'Why is the Chinese Communist Party so scared?', Benedict Rogers

It is a fragile regime, scared of its own shadows, its own murderous history, and its own people

Within the past week, the Chinese regime has convicted a Hong Kong barrister and a trade unionist for the crime of organizing a peaceful vigil to commemorate the Tiananmen massacre and sentenced a Chinese artist to three years in prison for satirical sculptures of the long-dead leader Mao Zedong, responsible for the deaths of millions of Chinese civilians during his rule.

In so doing, Xi Jinping’s dictatorship has proven once again its thin-skinned paranoia, its neurotic fear of dissent and humor, and its ruthless determination to silence freedom of expression and bury history and truth.

Hong Kong lawyer Chow Hang-tung, aged 41, and trade unionist Lee Cheuk-yan, aged 69, representing the now-defunct Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, were convicted on Aug. 21 of the crime of “inciting subversion” — simply for having organized candle-lit vigils to remember the 1989 Tiananmen massacre. They now face up to ten years’ imprisonment.

Both have already been in jail for the past five years and have now been convicted under Hong Kong’s draconian national security law imposed on the city by Beijing in 2020.

Hong Kong used to be the only city under China’s sovereignty where it was possible to freely commemorate the massacre of thousands of pro-democracy protestors by China’s People’s Liberation Army in 1989, and candlelit vigils were held each year on the anniversary of the massacre, June 4, until 2019.

In 2020, with Covid-19 restrictions as the initial justification, the vigil was banned, and after the imposition of the national security law all commemorations on June 4 were prohibited.

Four days after the sentencing of Chow and Lee, a court in China’s Hebei province sentenced Chinese artist Gao Zhen to jail for three years, reportedly for “slandering China’s heroes.” The 70-year-old’s sculptures of Mao Zedong were said by the court to infringe upon “the hero’s reputation” and harm public interest. Gao had moved to the United States in 2022 but was arrested at his studio in a suburb of Beijing during a brief visit in 2024.

Both the conviction of Chow and Lee, and the sentencing of Gao, have drawn international condemnation from the United Nations, international human rights organizations, and governments.

Amnesty International has called Gao’s sentencing an "assault" on artistic freedom, and Chow and Lee’s conviction a “dismaying verdict” which “underlines how Hong Kong’s National Security Law is being used to punish people for peacefully remembering one of the darkest chapters in recent Chinese history.”

The United Nations Special Rapporteur for human rights defenders, Andrea Bolanos Vargas, said she is “deeply concerned” about Chow and Lee’s verdict, and called for their immediate release. She said: “Peacefully preserving memory and calling for truth, justice and accountability are human rights activities and must never be criminalized.”

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights had earlier this year expressed concern about Gao’s case, and called for his release.

These two cases are just the latest examples of Beijing’s intensifying intolerance of dissent. They follow the 20-year prison sentence imposed on Hong Kong media entrepreneur and devout Catholic  Jimmy Lai, aged 78, earlier this year, and the imprisonment of hundreds of other pro-democracy campaigners, human rights defenders, journalists, bloggers, and religious practitioners in Hong Kong and across China.

These include Christian pastors from the Zion Church network and many other unregistered churches, Catholic and Protestant; thousands of Uyghurs, Tibetans, and Falun Gong practitioners; and brave Chinese students such as Tara Zhang Yadi, arrested just over a year ago simply for her involvement in promoting awareness of Tibetan culture.

All these cases combined raise an important question. If China is — as Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party want us to believe — the world’s new superpower, why is it so terrified of a barrister and a trade unionist and a media entrepreneur lighting candles, or an artist making satirical sculptures?

If the regime in Beijing is as strong as they suggest, why are they so scared of Christians gathering to pray, Tibetans meditating on the Dalai Lama’s teachings, Uyghurs fasting during Ramadan, or Falun Gong practitioners practising physical exercises similar to yoga and promoting “truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance?” And why does it consider it a crime to promote understanding of different ethnic and religious cultures?

The truth is, the regime in Beijing hates humour, is scared of jokes, and is terrified of any opinion or belief that diverges from total loyalty not only to the Chinese Communist Party’s ideology but also to its key leaders, contemporary and historical. Any perceived mockery of Mao is deemed an insult to Xi, any attempt to remind the world about the tragedy of Tiananmen is seen as an assault on today’s regime, and any practice of religion or spirituality is regarded as a rejection of the regime’s attempts at self-deification.

China has only one state religion: the ideology of the Chinese Communist Party, with Xi Jinping posing as its spiritual leader.

In other words, this is a fragile regime, scared of its own shadows, its own murderous history, and its own people. Such a regime may be able to lock up brave dissidents, lawyers, trade unionists, journalists, artists, and religious believers for a time. It may be able to shut down free expression and freedom of religion for a while. But it can never silence the souls of its people, for whom the courage of Chow Hang-tung, Lee Cheuk-yan, Gao Zhen, and so many others stands as a light in the darkness.

Earlier this week, I visited the 13th-century Salisbury Cathedral, which has the tallest spire in Britain and contains one of the original copies of the Magna Carta, one of the earliest declarations of human rights. I was accompanied by a North Korean friend who had escaped from that brutal regime, been arrested in China, forcibly repatriated, severely tortured, and escaped again.

Together, we stood in front of the cathedral’s dedicated Prisoners of Conscience Window and prayed for everyone detained unlawfully around the world for their beliefs. I urge you to do the same, wherever you are — to pray and campaign for prisoners of conscience everywhere, and to keep reminding our politicians and policymakers of their desperate plight.

As he considers how to move forward in the Vatican’s relations with China, Pope Leo XIV ought to reflect on this — and do much more to speak out, both publicly and through private channels, for the release of Jimmy Lai, Chow Hang-tung, Lee Cheuk-yan, Gao Zhen and all prisoners of conscience across China. The pope cares about the opinions of his flock: your letters to him urging action on these political prisoners will be carefully considered by him.

When President Donald Trump receives Xi Jinping in Washington, DC next month, these and many others are the people who should be in his mind, in his heart, and among his talking points. China clearly cares about pleasing Trump: they released the detained founder of the Zion Church soon after Trump’s state visit to China, where Trump made a direct appeal for his release.

He must now demand the release of Chow Hang-tung, Lee Cheuk-yan, Gao Zhen, Jimmy Lai, Tara Zhang Yadi, the Zion Church leaders and many other political and religious prisoners of conscience across China. Only when they are free can China begin to take a step forward towards better relations and a leadership position on the global stage.

This article was published in UCA News on 31 August 2026.

Photo: Iris Tong, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons