At least, that is what a pro-CCP Hong Kong court ruled on November 19 this year,when it harshly sentenced 45 figures on the dubious charge of the “conspiracy to subvert state power.”, according to the notorious National Security Law (NSL) that criminalized a wide range of actions questioning the CCP, as well as severely curtailed freedoms in Hong Kong.
Hong Kongers from various walks of life were some of those who faced the Soviet-style court sentence, including high-profile politician student activist Joshua Wong, law professor and activist Benny Tai, journalist-activist Gwyneth Ho, among many others.
Welcome to the new Hong Kong, where repressive penalties for dissidents have become the order of the day. Dare to challenge the playbook of the CCP, and you will likely be a political pariah at the very least.
Despite the increasingly repressive British government under Marxist Keir Starmer, the UK Foreign Office rightly noted that “China’s imposition of the National Security Law (NSL) in Hong Kong has eroded the rights and freedoms of Hong Kongers”.
Besides the aforementioned 45 who would spend considerable years of their time incarcerated for merely questioning the CCP narrative and demanding for government accountability, Catholic activist and founder of the now-defunct Hong Kong tabloid Apple Daily, Jimmy Lai, had to take the stand and face interrogation in a years-long national security trial that may see him put behind bars - for life.
At the moment, Lai is already serving prison sentences for various “offenses”, including his alleged contributions to pro-democracy protests in 2019. Notably, Catholic Cardinal Joseph Zen attended Lai’s recent trial with Lai’s family members, as per a report by the Associated Press (AP).
In response to the CCP’s political persecution of dissidents like Lai, the Congressional Executive Commission on China called on the American government to sanction Hong Kong prosecutors and judges if they did not set Lai free.
The trial “is a political prosecution plain and simple and another sad example of the Hong Kong government’s increasingly repressive policies,” the commission declared.
Besides, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention urged in a report that the Chinese government should “release Mr. Lai immediately.”
Despite the increasingly repressive British government under Marxist Keir Starmer, the UK Foreign Office rightly noted that “China’s imposition of the National Security Law (NSL) in Hong Kong has eroded the rights and freedoms of Hong Kongers”.
Alarmingly, the same USCIRF report documents how Chinese officials have demanded the removal of crosses from churches, substituting images of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary with images of Xi.
At the rate things are going, one can easily wonder how more lives will be sacrificed on the altar of Communism, and how many families will be harassed and torn apart by the CCP authorities. Moreover, only God knows the number of underground Chinese Catholics who would have to continue to endure religious persecution and martyrdom under Xi Jinping in his drive to “sinicize” religions in China.
For instance, a recent report published by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) reveals that the CCP’s “sinicization of religion” policy breaches religious freedom and makes religions subservient to “the CCP’s political agenda and Marxist vision for religion”.
Alarmingly, the same USCIRF report documents how Chinese officials have demanded the removal of crosses from churches, substituting images of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary with images of Xi.
Furthermore, CCP officials have compelled members of the clergy to parrot CCP ideology, insisting on the display of CCP slogans in churches, the report added.
Beijing targeted 10 bishops after they opposed the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association. Little wonder that many faithful Catholics, including Cardinal Zen, have decried the Vatican-China deal, which was recently extended.
Additionally, CCP officials have compelled Catholic churches to join the Bishops’ Conference of the Catholic Church in China, which is officially under the control of China’s State Administration for Religious Affairs and the CCP’s United Front Work Department.
What is more, another recent report written by Nina Shea of the Hudson Institute details how 10 Chinese Catholic bishops faced governmental suppression due to their opposition to the CCP’s efforts to meddle in religious affairs, following the 2018 Vatican-China deal on the appointment of bishops.
“This report shows that religious repression of the Catholic Church in China has intensified since the 2018 China-Vatican agreement on the appointment of bishops,” Shea says, referring to how Vatican-sanctioned bishops have had to experience detention without due process, surveillance, police interrogations, and banishments from their diocese, because of their resistance to CCP interference.
“Beijing targeted these 10 bishops after they opposed the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, which requires its members to pledge independence from the Holy See,” Shea elaborates, in comments cited by Catholic News Agency (CNA).
In other words, these bishops have been punished by the CCP authorities for their loyalty to the Vatican.
Little wonder that many faithful Catholics, including Cardinal Zen, have decried the Vatican-China deal, which was recently extended.
In Christian charity grounded in the love of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, we can only pray that God and the Blessed Virgin Mary grant the authorities of the Catholic Church the political courage and doctrinal clarity to condemn the “errors of Russia”, including those errors of the authoritarian CCP regime. Importantly, we can pray for the Vatican authorities to “wake up” from their illusion that the anti-Catholic CCP regime can be trusted to maintain their end of the Vatican-China deal.
Our Lady of China, pray for China, and for the whole world.
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