Source: Direct Reports from China
Date: May 30, 2018
A source informed Bitter Winter recently that, in April, a preschool in Luanchuan County, which is part of the prefecture-level city of Luoyang, Henan, sent a WeChat (a popular messaging and social media application in China) message in its chat group about resisting “religious propaganda.” It also issued a notice that stressed on educating students, including young children, not to go to religious sites. Since then, the preschool started classes on “resisting cults” and displays banners about forbidding the spread of religious beliefs in school.

A preschool in Luanchuan County, Luoyang, Henan, hangs a banner across its fence reading “It is prohibited to spread religious ideas or recruit members in schools.”

A teacher is teaching young children about resisting religious beliefs.

Bitter Winter reports on how religions are allowed, or not allowed, to operate in China and how some are severely persecuted after they are labeled as “xie jiao,” or heterodox teachings. We publish news difficult to find elsewhere, analyses, and debates.
Placed under the editorship of Massimo Introvigne, one of the most well-known scholars of religion internationally, “Bitter Winter” is a cooperative enterprise by scholars, human rights activists, and members of religious organizations persecuted in China (some of them have elected, for obvious reasons, to remain anonymous).


