- An important reportabout what's happening

to religious freedom in China.

Bob Fu is a Chinese-American pastor

who founded China Aid,

which provides legal aidto Christians in China.

Well, last Thursday he tweeted quote,

"New cultural revolutionstarts in #CCPCHINA.

This notice to studentsin a first grade class

demanding all parents and teachers

to hunt all religious books,

antagonistic books and overseas books,

including books and videos

that are copied/duplicated and translated.

Everyone is mandated."

CNB News chief internationalcorrespondent Gary Lane

is here with more on this story.

So Gary, is this a sudden development?

Why is it happening now?

- Well, you know theChinese Communist Party's

modus operandi is toindoctrinate all students

into the Chinese Communist Party way.

And so this is just more of that

but this includes Bibles, George.

But why is it happening now?

Because guess what, we'vegot an Olympics coming up

and the Chinese Communist government

does not want anydisruption for the Olympics.

So they really fear thatthere could be protests,

pro-democracy movement going and so forth,

leading up to the Olympicsand during the Olympics.

So this sends a messageto the parents look,

no outside influence.

We don't want any collusionwith foreigners here

because they know thatforeigners, of course,

are pro-democracy and so they'reindoctrinating the students

but they're also targetingnot only the youth of China

but also sending a message to the adults.

- Gary, this is being called,

at least according to Bob Fu,

a new cultural revolution.

How does it defer from Mao'sCultural Revolution back

in the 1960s?

- Well, as you know,Mao's Cultural Revolution

in 1966 through 1979targeted many intellectuals

and anyone that he considered

to be an opponent of communism.

And so it was very violent back then.

He had gangs, youth gangsthat rounded up people

and they were thrown in prison,

they were massacres.

As many as 20 millionpeople may have been killed

by Mao during the Cultural Revolution.

So this one is less violent.

This one is a quiet revolution

that is happening inside China.

- And it is not happeningjust on the mainland.

We've seen this erosionof various freedoms

in Hong Kong and it's evenhappening in the schools

in Hong Kong.

- Yes, but in Hong Kong just recently,

just last night, anotherone of the members

of Apple Daily, thenewspaper that was shut down

on the 24th of this month,

no longer is allowed to print.

They had their last issue on the 24th.

And they've got, I wouldsay probably about seven

of their editors and leadersnow have been arrested

for foreign collusion.

And one of them, of course, the founder,

Jimmy Lai, you know Jimmy Lai,

he was also arrested.

So this is very serious.

The pro-democracy newspaper,

the lone remaining voiceof democracy in Hong Kong,

the editors rounded up,the founder imprisoned

and no more printing in Hong Kong.

So this really, George shows

that the Communist Party

is fully in control there.

They also appointed some newleadership there in Hong Kong,

security, policecommissioner and so forth.

- And this is very disturbing

because Hong Kong was supposed

to be transferred back to China,

the 50-year rule and theystepped in last year,

two years ago and crackeddown severely, right?

- Yes, and they've very concerned

about the pro-democracy movement there

and that's why they're cracking down.

We need to be praying for Hong Kong

because one country, two systems

is no longer in existence there.

- Yeah, back here in the United States,

the members of the largestProtestant denomination

in the United Statesrecently took some action

on behalf of rather Chinese Uyghurs.

Tell us exactly what happened.

- Southern Baptists International,

that's the largest Protestant denomination

in the United States, 15 million strong,

they came out and they said,

"What is happening to theUyghurs in China is genocide."

And this is very significant

because Baptists say webelieve in religious freedom.

The Uyghurs have their God-given rights

to practice their faith, just as we do.

So that's very significant, a big step,

the first denomination in the US to do so.

- And I'm sure the Chinese

are watching this developmentvery, very carefully as well.

As always, Gary, appreciateyou coming on the broadcast.

Thank you.