HONG KONG (UCAN): With China’s new regulations for religious affairs having come into effect on February 1, the squeeze is on. Minors have already been banned from entering places of worship in several regions, while Protestant house churches in Henan province have been forced to close (Sunday Examiner, February 11). 
 
Joseph Cardinal Zen Ze-kiun, former bishop of Hong Kong, said that one source informed him there would be no Mass at an unofficial church in Shanghai.
 

HONG KONG (SE): An accord between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China “is almost made” and could be signed in the coming months, thereby opening a new phase in the relations between them, according to a senior Vatican source informed on the negotiations between the two sides.
 

BEIJING (AsiaNews): the revised version of China’s Religious Affairs Regulations went into effect on February 1. First published last October, they provide for close monitoring of all official Church communities and fines, arrests and expropriation for members of unofficial communities. Among the first victims of this clampdown are young people.
 

HONG KONG (SE): Greg Burke, the director of the Holy See Press Office, has denied recent allegations of the Vatican selling out the Catholic Church in China in a statement published on Zenit.org on January 30.
 
The Vatican spokesperson denounced the widespread news of a presumed difference of thought and action between the Holy Father and his collaborators in the Roman Curia on issues relating to China.
 

SHANGHAI (AsiaNews): Father Ignatius Wu Jianlin, a priest at the head of the team that leads the diocese of Shanghai, was recently appointed a member of 13th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). 
 

HONG KONG (UCAN): China’s new and stricter Regulations for Religious Affair came into force on February 1. Stricter provisions include those covering official registration of places used for religious purposes. 
 
Apart from setting out requirements for sanctioned religious venues, the new framework, covers with areas such as education, as well as property rights and legal liability.
 

HONG KONG (UCAN): China’s new and stricter Regulations for Religious Affair came into force on February 1. Stricter provisions include those covering official registration of places used for religious purposes. 
 
Apart from setting out requirements for sanctioned religious venues, the new framework, covers with areas such as education, as well as property rights and legal liability.
 

HONG KONG (UCAN): Halmurat Ghopur, a leading Uyghur intellectual, has been detained by authorities in northwestern Xinjiang since November last year for displaying “nationalistic tendencies,” according to a source in exile, amid a widening crackdown on prominent members of the ethnic group.
 
Ghopur, is president of the Xinjiang Food and Drug Administration’s Department of Inspection and Supervision in the regional capital Urumqi.
 

LINCANG (AsiaNews/ChinaAid): A court in Lincang in southern Yunnan, sentenced a group of people belonging to the Three Grades of Servants sect to up to 13 years in prison for belonging to an apocalyptic sect that the authorities deem an illegal cult.
 
Ju Dianhong received a 13-year sentence for leading the sect, recruiting new followers, carrying out missionary work and spreading rumours about an imminent apocalypse.
 

GUANGZHOU (AsiaNews): Two Vatican-recognised bishops have reportedly been asked to step aside or take on junior positions in favour of illicitly ordained bishops. 
 
Bishop Peter Zhuang Jianjian of Shantou, in southern Guangdong, who was ordained in 2006 with Vatican approval, was asked to give way to Bishop Joseph Huang Bingzhang, who was excommunicated in 2011, but is backed by the Chinese government and is a long-time member in the National People’s Congress.