Displaying items by tag: Asia

Human Rights Watch reported on 4 November that important social reforms enacted under Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman have been accompanied by deepening repression and abusive practices meant to silence dissidents and critics. The 62-page report documents ongoing arbitrary and abusive practices by Saudi authorities targeting dissidents and activists since mid-2017 and a total lack of accountability for those responsible for abuses. Despite landmark reforms for Saudi women and youth, ongoing abuses demonstrate that the rule of law remains weak and can be undermined at will by political leadership. The authorities have locked away many leading reformist thinkers and activists. HRW said that detaining citizens for peaceful criticism of the government’s policies or human rights advocacy is not new in Saudi Arabia, but what has made the post-2017 arrest waves notable is the sheer number and range of people targeted over a short period, and new repressive practices.

In the northeast of Syria, in a number of cities and their surrounding villages, a renaissance is under way in the area’s beleaguered Syriac Christian community, which is attempting to revive the Syriac language and culture after decades of neglect and oppression. The Christian community as a whole has suffered immensely during the ongoing eight-year conflict, and this minority is no exception. The conflict has, however, also brought about social changes that previously would have been thought impossible, particularly in areas under the control of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Escalating its threat to invade the area despite the presence of American, British, and French troops, Turkey could reverse these changes and even jeopardise the continued existence of the Christian community there. These Christians have preserved their unique languages and cultures in the face of decades of Arabisation. Syriac Christians will teach their children their ancestral language, derived from Aramaic, the native tongue of Jerusalem, where the church was born.

South Korea’s national intelligence service told a closed-door parliamentary audit session that it expected working-level denuclearisation talks between Kim and Trump to resume by early December. As recently as 31 October Kim test-fired two short-range missiles that traveled 350 to 400 kilometres. The tests were believed to be the nuclear-armed country’s 19th and 20th launches since May. Japan’s prime minister condemned the launches as an act threatening the peace and safety of his country as North Korea was refining weapons capable of reaching it. Meanwhile, Iran announced launching a new batch of advanced centrifuges to accelerate uranium enrichment on the 40th anniversary of the start of its Islamic Revolution. However, Tehran has left room for diplomacy by saying that talks are possible if Washington lifts all the sanctions and returns to the nuclear deal. See

Chinese Christians in Anhui are said to be ‘outraged’ after their state-registered megachurch was demolished and their pastors arrested.

Demolition work (pictured) began at Funan County Christian Church on Friday, partway through a worship service. (More information and short video clip of the demolition here.)

Elderly church members knelt down in front of the church, begging officials not to destroy the building, says Release partner ChinaAid. Several fainted and required hospital treatment.

Pastors Geng Yimin and Sun Yongyao were arrested the next day on suspicion of ‘gathering a crowd to disturb social order’. Their church could seat up to 3,000 people.

ChinaAid Director Bob Fu says believers are ‘outraged’.

‘The Chinese Government is now ordering believers to worship in a remote endangered building which can only host a few hundred people,’ he said. Yet, ChinaAid says many Christians, including those in Funan, are too afraid to speak out for fear of more persecution.

Pray: that God will bless His people in Funan and provide a new building for them. Pray that they will grow in unity and faith through this ordeal.

Pray: for the immediate release without charge of Funan pastors Geng Yimin and Sun Yongyao. Ask God to comfort those who were distressed by the demolition.

Praise: God that Christianity is growing fast in China, despite intense persecution. Sources quoted by ChinaAid estimate that there are now more than 100 million Christians in China.

