context: The agency also reasonably determined that Lin did not establish a well-founded fear of persecution based on his baptism and practice of Christianity in the United States because Lin testified that he was a relatively new practitioner and evidence in the record indicated that officials primarily targeted spiritual leaders.
citation_a.signal: see also
citation_a.identifier: 12 F.3d 1233, 1240
citation_a.parenthetical: "[P]ersecution does not encompass all treatment that our society regards as unfair, unjust, or even unlawful or unconstitutional."
citation_a.sentence: See Siewe v. Gonzales, 480 F.3d 160, 167 (2d Cir.2007) (“[wjhere there are two permissible views of the evidence, the fact finder’s choice between them cannot be clearly erroneous.”); Ivan-ishvili v. U.S. Dep’t of Justice, 483 F.3d 332, 341 (2d Cir.2006) (holding that harm must be sufficiently severe and rise above “mere harassment”); see also Fatin v. INS, 12 F.3d 1233, 1240 (3d Cir.1993) (“[P]ersecution does not encompass all treatment that our society regards as unfair, unjust, or even unlawful or unconstitutional.”).
citation_b.signal: see
citation_b.identifier: 528 F.3d 135, 143
citation_b.parenthetical: "Put simply, to establish a well-founded fear of persecution in the absence of any evidence of past persecution, an alien must make some showing that authorities in his country of nationality are either aware of his activities or likely to become aware of his activities."
citation_b.sentence: See Hongsheng Leng v. Mukasey, 528 F.3d 135, 143 (2d Cir.2008) (“Put simply, to establish a well-founded fear of persecution in the absence of any evidence of past persecution, an alien must make some showing that authorities in his country of nationality are either aware of his activities or likely to become aware of his activities.”); see also Jian Xing Huang, 421 F.3d 125 at 128-29. The agency also reasonably determined that Lin had not established a pattern or practice of persecution against Christians in China because the country conditions evidence in the record indicated that enforcement against underground churches varied throughout China and the Chinese government’s treatment of members of underground churches constituted harassment rather than persecution.