The U.S. Congressional Commission on China, chaired by Senator Marco Rubio, heard experts and witnesses on the growing persecution of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang. During the week of the Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom, a gathering of more than 80 Foreign...
Chinese Communist Party
People’s Congress Deputy Status Revoked for Believing in God
A deputy from Xiangyang city in the National People’s Congress (NPC) was stripped of her mandate for being a member of a house church. Yang Hua (pseudonym) was a local National People’s Congress (NPC) deputy from Xiangyang city in Hubei Province as well as a regular...
Secret Document Reveals Plans for Crackdown on Religion in Liaoning
Bitter Winter has received a secret Communist Party document with a plan to close down churches and religious meeting places in Liaoning Province. Since February 2018, following the implementation of the new national Regulations on Religious Affairs, authorities in...
Ten Years Later: Remembering the Menglian Incident of July 19, 2008
When farmers from the Dai minority protested against the exploitation by a rubber company, the police sided with the company, killed two villagers and seriously wounded another ten. The Menglian incident of July 19, 2008, was followed with considerable emotion in...
Party Official Organized Convicted Offenders to Beat Up Believers in Church
Source: Direct Reports from China Date: June 19, 2018 A senior Chinese Communist Party Official in the city of Zhoukou, Henan Province organized offenders serving their sentence outside of prison to go to a Three-Self Protestant church and beat up believers,...
No Religion for Communist Party Members in China
Source: Direct Reports from China Date: June 14, 2018 The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) prohibits its members from having religious beliefs and demands to expel those who belong to religious organizations. Even family members of CCP card holders are discouraged from...
China’s Got Talent? CCP Shopping for Pro-Regime Religious Personnel
Source: Direct Reports from China Date: June 5, 2018 Bitter Winter has received a copy of a confidential circular letter titled “Suggestions on Strengthening and Improving Islamic Work Under the New Circumstances,” issued on April 19, 2018, by the General Office of...
China’s “Official” Religions Support the New Constitution
Source: Islamic Association of China Date: June 4, 2018 The website of the Islamic Association of China reported about the 5th Joint Meeting of the National Religious Groups, held in Beijing on May 31. The theme of the meeting was, “studying the Amendments to the...
Chinese Communist Party Bans Its Members From Professing Religious Beliefs
Source: Direct Reports from China Date: May 23, 2018 The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) requires its members to be staunch atheists and forbids them from believing in any religion. In reality, some Party members are also Christians, and the Party severely tramples...
Who Is Afraid of Bitter Winter?
Massimo Introvigne The launch of Bitter Winter has been greeted by a good media coverage, and has been covered with sympathy by several human rights and academic blogs and websites, from France to Australia. We did expect different reactions, too. One day after...




