REGIONAL ANALYSIS
Mainland Asia
Mainland Asia is home to nations that host some of the world’s worst religious freedom violations. Within East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Indian Subcontinent, the countries that experienced the most severe religious restrictions during the period under review included China, India, Nepal, North Korea, Vietnam, and Myanmar.
In China, the population of 1.4 billion people continues to suffer the most serious restrictions on religious freedom since the Cultural Revolution. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), intent on carrying out its campaign of ‘sinicisation’ of religion – requiring all religions to adhere to the Chinese Communist Party’s ideology, doctrine, and teachings – resumed its intense crackdown on religious communities. The tools used to track and arrest its citizens, including ethnic and religious minorities, feature leading edge surveillance technologies, of note the approximately 540 million CCTV cameras countrywide[1] – many replete with facial recognition capability – which are becoming increasingly refined. Although all faith groups reported increasing pressure, the Muslim Uyghur population continue to suffer intense persecution facing arrests for religious practices and the closure and the destruction of mosques. It is estimated that at least one million Uyghurs are held in detention camps and as many as 880,000 Muslim children have been separated from their parents; campaigns of forced abortions and sterilisation were also reported.[2] China also continued its threats to invade Taiwan by launching live fire-war drills in August 2022 following a visit by the former United States Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. If an invasion were to occur, the fate of Taiwanese Christians would be a major concern.
India, like China, also has a population of 1.4 billion and is the world’s largest democracy. Ruled by the Hindu nationalist party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the government espouses that India’s national and cultural identity are essentially Hindu. The freedoms of religious minorities, especially Christians and Muslims, are severely undermined and especially the practice of religious conversion and cow slaughter invite severe repercussions.[3] The BJP also supports restrictions on religious freedom through the Freedom of Religion Acts (or anti-conversion laws). These are state-level statutes designed to regulate non-Hindu religious conversions allegedly accomplished through forcible and fraudulent means. Currently 12Indian states have either passed or are considering passing these laws. The most recent of these is the southern state of Karnataka, which ratified an anti-conversion law in September 2022,[4] and Uttarakhand[5] which strengthened its laws in November 2022 introducing a ten-year jail term for those found guilty of engaging in forced religious conversion. India’s repression of minorities through the introduction of stringent anti-conversion laws has been copied by the neighbouring Hindu-majority country of Nepal, which recently adopted a constitution and a penal code that forbids proselytism and marginalizes non-Hindu communities and organizations.[6] Of concern is the rise of the Hindu nationalist Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP), which seeks to re-establish Nepal as a Hindu state.[7] The data from India, Nepal, and other countries in this region suggests that ethno-religious nationalism continues to be a dangerous pattern in Mainland Asia.
Other authoritarian governments in Mainland Asia that also repress religious freedom through brutal religious control are those in North Korea, Vietnam, and Laos. North Korea, recognised as the world’s most isolated nation, has one of the world’s worst human rights records and is repeatedly documented as the country where faith groups suffer “extreme persecution”.[8] North Korea’s Songbun system categorises citizens according to their loyalty to the state. Religious believers are automatically classed as “hostile” and “subjected to severe repression”.[9] In Vietnam, the Hmong and Montagnard Christians continue to suffer systemic discrimination as well as persecution, and Christians in Laos also faced attacks by mobs and demands by the authorities to denounce their faith, with severe repercussions if met with refusal.
Mainland Asia also is home to many Buddhist-majority countries, particularly Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. The military coup of 1 February 2021 in Myanmar, resulted in a period of intense repression of human rights including freedom of religion. Fuelled in part by an ethno-religious nationalist ideology, at least 132 churches and religious buildings were destroyed since the start of the coup.[10] Further to this there was a significant rise of anti-Muslim hate speech and anti-Muslim violence, in addition to the ongoing genocide of the Rohingyas. Building on the chaos created by the severe political and economic crises, Buddhist nationalist organisations in Sri Lanka are becoming more numerous, extremist, and powerful. Casting all non-Buddhists of whatever ethnicity and religious tradition – Muslims, Hindus, and Christians – as existential threats to Buddhism, the groups provoke an extremist response among Muslim and Hindu minority communities threatening to destroy Sri Lanka’s shared national identity.[11]Thailand continues to face conflict in the southern border provinces, driven especially by the Islamic separatist movement, the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN). Various attacks occurred and although numerous truces were attempted, a ceasefire and negotiations are still pending.
Recent events, as well as a continuance of past conflicts, demonstrate that the region is still volatile and shows significant religious persecution. Particularly authoritarian governance, a deepening ethno-religious nationalism (inclusive of anti-conversion laws and discriminatory legislation), Islamic extremism, and a significant escalation in the persecution of religious minorities continue to worsen and dampen any prospects for religious freedom in the region.
Endnotes / Sources
[1] Surveillance camera statistics: which cities have the most CCTV cameras?, by Paul Bischoff, Comparitech, 11 July 2022; https://www.comparitech.com/vpn-privacy/the-worlds-most-surveilled-cities/ (accessed on 28 December 2022).
[2] US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), Annual Report 2022, China chapter: https://www.uscirf.gov/annual-reports?country=36
[3] “Human Rights Watch Submission to the Universal Periodic Review of India,” Human Rights Watch, 31 March 2022, https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/03/31/human-rights-watch-submission-universal-periodic-review-india
[4] Vatican News staff reporter, “India’s Karnataka state passes anti-conversion law despite opposition,” Vatican News, 23rd September 2022, https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2022-09/karnataka-passes-anti-conversion-law-despite-opposition.html
[5] “Uttarakhand tables bill to make anti-conversion law more stringent,” Hindustan Times, 30th November 2022, https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/uttarakhand-tables-bill-to-make-anti-conversion-law-more-stringent-101669744981935.html
[6] https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Nepal_2015.pdf
[7] 2021 Report on International Religious Freedom: Nepal, US Department of State https://www.state.gov/reports/2021-report-on-international-religious-freedom/nepal/
[8] US State Dept., “North Korea”, 2021 Report on International Religious Freedom https://www.state.gov/reports/2021-report-on-international-religious-freedom/north-korea/ [accessed 15/07/22].
[9] Marcus Holland, “Religious Persecution in North Korea”, Peterson Institute for International Economics, 30th September 2016 https://www.piie.com/blogs/north-korea-witness-transformation/religious-persecution-north-korea [accessed 15/07/22].
[10] “At least 132 religious buildings destroyed since Myanmar coup,” Radio Free Asia, 8th July 2022 - https://www.rfa.org/english/news/myanmar/religiousbuildings-07082022181759.html#:~:text=According%20to%20information%20compiled%20by,%2C%20Mindat%2C%20Kanpetlet%20and%20Matupi. (accessed on 12th December 2022).
[11] Shonali Thangiah, “Study: New Buddhist Extremism and the Challenges to Ethno-Religious Coexistence in Sri Lanka,” Minor matters, 22nd August 2018, https://www.minormatters.org/en/blog/study-new-buddhist-extremism-and-the-challenges-to-ethno-religious-coexistence-in-sri-lanka (accessed 31st January 2021); Andreas Johannson, “Violent Buddhist extremists are targeting Muslims in Sri Lanka,” The Conversation, 26th April 2018, https://theconversation.com/violent-buddhist-extremists-are-targeting-muslims-in-sri-lanka-92951 (accessed 14th September 2022).
