SHENYANG (AsiaNews): Three provinces in northeastern China have expelled hundreds of South Korean religious personnel and closed down their Churches over the past 12 months.
The crackdown on religious activities came ahead of the new regulations on religious affairs that are slated to come into force on February 2 next year.
 

HONG KONG (SE): Reports are emerging from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region that imams who are not toeing the Communist Party line have been sent to political re-education camps, which have proliferated at a clipped pace over the past several months in the western area.
 

HONG KONG (UCAN): Responses from religious groups to remarks made by the president of China, Xi Jinping, during his epic address at the opening of the National Party Congress on October 18 in the Great Hall of the People vary radically, depending on which side the political fence they originate from.
 

HONG KONG (SE): During his three-and-a-half hour presentation at the beginning of the Nineteenth Congress of the Communist Party of China, the general secretary of the party and president of China, Xi Jinping, embedded the process of Sinicisation of religion into what is anticipated to become a dogma of belief under the banner of the Thoughts of Xi Jinping.
 

BEIJING (AsiaNews): The director of the State Administration of Religious Affairs in Beijing, Wang Zuo’an, sent a written reply to an inquiry from a Hong Kong commercial radio station affirming that the process of Sinicisation of religion espoused by the general secretary of the Communist Party of China, Xi Jinping, in his epic address to the Nineteenth National Congress of the Party on October 18, is here to stay.
 
However, in his response to the radio station on October 21, Wang was gracious in praising the attitude of Pope Francis.

HONG KONG (UCAN): China convened its 19th National Congress of the Communist Party on October 18.
 
Regarded as a major high profile gathering every five years, this time round it is expected that the president, Xi Jinping, will be endorsed for a second term in the top job of the Communist Party.
 
But this may not be welcome news for religious minorities on the mainland, as to say it has been a tough year for them would be a gross understatement.
 

BEIJING (SE): Beijing Normal University opened its academic year in September minus an assistant professor of classical Chinese, Shi Jiepeng.
 
National Public Radio USA reported that Shi was told he was fired in late July for expressing views outside the mainstream of society, which still puzzles him.
 
He told the American broadcaster, “Sure, my views are a bit different from the mainstream and from official views. But an open society should be able to tolerate them.”