The indictment of a group of Jehovah’s Witnesses confirms that Art. 300 of the Chinese Criminal Code is enforced against those who did not commit any crime other than spreading their beliefs.
Massimo Introvigne
A Sad World Refugee Day for Uyghurs in Thailand
Despite international protests, Thailand keeps Uyghur refugees in overcrowded detention camps and threatens to send them back to China.
Persecution Against Jehovah’s Witnesses Escalates in China
For the first time, the article of the Criminal Code against xie jiao (“heterodox teachings”) is used in Xinjiang to indict 18 Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Church of Almighty God’s Sister Zou Demei Is Free
Supported by a campaign by Bitter Winter and several NGOs, the former leader of the CAG in four Chinese provinces, who escaped to the US with a false passport, has finally left jail.
Kazakhstan: Serikzhan Bilash Remains Under House Arrest
Activist who denounced atrocities in China should remain in jail at least until July 10, while heavy Chinese pressures in Kazakhstan continue.
A Global Tiananmen: Remembering Is Not Enough
June 4 commemorates Tiananmen. It is more than a memory. Persecution continues in China, and is even exported abroad through the harassment of refugees.
Sayragul Sauytbay Has Left Kazakhstan
Still without refugee status in Kazakhstan, the woman who exposed the horror of Xinjiang camps left the country on June 3, seeking asylum in Sweden.
Bitter Winter’s Marco Respinti Receives Media Award at the Turin Book Fair
Our director-in-charge is honored for his contribution to religious liberty, as part of a day of events devoted to denouncing persecution and advancing religious freedom.
Bitter Winter To Co-Host Tiananmen Commemorative Rally in Washington D.C.
Our magazine joins several religious organizations, NGOs in commemorating the 30th anniversary of the June 4, 1989 massacre.
USCIRF: China “Increasingly Hostile Towards Religion”
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom releases its 2019 report. It denounces persecution and torture of Uyghurs and other Muslims, Tibetans, house church Christians, members of Falun Gong and The Church of Almighty God.
Massimo Introvigne
Massimo Introvigne (born June 14, 1955 in Rome) is an Italian sociologist of religions. He is the founder and managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), an international network of scholars who study new religious movements. Introvigne is the author of some 70 books and more than 100 articles in the field of sociology of religion. He was the main author of the Enciclopedia delle religioni in Italia (Encyclopedia of Religions in Italy). He is a member of the editorial board for the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion and of the executive board of University of California Press' Nova Religio. From January 5 to December 31, 2011, he has served as the "Representative on combating racism, xenophobia and discrimination, with a special focus on discrimination against Christians and members of other religions" of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). From 2012 to 2015 he served as chairperson of the Observatory of Religious Liberty, instituted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to monitor problems of religious liberty on a worldwide scale.