The irony... THEY WERE MADE IN CHINA
Per the article:
Sarah Cook, senior research analyst for East Asia at Freedom House, said the sales ban “is an important example of how internet censorship intersects with restrictions on religious freedom.”
“Sensitive religious topics and groups are among the most censored in China,” she said. “In our research we found the Chinese authorities increasingly using more high-tech methods to control religion and punish believers — including surveillance and arrest of believers for sharing information online.”
Religious practice in China is tightly controlled by the government, with the five recognized faiths — Chinese Buddhism, Islam, Catholicism, Protestantism and Taoism — supervised by official organizations such as the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Church or the Buddhist Association of China.
According to a recent five-year plan on Christianity in China, published by the State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA), maintaining the “principle of independence and self-management” is important due to the “humiliating history of the Chinese people” and the use of Christianity by the powers of “colonialism and imperialism.”
Chinese Catholic bishops are not appointed by the Pope, which has been a key sticking point between Beijing and the Vatican since relations broke down in 1951.
CNN attributes this outrage to Trump’s escalating trade wars. Bibles. Right between bacon and blueberries.
Per the freedom House Website:
Executive Summary
A Taoist disciple joins the order without knowing when he will be admitted to priesthood. Dozens of Christians are barred from celebrating Christmas together. Tibetan monks are forced to learn reinterpretations of Buddhist doctrine during a patriotic reeducation session. A Uighur Muslim farmer is sentenced to nine years in prison for praying in a field. And a 45-year-old father in northeastern China dies in custody days after being detained for practicing Falun Gong.
These are a small sample of the obstacles that Chinese believers encounter when they seek to peacefully practice their faithproducts of the ruling Communist Partys multifaceted apparatus of control. Combining both violent and nonviolent methods, the partys policies are designed to curb the rapid growth of religious communities and eliminate certain beliefs and practices, while also harnessing aspects of religion that could serve the regimes political and economic interests.
Since Xi Jinping took the helm of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in November 2012, the authorities have intensified many of their restrictions, resulting in an overall increase in religious persecution. But believers have responded with a surprising degree of resistance, including in faith communities that have generally enjoyed cooperative relationships with state and party officials.
This escalating cycle of repression and pushback illustrates a fundamental failure of the Chinese authorities religious policies. Rather than checking religions natural expansion and keeping it under political control, the CCPs rigid constraints have essentially created an enormous black market, forcing many believers to operate outside the law and to view the regime as unreasonable, unjust, or illegitimate.
The present study is a detailed examination of the dynamics of religious revival, repression, and resistance in China today, as well as their recent evolution and broader implications. The report focuses on seven communities that together account for over 350 million believers: the countrys officially recognized religionsBuddhism (Chinese and Tibetan), Taoism, Catholicism, Protestantism, and Islamas well as Falun Gong, the largest of several banned qigong practices, new religious movements, and quasi-Christian sects.
Reminds me of an editorial cartoon back in the 90's about dissident Harry Wu. Wu was a Chinese political prisoner who was released after Mao died. Years later, he re-entered China and was "detained" again. In the editorial cartoon, the Chinese authorities are putting Wu to work in a sweatshop where they are making "Free Harry Wu" T-shirts.
Now that's funny.
Christianity has been growing rapidly in China . Chinese authorities must be getting nervous if theyre banning Bible sales. Recently they were demolishing churches. They know that if they try to clamp down on Christianity, it will grow. Looks like theyre getting desperate. Prayers for a great many persecuted Christians in China.