The Beijing press is attacking the 90-year-old cardinal, Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, Bishop Emeritus of Hong Kong and well-known supporter of the local democracy movement. The cardinal also opposes the agreement between the Vatican and China on the appointment of bishops.
As Nina Shea reports in The Epoch Times, four articles appeared in Ta Kung Pao, a government newspaper, during the last week of January accusing the cardinal of inciting students to revolt against a series of government measures to 2019. Mrs. Shea is Director of the Center for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute.
Cardinal Zen, who has often denounced the control exercised by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) over religious communities, is not well regarded in Beijing. He has condemned the removal of crosses outside churches in China and has celebrated Masses over the years in memory of the Tiananmen martyrs, who were massacred by authorities on June 4, 1989 in Beijing.
One of the articles in Ta Kung Pao is titled, “Cardinal Zen Uses His Religious Status to Create Chaos in Hong Kong.” According to the pro-government newspaper, he is also guilty of links to media mogul Jimmy Lai and former MP Martin Lee, one of the founders of the Democratic Party.
Both are faithful Catholics and have been sentenced to prison terms for taking part in pro-democracy demonstrations banned by the authorities.
The incriminating evidence against the Chinese cardinal also indicates that many of the pro-democracy activists arrested had studied in Christian schools. According to the Ta Kung Pao, individual churches incited the students to riot and gave them refuge.
“The pro-Beijing publication calls for Hong Kong’s religious institutions to be placed under government control. . . The request for restrictions on the Church represents a qualitative leap in the relationship between the CPC and Catholic authorities.”
“Anticipating the moves of the Chinese government with articles and comments in the pro-government press is a classic Party trick. In Hong Kong such writings have often preceded the arrest of pro-democracy figures or the closure of pro-democracy newspapers and organizations.”
The impression is that Cardinal Zen is being used as a target to send messages to the Catholic hierarchy in Hong Kong. Some observers point out that after Beijing’s crackdown on democracy, the Catholic Church remains the only organized entity in Hong Kong that has some degree of autonomy.
In this sense, the articles against Card Zen could herald a crackdown on religious activities in the former British colony. This first move, Nina Shea points out, could see the government take control of Christian schools, both Catholic and Protestant.
Four articles in the Ta Kung Pao (The Impartial) newspaper associate Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun with the 2019 protest movement and the democratic camp silenced by authorities under the security law. This gesture could announce a repression of religious activities in the city of Hong Kong. The first possible targets are Catholic and Protestant schools.
