As the new crown epidemic spreads in Hebei, a rumor that the virus originated from local church activities in Shijiazhuang, Hebei, has been widely circulated. The official Catholic Patriotic Association issued a statement to clarify this. But what was the result?
Recently, as the “new crown” epidemic worsened in Hebei, the Chinese authorities imposed a “city closure” in Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei province, and declared a “state of war” on the epidemic in Hebei. At the same time, a rumor about the epidemic in Hebei spread widely on the Chinese Internet, claiming that the worsening of the epidemic in Hebei was due to the religious activities of the Catholic Church there. Subsequently, a massive public opinion attack against the Catholic Church in Hebei emerged, causing considerable pressure on the Catholic Church in Hebei.
Microblog post by “White Hat and Blue Coat” on January 5, 2021 (screenshot of microblog)
After investigation, this reporter found that the rumor originated on the Chinese online social networking platform Weibo and first appeared on Jan. 5. On that day, the account “White Hat Blue Coat”, which has 330,000 followers, said: According to his understanding, many of the confirmed cases of Shijiazhuang’s “new crown” are “related to the village of Xiaoguozhuang in Shijiazhuang Gaocheng District. “. He said that the reason these people were infected with the “new crown” was because they attended the so-called “informal” religious gathering of the village’s Catholic church.
On Jan. 7, the microblogging account “Immediately Reviewed” posted a microblog saying that “the trajectory of senior cases’ activities and the church’s Sunday services highly coincide” in Gaocheng District; and questioned why the local religious authorities “don’t care It is noteworthy that while the “senior case track and the church Sunday service are highly compatible”, the local religious authorities “do not care” about local religious activities. It is worth noting that although “Immediately Review” has only 30,000 Weibo followers, it received 11,000 retweets, 5,285 comments and 53,000 likes by Jan. 11. On the same day, the Shijiazhuang Catholic Patriotic Association and the Catholic Diocese of Shijiazhuang issued a statement saying that the outbreak had nothing to do with the Catholic Church and that by that date there was only one Catholic among the confirmed cases in Shijiazhuang.
However, the Church’s statement failed to prevent further attacks on the Catholic Church in Hebei, and on Jan. 8, Chinese authorities began closing religious sites in Beijing in the name of epidemic prevention and launched a “special investigation” of so-called “illegal religious activities” in the city’s rural areas. On January 8, Chinese authorities began closing religious sites in Beijing in the name of epidemic prevention and launched a “special investigation” of so-called “illegal religious activities” in the city’s rural areas, announcing that they would “resolutely curb illegal religious activities” there. On the same day, “White Hat and Blue Coat” issued a microblog saying that “with the tracing of the epidemic in Shijiazhuang, Hebei” and “Beijing started to investigate and rectify illegal religious activities”, he also expressed concern about He also expressed support for the strict control of “foreign religions”.
On the same day, Xi Wuyi, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences with 2.69 million Weibo followers, retweeted a document posted by the government of Meihua Township and Meihua Police Station in Shijiazhuang’s Gaocheng District. It was titled “Notice on Governing Catholic Underground Forces According to Law”. The document stated that the local government and police station would “resolutely crack down” on the Catholic underground church. Xi did not specify when the document was released, but according to information released by ChinaAid, a U.S.-based civil rights organization, it appears to be dated 2018.
On January 8, 2021, Xi Wuyi retweeted on his Weibo account the “Circular on Governing Catholic Underground Forces According to Law”. (Screenshot from Weibo)
On January 9, the public opinion attacks against the Catholic Church in Hebei escalated. On this day, Xi Wuyi issued another Weibo post, arguing that “this article slanders the revolutionary leader” and demanding that public security authorities and prosecutors take action against the WeChat public website “Catholic Culture Communication Network” for publishing an article on the history of the repression of the Catholic Church in Hebei in modern times. The same day, a number of microbloggers “published the article” on Weibo. On the same day, a number of Weibo “vloggers” also posted attacks against the article, expanding the target of the attack to include the Catholic Church in Hebei. At present, the public website “Catholic Culture Communication Network” has disappeared from the WeChat platform.
On January 11, “NetEase News” published an article stating that according to an “expert on public opinion” who goes by the pseudonym “Lao K,” the worsening of the epidemic in Shijiazhuang could be “caused by the Christmas gathering and missionaries” and that the source of the epidemic “could be the recent arrival of missionaries or other foreign channels from the airport.
On January 11, 2021, “Netease News” quoted “Lao K” as saying that the epidemic in Hebei probably originated from missionary activities. (Netease screenshot)
In response to the escalating rumors and attacks, Gao Yang, a Hebei Baoding historian and Catholic, said in a January 11 interview that the source of the rumors was wrong and that Xiaoguzhuang was not a Catholic village. Although thousands of Catholics live in its neighboring village of Beiqiaozhai, religious activities in the village have also stopped. Because of the epidemic control last year, the government has closed the local church, and the church in Beqiaozhai village belongs to the Catholic Patriotic Association: “The Patriotic Association is obedient to the government, and it is even more unlikely that they would invite foreign priests to come. So it’s a complete disinformation.”
Theodore, a Beijing-based Catholic catechist who lives in the western United States, told reporters the same day that the public attacks on the Catholic Church reminded him of the Boxer Rebellion and the persecution of the Church by the Chinese Communist Party. Although the official Catholic Patriotic Church says, ‘We Catholics didn’t make this up either,’ it’s a different matter how many people believe the rumors when they come out,” he said. This thing reminds me that in the history of the Communist Party and in the history of China, this is how it was done in many cases.”
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