Bitter Winter

In addition to ready-made stories for sale, the media can also produce scripts for more aggressive forms of state control.

Uyghurs celebrated their skullcap this month. It is much more than a headpiece. 

When leaders of religious minorities are accused of sexual crimes, media narratives can quickly mark the entire collective as either accomplices or victims.

The public French broadcaster treated theology as a subject of ridicule and excluded Scientologists and independent experts from its show.

When folk festivals become political karaoke, even the mountains of Guangxi can’t help but hum along.

As the jailed Christian’ bookseller’s health collapses, the family renews the fight for justice.

A study of a one-sided documentary that gave voice only to angry ex-members and anti-cultists—a trend that repeats itself when the media deals with “cults.”

A Stockholm court overturns the state’s attempt to police doctrine, restoring equal access to public support for a minority faith.

An Italian mountaineer who was a Scientologist died in 2019 in the Himalayas. Apostate ex-members and the media manipulated the incident to blame the “cult.”

United Front chief Li Ganjie’s visit to historically Tibetan areas in Gansu and Sichuan was aimed at regulating the religion of Tibetans—and local Hui Islam—strictly according to Party standards.