Catholic Church-State Relations in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region: A Review of 20 Years

The Catholic Church and the Hong Kong British Government formed warm relations when the Church became the contractor of the government to provide education and social and medical service. The British did not provide democracy to Hong Kong but allowed ample freedom including religious freedom which the Hong Kong Catholics would like to protect in the post-colonial period under the Communist Party rule. For religious freedom, right after Hong Kong became the Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), the Hong Kong Catholic Church under the prophetic and vocal leadership of Bishop Joseph Zen, became very active in political participation. Zen’s leadership was short-lived (1996-2009) and the soft-spoken Bishop John Tong replaced him with a different approach of consolidating the church without antagonising the government with social issues

Xi Jinping’s Religious Freedom Policy vs Human Rights

The People’s Republic of China has signed to accept the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which include freedom in religious expression. Yet the control and suppression of religion has been carried on all the same since Mao Zedong to Xi Jinping according to the political climate. This paper aims at discussing the paradigm shift of religious freedom from the universal understanding to the “Chinese characteristics” under Xi Jinping’s rule with his launching of regulations and laws on tightening the control of religions in the name of national security