Bitter Winter
Bitter Winter is a daily online magazine on religious liberty and human rights in China published from May 2018 in several languages by the Italian research center CESNUR. Italian daily La Stampa, Italian weekly L'Espresso, Radio Free Asia and the Belgian NGO Human Rights Without Frontiers, reported that in 2018 and 2019 some of Bitter Winter's Chinese correspondents had been arrested.[1]
History[edit]
Bitter Winter grew out of CESNUR’s interest and academic activities around new religious movements and religious pluralism in China. CESNUR-associated scholars, including CESNUR’s managing director Massimo Introvigne were invited to China in 2017 to discuss the situation of "cults" there. [2] Plans for the magazine were disclosed by CESNUR on May 14, 2018, at the 2018 edition of the Turin International Book Fair, in an event concluding the Fair’s five-day festival devoted to religion and music.[3] The daily magazine was originally published in English only. However, in the following months, editions in Chinese, Korean, Italian, Japanese, French, German, and Spanish followed.[4]
The editor-in-chief of Bitter Winter is Italian sociologist Massimo Introvigne. Italian journalist Marco Respinti serves as the director-in-charge, and there are two deputy editors, [5], Willy Fautré, the Belgian founder of the NGO Human Rights Without Frontiers, and the former Lithuanian diplomat and former chair of the European Union Working Group on Humanitarian Aid,[6], Rosita Šorytė.
Business Insider, Yeni Şafak and Radio Free Asia mentioned Bitter Winter when, in 2018 and 2019, it posted videos it claimed had been shot inside Xinjiang re-education camps[7]; parts of one of the videos were featured in the 2019 documentary by Al Jazeera, "Nowhere to Call Home."[8] Another video, on the destruction of a statue of Guanyin in Hebei on February 2, 2019, was reproduced and discussed by Taiwan News.[9] China Digital Times also reported on the magazine's coverage of Uyghur camps in Xinjiang.[10]
Reception[edit]
Bitter Winter has been welcomed as a daily source of hard-to-find information on persecuted religious groups in China by some Christian and Muslim media. Writing in the official magazine of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Macau, journalist Aurelio Porfiri called it "an invaluable resource for all these interested in religion in the country [China.]"[11] The German online Catholic magazine Katolisches also praised its richness of information.[12] The World Uyghur Congress repeatedly reprinted articles from Bitter Winter.[13]
Conservative media that routinely criticize China have also found in Bitter Winter ammunition for their campaigns. The conservative American online magazine The Federalist called Bitter Winter "supremely informative" and its editor "an authority on religion and human rights in China".[14]
Predictably, those on the opposite end of the political spectrum had a more negative reaction. In May 2018, both Katolisches and the online edition of the Italian weekly L'Espresso reported extensively on criticism of Bitter Winter by liberal Catholics and others who believed that the magazine was supporting anti-Communist campaigns against China promoted by the American administration, and was trying to torpedo the agreement between China and the Vatican then in the making.[15]
Others, however, criticized Bitter Winter for its moderate attitude about the same Vatican-China deal. of The Federalist, a staunch opponent of the deal, found it "disconcerting" that Bitter Winter believed that the Vatican might have a valid long-term strategy.[16] The Filipino daily The Manila Times, which extensively covers the Catholic Church in Eastern Asia, quoted Massimo Introvigne as "editor-in-chief of Bitter Winter" among "those who believe that the concordat would not be entirely bad for the Chinese Catholic Church".[17]
Chinese criticism[edit]
Chinese authorities believe that Bitter Winter is a tool of anti-Chinese propaganda and of those who defend groups China regards as "cults" and has banned.[citation needed] Bitter Winter itself published documents by the Communist Party of China denouncing the magazine and warning that those working for it as correspondents from China would be punished.[18] Italian daily La Stampa, Italian weekly L'Espresso, Radio Free Asia and the Belgian NGO Human Rights Without Frontiers, reported that Chinese correspondents of Bitter Winter had been arrested in July 2018.[19]
References[edit]
Citations[edit]
- ↑ Human Rights Without Frontiers (2018); Vatican Insider (2018b); Magister (2018b); Mamut and Lipes (2019); Fautré (2019).
