Apparent Religious Tolerance Only with Strict Controls

(Forum 18) – Religious believers in Ghulja (Yining in Chinese), a Xinjiang provincial town with Muslim, Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox communities, do not on first glance currently appear to experience difficulties from the Chinese state. Authorized Christian places of worship are frequently built at state expense, Forum 18 News Service has found. But the state tries to keep all religious organizations under complete control, and also, so Forum 18 has been told, limits the size of places of worship. Unregistered Chinese and Uighur Protestant communities do exist, but they mainly have to operate in secret.