

The campaign of harassment continues against Early Rain Covenant Church

in Chengdu. Church members and leaders faced various illegal tactics to prevent them from joining an online prayer meeting on 9 December 2023. The gathering was to mark five years since the arrest of over 100 church members, including Pastor Wang Yi. Tactics included power cuts, police stationed outside their homes, door-to- door threats, and being forcibly taken to police stations.

Subdeacon Jia Xuewei was placed under administrative detention for 15 days, and preacher Dai Zhichao was criminally detained on suspicion of ‘picking quarrels and provoking trouble’. Mr Dai was released on bail on 9 January.

INDIA

A leader of India’s ruling party was charged with hate speech against Muslims for the eighth time. T Raja Singh made the comments during a public meeting in his constituency on 13 November 2023, and the case was registered two days later. While Singh’s comments were made in Telangana State, there has been similarly dangerous rhetoric in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh states.

Some members of the Bharatiya Janata Party have used election campaigns to propagate hate towards India’s Muslim community. In recent years, such comments have resulted in the socio- economic boycott of Muslims in India, and in extreme cases have provoked vigilantism and sectarian violence.

NORTH KOREA

Under the cover of darkness, over 500 North Korean refugees were forcibly repatriated from China on 9 October 2023. They were mostly women, particularly civilians and religious figures who had been trying to escape to safety in South Korea.

‘The horrific treatment they will now face in North Korea is no secret,’ said Mervyn Thomas, CSW Founder President.

China continues to return refugees to North Korea, knowing that they will likely face torture, imprisonment, or even public execution. Those found to have had contact with Christians are known to face particularly harsh punishment. As a member of the United Nations and a party to the UN Refugee Convention and Protocol, China must grant refugee status to North Korean refugees, or at least allow them safe passage to a third country.

MYANMAR/BURMA

In early December, a state court in Kachin State rejected the appeal of Rev Dr Hkalam Samson, who remains imprisoned since his arrest in December 2022. In April 2023 he was convicted – like most religious and political prisoners – on trumped-up charges under counterterrorism laws, routinely used by the military to silence opposition.

Rev Dr Samson is an internationally renowned Christian pastor and human rights advocate. He has been targeted for speaking out against the continuing atrocities of the Myanmar military, which seized power in a coup on 1 February 2021.

EGYPT

An estimated 3,000 Coptic Christians live in Al-Azeeb village in Minya Province. The community recently received a permit from the government to build a church, as they did not have one and had to commute elsewhere to worship.

On the evening of 18 December, as workers were digging the ground to lay foundation, extremist members of the Muslim community from Al-Azeeb and nearby villages attacked the building sites. The attackers clashed with police, who were deployed quickly to contain the situation, and threw stones and Molotov cocktails which set fire to several houses and injured livestock belonging to Christians.

A local source said that Christians in the village are now fearful to go outside.

VIETNAM

Members of the indigenous Khmer- Krom Buddhist community in Dai Tao Hamlet were violently attacked by non-uniformed Vietnamese authorities and local gang members on 22 November.

Three members of the Khmer-Krom group were injured: the temple’s Abbot, Venerable Thach Chanh Da Ra; Kim Khiem; and Thach Ret.

Khmer-Krom Buddhists have faced harassment in Dai Tho since March 2022, when Vietnamese authorities attempted to cut down a sacred 700-year-old tree at the Tro Nom Sek temple, and responded with violence to the monks who resisted.

The November attack took place in a temple where a Khmer language class was taking place. Restrictions on indigenous languages have not only been imposed on Khmer-Krom Buddhists, but also on Montagnard Christians, Hmong Christians and many other indigenous religious groups in Vietnam.