• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • HOME
  • ABOUT CHINA
    • NEWS
    • TESTIMONIES
    • OP-EDS
    • FEATURED
    • GLOSSARY
    • CHINA PERSECUTION MAP
  • FROM THE WORLD
    • NEWS GLOBAL
    • TESTIMONIES GLOBAL
    • OP-EDS GLOBAL
    • FEATURED GLOBAL
  • INTERVIEWS
  • DOCUMENTS AND TRANSLATIONS
    • DOCUMENTS
    • THE TAI JI MEN CASE
    • TRANSLATIONS
    • EVENTS
  • ABOUT
  • EDITORIAL BOARD
  • TOPICS

Bitter Winter

A magazine on religious liberty and human rights

three friends of winter
Home / China / News China

Even Going to the Doctor Poses Trouble for Believers

12/27/2018Yao Zhangjin |

Patients in China are forced to register religious status when seeking medical care and also undergo a litany of questions about private life.

doctor questions a patient

“Big Brother” is everywhere in China, in every corner of society, even the doctor’s office, where citizens are investigated about whether they have religious beliefs and other private information irrelevant to their physical health.

“Do you have religious beliefs? Do you believe in Buddha, or do you believe in Jesus? How many brothers and sisters do you have at home? What are their levels of education? What religious beliefs do they have?”

This was not a police interrogation, but rather these were questions asked by a doctor in a village under the administration of Baoji city in the northwestern province of Shaanxi. And as one villager responded: “Checking for diseases is checking for diseases. How is that related to believing in God?”

Ms. Liu, from Shaanxi Province’s Tongchuan city, faced the same confusion. In September, Ms. Liu went to see a doctor and was also required to provide detailed personal information, including her religious status. The doctor even asked for that information regarding her children.

“If every patient is questioned like this, won’t it delay people from getting treatment?” Ms. Liu, who said she felt like she was being interrogated as a prisoner, asked.

But as it turns out, the doctors also feel helpless; as a doctor told Ms. Liu in response to her question, asking for this information is a forced requirement from superiors or else their jobs are at risk.

“Now, in addition to being doctors, we also serve as civilian police. If we don’t do this, we will lose our jobs. There is nothing we can do. You’re bothered by it; we’re extremely bothered, too,” the doctor said.

It appears as a part of the Chinese government’s plan to defraud believers from receiving their health-insurance benefits.

“As soon as it is determined that a patient believes in a xie jiao (heterodox teachings) then the hospital will not reimburse them with public healthcare insurance for any money spent on medical attention,” a nurse at Baoji City Second Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Shaanxi said.

According to several insiders, similar situations are prevalent in hospitals throughout China’s northernmost Heilongjiang Province, eliciting the revulsion of patients and their families.

In July, Mr. Zhang’s father was sent to the hospital’s emergency department because of an eye injury. Just as Mr. Zhang was busy making the arrangements of hospitalization services, a nurse chased after him asking for his father’s personal information, including the level of education, whether he has any religious beliefs, and so on. Mr. Zhang was appalled by this, believing that by doing so, the hospital was delaying his father’s treatment. But the nurse said that this is a hospital regulation that has been in effect since last year.

To make matters worse, because of this government regulation, some Christians have had their treatment delayed due to their fear of being arrested.

In 2013, Ms. Xiao suffered a fracture of the left arm in a car accident, and an iron clamp was placed into her arm to fix it in place. The iron clamp could’ve been removed after two years, but Ms. Xiao, fearing that she would be questioned about her faith, didn’t go to the doctor to have the clamp removed, even though she is worried about medical complications or becoming disabled. Then again, she has been previously arrested for sharing the gospel.

As one house church preacher put it, wiping out meeting venues, prohibiting gatherings and arresting Christians is just one way the government has power over believers. But it’s the eyes of “Big Brother,” the slow eradicating means for Christians to survive that really exacerbates the repression and persecution.

(All the names are pseudonyms.)

Reported by Yao Zhangjin

Tagged With: Religious Persecution

Yao Zhangjin profile picture
Yao Zhangjin

Uses a pseudonym for security reasons.

Related articles

  • Falun Gong’s Report on Persecution in 2022: 172 Killed, 633 Sentenced

    Falun Gong’s Report on Persecution in 2022: 172 Killed, 633 Sentenced

  • Why We Should Protect Chinese Refugees from the Long Harm of Xi Jinping

    Why We Should Protect Chinese Refugees from the Long Harm of Xi Jinping

  • After 26 Years, Uyghurs Remember the Ghulja Massacre

    After 26 Years, Uyghurs Remember the Ghulja Massacre

  • Christian from Wenzhou Prosecuted in Sichuan

    Christian from Wenzhou Prosecuted in Sichuan

Keep Reading

  • The Chitrali Case: In Pakistan, MPs Can Insult Religious Minorities and Get Away with It 
    The Chitrali Case: In Pakistan, MPs Can Insult Religious Minorities and Get Away with It 

    Maulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali told the Parliament that the Torah and the Gospel are “canceled” scriptures. He has not been censored.

  • Two Sentenced for Attending a Christian Conference in Malaysia
    Two Sentenced for Attending a Christian Conference in Malaysia

    One year of jail is the penalty for a pastor and a co-worker from Shanxi who went to an event organized by famous evangelist Tang Chongrong

  • Iran: “Christians Are Constantly Watched as Spies”
    Iran: “Christians Are Constantly Watched as Spies”

    A conversation with Pastor Dabrina Bet-Tamraz from Iran before she testified at the European Parliament in Brussels.

  • House Church Pastor and Elder Arrested in Shanxi
    House Church Pastor and Elder Arrested in Shanxi

    After the August 19 raid, the leaders of Linfen’s Covenant House Church were placed under arrest on September 30.

Primary Sidebar

Support Bitter Winter

Learn More

Follow us

Newsletter

Most Read

  • Sinicization of Christianity Comes to Hong Kong by Gladys Kwok
  • The Last Words of a Uyghur Father: A Son’s Memory by Abdurehim Gheni Uyghur
  • China: Theological Seminaries Inspected to Check How “Sinicized” They Are by Zhang Chunhua
  • Occupied Ukraine: Anti-Cult “Experts” Target Moscow Patriarchate Dissident Priest by Massimo Introvigne
  • Xi Jinping: Beijing’ National Art Museum Is Not Socialist Enough by Hu Zimo
  • France, Sonia Backès Caught Red-Handed Again: A “Religious Profiling” of Muslim Students in Schools by Massimo Introvigne
  • Chinese Agents Tried to Bribe U.S. Tax Officer in Anti-Falun-Gong Plot by Massimo Introvigne

CHINA PERSECUTION MAP -SEARCH NEWS BY REGION

clickable geographical map of china, with regions

Footer

EDITORIAL BOARD

Editor-in-Chief

MASSIMO INTROVIGNE

Director-in-Charge

MARCO RESPINTI

ADDRESS

CESNUR

Via Confienza 19,

10121 Turin, Italy,

Phone: 39-011-541950

E-MAIL

We welcome submission of unpublished contributions, news, and photographs. Each submission implies the authorization for us to edit and publish texts and photographs. We reserve the right to decide which submissions are suitable for publication. Please, write to INFO@BITTERWINTER.ORG Thank you.

Newsletter

LINKS

orlir-logo hrwf-logo cesnur-logo

Copyright © 2023 · Bitter Winter · PRIVACY POLICY· COOKIE POLICY