Christians and Moslems are also being persecuted

The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) has learnt with regret that Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier intends to speak in Peking only about the human rights situation in Tibet . "For not only the protests of Tibetans are being brutally suppressed, but the persecution of Christians and Moslem Uighurs has increased markedly in the past few months”, said the GfbV Asia expert, Ulrich Delius. The persecution of Christians, Moslems and Buddhists shows that there is no freedom of religion in China .

The number of attacks on Christians in China rose by 30 percent and 415 arrests of clergymen and believers was registered. Peking now began in April 2008 a "new campaign against illegal Christian activities” in the region of Xinjiang/East Turkestan in the north-west of China . Since then several Christians have been arrested in East Turkestan . The most recent arrest was that of the clergyman Lou Yuanqi on the charge of incitement to "separatism”. The well-known clergyman of the house church (not legally registered) from the town of Qingshuihe (Huocheng District) had already been arrested in October 2006. During the 32 days he spent in custody he was often beaten. His 16-year old daughter Lou Nan was arrested on 28th February 2008 when taking part in a Bible course for children.

The persecution of Moslem Uighurs in East Turkestan has also increased. Since March 2008 more than 760 Uighurs have been arrested for political reasons. "Instead of a policy of mutual understanding with the Uighurs China’s leaders are steering a course of confrontation and stirring up new tension between Han Chinese and Uighurs in the west of China”, criticised Delius. So the internet information platform "Uighur Online”, which sought mutual understanding between Uighurs and Han Chinese, was closed down by the Chinese authorities on 15th May 2008.