(Source: China Aid)

Prime minister Phuc has asked the public security and foreign ministries to investigate the trafficking of Vietnamese citizens into foreign countries after 39 people died in a refrigerated truck in Essex. Vietnam’s UK embassy and the British authorities are identifying the dead. Rural Vietnamese believe many of the dead came from their poor, rice-growing areas where families pay traffickers to take their youths abroad to work, save, repay traffickers the debt, and return home with enough money to buy land and build a home. The newly-built houses in poor districts are evidence of the money to be made, and saved, by working overseas (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-50203096) Father Anthony Dang Huu Nam believes most of the dead were from his parish. ‘The whole district is covered in sorrow,’ Nam said, as prayers rang out over the town on loudspeakers. ‘This is a catastrophe for our community.’ See https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-bodies/rural-vietnamese-mourn-loved-ones-feared-dead-in-back-of-british-truck-idUSKBN1X503U

In 2014 Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared the establishment of an Islamic caliphate and that the world’s Muslims owed him their allegiance as ‘Caliph Ibrahim.’ It was an attempt to establish Islamic sovereignty across the Earth much as the Prophet Mohammed enjoyed. Recent events demonstrated that his aspiration died with him. However al-Baghdadi divided the jihadist movement rather than uniting it. IS controlled a hard-line state, offering recruits the chance to live its ‘revolutionary’ vision, which was what made IS such a radical sensation, and was key to al-Baghdadi’s recruiting power. Now both the caliph and the caliphate are gone. Yet IS survives underground, lurking in the shadowy manner al-Baghdadi helped to define for it.

Protesters have paralysed Lebanon, blocking roadways, closing schools and shutting banks nationwide. Emergency reform measures and an offer of dialogue with protest representatives by the president failed to defuse anger or move the cross-communal demonstrations of Christians, Muslims (Shia and Sunni), and Druze from the streets demanding the resignation of all Lebanese political leaders. On 29 October the prime minister, Saad Hariri, resigned. The protests over political corruption and economic turmoil began after now-scrapped plans to tax WhatsApp calls were introduced in mid-October. Lebanon has one of the highest debt levels in the world. Mr Hariri must stay on until a new administration is established, but parliament contains the same factions that are in the outgoing coalition. On 30 October demonstrators celebrated Hariri’s departure, but vowed to stay in the streets until all their demands are met. See

World Polio Day was on 24 October. Global polio numbers have fallen over decades, but new outbreaks continue to raise questions about eradication efforts in countries where humanitarian access is a problem. The recent surge in polio is fuelled by dozens of cases of wild poliovirus in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and by unexpected new outbreaks of vaccine-derived strains, rare mutations that affect under-immunised populations, in at least 14 other countries. Some of these had not seen polio for years, including Ghana and the Philippines, which both announced outbreaks in September. In some cases, vaccine-derived polio strains have leapt across borders - from Nigeria to its neighbours and from Somalia to Ethiopia. A WHO committee has said, ‘The risk of new outbreaks in other countries is considered extremely high, even probable’. There are grave concerns that it will not be possible to control outbreaks in Africa and Asia.

The Free Burma Rangers (FBR) deliver emergency medical assistance to sick and injured internally-displaced people, and train teams in frontline medical treatment, humanitarian relief and reconnaissance techniques. On 21 October one ranger wrote, ‘We evacuated more people from Seri Kani, including some wounded. We drove through the Free Syrian Army (FSA) who looked at us threateningly but when we smiled, some smiled back. The city is in ruins. The hospital was damaged and is controlled by FSA - I came face-to-face with them. I walked up to one and said ‘God bless you’ as I smiled and hugged him. He smiled back. We found civilians hiding behind the hospital and we helped evacuate them. On the way out there was more shooting. None of the bullets hit us and we thank God. As we left, we passed an FSA group by the roadside with their weapons and chanting “Allahu Akbar!” We thank God and all who made this operation possible.’

After the election last month, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu had 28 days to secure the 61 seats necessary to achieve a functioning majority government by building support from smaller parties in the Knesset. After nearly a month of fraught negotiations he acknowledged his failure to cobble together a coalition, and returned the mandate to President Reuven Rivlin. Rivlin has turned to Netanyahu’s principal rival, Benny Gantz, of the centrist Blue and White party, who tweeted, ‘It is time for blue and white.’ Pray for the new government to bring God glory, and may the fear of God fall on all those who are in the political arena.