HONG KONG (UCAN): Foreign textbooks translated into Putonghua for sixth-grade students in China have had religious references expunged, according to media reports. The removal of any mention of God and Bible have especially horrified Christians.
 

HONG KONG (UCAN): Authorities in mainland China are exerting a clampdown on Christian activities in the country, spreading fear among some Church members about their long-term futures. Dioceses in China have been receiving constant warnings about a prohibition on summer camps and many local churches have been pressured into giving up all related activities.
 
Some people worry about the impact this will have on Church development.
 

HONG KONG (UCAN): Officials in charge of religious affairs in the city of Xingtai, in China’s northern Hebei province, have urged members of the public to report banned religious activities. Concerns have been raised that the Cultural Revolution-style move would strangle Church activities.
 

WASHIINGTON (UCAN): “The Chinese Communist Party has exhibited extreme hostility to all religious faiths since its founding. The party demands that it alone be called God,” Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state of the United States of America (US) said at the release of the US Government’s 2018 Report on International Religious Freedom on June 21.
 

SHANDONG (UCAN): Qianwang Catholic Church in Huashan town, Jinan, in Shandong province, China, was demolished by authorites on August 13, with more than 170 officials engaged in the action.
 
The church is the third in the Diocese of Jinan to be subjected to the wreckers’ ball. Liangwang Catholic Church was bulldozed on July 17 following the demolition of Shilihe Catholic Church (Sunday Examiner, August 12), however a Catholic source said that the latter would be rebuilt in another location.
 

GANSU (UCAN): Father Wang Yiqin of Hui county and Father Li Shidong Two from the unofficial Church in China’s Gansu province were removed after being accused of holding a summer camp for a Bosco Youth Group at the Maijiqu Ganquan Catholic Church in Tianshui Diocese of Leling city of Shandong province. The priests were sent back to their hometowns.
 
The church is one of only two venues used by the unofficial community in the Diocese of Tianshui.
 

HONG KONG (UCAN): A circular from the State Administration for Religious Affairs requiring organisers of religious activities at temporary venues to seek guidance from government-recognised Church organisations has raised concerns in China for fear it means greater control will be exercised over unofficial Catholic communities and Protestant house churches.