Religious freedom campaigners called on UK churches to “tell the stories” of victims of repression in Hong Kong, at the launch of a report on freedom of religion or belief in the territory.
Lord Alton of Liverpool hosted the launch of the report “Sell Out My Soul: The Impending Threats to Freedom of Religion or Belief in Hong Kong” at the House of Lords on 30 November, following launches in the European Parliament in Brussels, the Religious Freedom Institute in Washington, DC, and the Parliament of Canada in Ottawa.
The report was sponsored by the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy. Its author Benedict Rogers, the chief executive of Hong Kong Watch, said that freedom of religion or belief was “the last freedom just about standing” in Hong Kong but it faced a growing threat from the authorities.
He said that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was “inherently hostile to religion” while his report warns that it is acting to “coerce and subsume religious institutions into its apparatus of state”.
The panel at the launch included Pastor Roy Chan, formerly of the Good Neighbour North District Church in Hong Kong. He said that after his church provided medical assistance to those injured during the 2019 pro-democracy protests, HSBC closed the church’s charitable account and his personal account, before the authorities accused him of money laundering. He has since moved to the UK and now runs the Good Neighbour Church in London.
Another panellist, Chung Ching Kwong of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, said that the erosion of freedom of religion “affects much more” than the rights of worshippers, citing Hong Kong’s many church-run schools which have stopped commemorating the Tiananmen Square Massacre on 4 June.
She said that Christian education produced “criminals” under CCP designation, and that the imposition of a “patriotic curriculum” discouraged teachers from discussing concepts which originated in the Bible.
Both Lord Alton and Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle, the former Green Party leader, spoke on the panel, criticising the lack of action by the UK government despite its responsibilities in Hong Kong. Both raised the case of Jimmy Lai, the Catholic entrepreneur imprisoned under a draconian national security law, who is a British citizen.
Lord Alton also described the Vatican’s 2018 agreement with China “a huge error of epic proportions”.
Julie Jones, director of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom of Religion or Belief, said that constituents should call on their MPs to ask questions about Hong Kong in the House of Commons.
Mr Rogers said that the territory’s religious communities and churches faced “worse times to come” and it was UK churches’ duty to provide a safe environment for Hong Kongers to speak.
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