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Freedom of religion and belief

Regulations, effective as of 1 February, stipulated that religious groups must “follow the leadership of the Communist Party of China… persist in the direction of sinicization of religion, and practise core socialist values”. The government sought to bring religious teachings and practices in line with state ideology and to comprehensively strengthen control over both state-approved and unregistered religious groups. Reports documented the destruction of thousands of cultural and religious sites, particularly in the north-west of China. The state’s repression of religion in Xinjiang and Tibet remained severe. People were arbitrarily detained for ordinary religious practices that authorities deemed “signs of extremism” under the “De-extremification Regulations”.

Right to health

Government censorship obstructed the flow of vital information during the earliest weeks of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan. In the early stage of the epidemic, professional and citizen journalists, as well as health workers, were prevented from reporting on the outbreak. The local authorities later admitted that they had withheld information, thus impeding the public’s timely access to necessary information about the virus. By 21 February, there were already more than 5,511 criminal investigation cases against individuals who published information in relation to the COVID-19 outbreak for “fabricating and deliberately disseminating false and harmful information”, according to the Ministry of Public Security. Although health professionals had raised alarms about the virus in late December 2019, the government’s failure to promptly respond and its targeting of those who spoke out delayed a co-ordinated response.7

Extensive application of personal and technological surveillance in the name of public health and safety further tightened the state’s grip on society.8 Each provincial government assigned hundreds of thousands of community workers to watch over their neighbourhoods under a “grid management system” deployed to enforce lockdowns. Many residents unable to produce relevant documents or who had recently been out of town were denied entry to their own homes. In April, African residents of Guangzhou and other locations were evicted from their homes and hotels and barred from restaurants, facing discrimination in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Freedom of expression