- ↑ KKNews (2017).
- ↑ Vatican Insider (2018a).
- ↑ Bitter Winter (2018a).
- ↑ Bitter Winter (2018a).
- ↑ FOB (2018).
- ↑ Ma (2018); Yeni Şafak (2018); Mamut and Lipes (2019).
- ↑ Al Jazeera (2019): the video by Better Winter is between minutes 3' and 4'.
- ↑ Everington (2019).
- ↑ China Digital Times (2019).
- ↑ Porfiri (2018).
- ↑ Nardi (2018).
- ↑ See e.g. World Uyghur Congress (2018).
- ↑ Mullarkey (2018).
- ↑ Nardi (2018); Magister (2018a).
- ↑ Mullarkey (2018).
- ↑ Tatad (2018).
- ↑ Bitter Winter (2018b).
- ↑ Magister (2018b); Vatican Insider (2018b); Human Rights Without Frontiers (2018).
Sources[edit]
- Al Jazeera (2019). "Uighurs: Nowhere To Call Home." January 31, 2019.
- Bitter Winter (2018a). “Bitter Winter: Welcome Page.”
- Bitter Winter (2018b). “The First Secret Document Against Bitter Winter.” August 3.
- China Digital Times (2019). EU Delegation Visits Xinjiang as Abuses Continue. February 1.
- European Federation for Freedom of Belief (2018). “Rosita Šorytė.”
- Everington, Keoni (2019). "Video shows Communist Chinese govt. blast giant Buddha statue to smithereens." March 4.
- Fautré, Willy (2019). "Dozens of Underground Human Rights Reporters Arrested in #China." EU Reporter, January 23.
- Human Rights Without Frontiers (2018). “Chinese Ministry of State Security Takes Over the Campaign Against Bitter Winter.” August 18.
- KKNews (2017). “「反邪動態」美國、義大利專家赴鄭州進行反邪教學術交流 (‘Anti-Cult’: US, Italian Experts Went to Zhengzhou for Anti-Cult Academic Exchanges).” KK News, July 11, 2017.
- Ma, Alexandra (2018). Shocking footage purportedly shows cells inside prison camp where China oppresses Muslim minority. Business Insider, November 27.
- Magister, Sandro (2018a). “The Latest From Santa Marta: There Is an American Conspiracy Against the Agreement Between Rome and Beijing.” L’Espresso, May 29.
- Magister, Sandro (2018b). "Christmas Behind Bars In China, for the Martyrs of the Free Press" L’Espresso, December 29.
- Mamut, Zulhayat, and Joshua Lipes (2019). "Media Outlet Monitoring Uyghur Persecution in China Vows to Continue Work Despite Ban, Arrests." Radio Free Asia, January 31.
- Mullarkey, Maureen (2018). “Vatican Agreement with China Legitimizes a Christian-Torturing Regime.” The Federalist, September 26.
- Nardi, Giuseppe (2018). “Christenverfolgung mit Duldung des Papstes.” Katolisches, May 29.
- Porfiri, Aurelio (2018). “Exclusive Interview with Massimo Introvigne—A Bitter Winter.” O Clarim, July 6.
- Tatad, Francisco (2018). “Can the Church Survive China’s Embrace?” The Manila Times, October 5.
- Vatican Insider (2018a). “‘Bitter Winter’,in Italia un nuovo quotidiano online su religione e diritti umani in Cina.” La Stampa, May 14.
- Vatican Insider (2018b). Arrestati in Cina 45 giornalisti, trasmettevano notizie al magazine italiano “Bitter Winter”. La Stampa, December 28.
- World Uyghur Congress (2018). “Weekly Brief, October 5.”
- Yeni Şafak (2018). "China’s ‘vocational camps’ employ draconian measures, use 360-degree surveillance in washrooms.". November 30.
See also[edit]
External links[edit]
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