講者：Holly Folk, Associate Professor, Global Humanities and Religions, Western Washington University
題目：The Criminalization of Religious Minorities in China
日期時間：11月18日 13:10-14:30 pm
地點：政大綜院南棟4樓270416室
講者及演講簡介：My research uses newspaper accounts, interviews, and first-hand evidence to assess how the CCP seeks to delegitimate religious minorities. In China the religious groups known as Xiejiao are designated such on the basis of their criminal behavior: framing religious minorities as perpetrators of secular crimes is thus an important component of their continued marginalization and persecution.
The CCP has accused many Xie Jiao of crimes that cannot be verified, such as sex trafficking, poisoning and blackmail. My research focuses on accusations against the Church of Almighty God and Falun Gong, who have been presented as violent groups that commit murder and promote suicide among their members.
I will address several high-profile cases, and present evidence that the official accounts are “fake news,” and will discuss how such accusations are strategically placed in Western media. It is critical that Western scholars understand this pattern of criminalization, in order to understand the intensity of government animus against religious minorities, and to be able to clearly parse news reports about religion that are coming out of China.
