The Chinese Communist Party also wants Guo to attend a meeting of the "independent" clergy of the Fujian, where he is the bishop, after he signs the document.

The Party's aim is to show Guo's submission to its rule. In doing so, it hopes to weaken the resistance of underground priests, who are the majority of the clergy of the diocese.

The authorities have been exerting pressure, blackmailing and threatening priests to push them to sign up to the independent Church in exchange for government recognition.

Without government recognition, their ministry is forbidden.

China's President Xi Jinping says an "independent Church" subject to the Chinese Communist Party is the condition for Catholics to live in China.

Guo is part of a group of bishops many religious and human rights experts feared would be persecuted after the Vatican and Beijing signed a deal (called the Sino-Vatican agreement) last year about ordaining bishops.

The deal followed years of Chinese government insistence that it approve clerical appointments, which clashes with absolute papal authority to pick bishops.

The agreement aimed to pave the way for formal diplomatic ties between the Holy See and the Chinese government. However it also stoked fears that the Chinese state would have too much power to regulate religion.

For underground Catholics, the notion of an "independent" Church is unacceptable.

Guo is described as one of the "victims" of the Sino-Vatican agreement, which has made the diocese of Mindong a "pilot project" for implementing the agreement.

Prior to the agreement, Guo was the ordinary bishop of the diocese - recognised by the Holy See, but not by the government.

The government has shut down all places of worship not sanctioned by the Party.

However, the government claims people have freedom of religion - provided that they worship in state-sanctioned temples, churches, and mosques.

It says all religious believers must "be subordinate to and serve the overall interests of the nation and the Chinese people," making it explicit that they must also "support the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party."

Source

• Asia News
• The Telegraph
• Image: Reuters

Chinese authorities in the Xinjiang region use high-tech surveillance with facial recognition and an app tracking its user's location to monitor the Uyghur ethnoreligious minority intensely.

Between 800,000 to 2 million Uyghur Muslims have been detained and sent to "re-education camps," where they have been subjected to abuse and political indoctrination.

The high-tech surveillance model is one the Chinese could apply to other parts of the country in the future.

Christian churches throughout China have been equipped with 24-hour CCTV surveillance. Beijing's largest Protestant church was forced to close last September after its pastor refused a government order to allow face-recognition cameras to be installed on his pulpit.

On a local level, government officials are punished if their superiors find evidence of unauthorized religious expression in the areas under their control via a "job responsibility contract" system, China expert Steven Mosher says.

"What that contract says is that you must enforce the new restrictions on religious behaviour. You can't allow children under the age of 18 to attend religious services.

"You can't allow any unauthorised religious gathering to take place. If it does, you find the people present and you can arrest the leaders."

Changes in 2018 within Chinese governance shifted direct control of all religious affairs in China to the Chinese Communist Party's United Front Work Department.

This department's role is to ensure that groups outside the Chinese Communist Party - ethnic minorities like Tibetan Buddhists, Xinjiang Muslims, Hong Kong democracy activists and the Catholic Patriotic Association - are following the party line.

Chinese President Xi Jinping says the United Front Work Department is one of his "magic weapons," which he uses to co-opt and control.

"Local officials have been given the green light to intensely persecute the local church and the Patriotic church is not going to be exempt," Mosher says.

"We now know that Patriotic churches are being destroyed, not just underground churches."

In September 2018, the Vatican signed a provisional agreement with the Chinese government about the process of appointing bishops in China.

The aim was to unite China's estimated 12 million Catholics who worship in both underground and registered churches.

The terms of this Sino-Vatican agreement have not been made public, something that Mosher says has been used against Catholics living in China.

"The problem with any secret agreement is that either side can misrepresent it at no cost because there is nothing to compare their statements with," he says.

Source

• Catholic News Sgency
• Image: Business Insider