Speaking anonymously during an online discussion, a Christian cleric in Hong Kong said he thinks it is likely that greater repression by the Chinese government of religious freedom in Hong Kong, particularly the freedom of religious schools, is about to occur.
The cleric, identified only as Reverend L, told the Hudson Institute’s Nina Shea on Feb. 10 that the Chinese Communist Party appears to be using ideological tactics, such as education, to chip away at the freedom of religion in Hong Kong, which came under Chinese control in 1997.
“In terms of restricting the rights of religious freedom, the CCP is doing it step-by-step,” Reverend L said, noting that China has in recent years imposed serious restrictions on the rights of assembly, press, and speech in Hong Kong. “Freedom of religion is the only remaining freedom in Hong Kong at this moment,” he said.
Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China, whose citizens have historically enjoyed freedom of religion, “comparable to any country in the free world,” Reverend L said. In contrast, on the Chinese mainland, religious believers of all stripes are routinely restricted, surveilled, and oppressed by the communist government.
However, Reverend L says that religious freedom has been particularly eroded in Hong Kong since 2019, thanks to the CCP’s efforts to control the populace through an “ideological war.”
Reverend L pointed to a Reuters report from late December documenting an October meeting at which Chinese bishops and religious leaders briefed senior Hong Kong Catholic clergymen on President Xi Jinping’s vision of religion with “Chinese characteristics.”
Reverend L opined that the meeting sounded like a “brainwashing session” to attempt to make the faith more Chinese, and thus more expedient for the CCP.
At the end of January 2022, the Chinese-language newspaper Ta Kung Pao, which Reverend L described as a CCP propaganda publication, published four articles about Catholicism in Hong Kong, one of them about Hong Kong archbishop emeritus Cardinal Joseph Zen.
Zen, 90, has been a strong advocate of the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement for years, and is a sharp critic of the 2018 Vatican-China deal on the appointment of bishops.