Source: Direct Reports from China
Date: June 14, 2018
Last week, Bitter Winter published an article by its Editor-in-Chief, Massimo Introvigne, about de-programming camps for the so-called “religious extremists” where the Chinse Communist Party “re-educates through labor” or “transforms through education.” Credible reports place those interned in the jiaoyu zhuanhua (“transformation through education”) camps close to one million in Xinjiang Province only, where Uyghur Muslims are mostly held. However, similar processes are going on elsewhere in China targeting other religious groups.
The stories of Ming Quan and Xia Ming (pseudonyms) from Jilin Province, are just two examples of many when authorities repress religious beliefs by putting people in camps.
One day in early November of 2015, Ming Quan, a 51-year-old barber and house church preacher from the city of Taonan, was working at his barbershop when officers from the Public Security Sub-Bureau of Wanbao town, Taonan, burst in and forcefully handcuffed and detained him citing “a report that Ming Quan believes in God.” That same day, policemen from the same sub-bureau went to Ulanhot city in Inner Mongolia – and arrested a 46-year-old Christian, Xia Ming.
Both Ming Quan and Xia Ming were later sentenced to one year of re-education through labor. Ming Quan was sent to the Tuquan County labor camp in Hinggan League, Inner Mongolia and was released only in November 2016 after serving his full sentence.
Ming Quan was previously arrested in 2007 along with seven other believers during a religious gathering in the village of Meiyao, Taonan city, and was sentenced to one year.
