The religious chaos under the Chinese Communist Party is staggering. This year is the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party’s so-called founding, and China’s religious community has been heavily involved in activities to reinforce the idea of “listening to the Party and following it. During the Qingming Festival, monks and Taoist priests from many provincial temples visited the tombs of Communist martyrs to “sing red”. The Chinese Catholic “Patriotic Association” even held a lecture on the history of the Party.
Zhejiang Taoist College pays homage to the martyrs of the Chinese Communist Party. (Photo source: Zhejiang Taoist College public number)
According to Chinese media, on the morning of April 5, more than 100 priests and monks from the Hanshan Institute of the Jiangsu Buddhist College visited the graves of the Communist Party’s “martyrs” at the Martyrs’ Cemetery in Suzhou, where they sang the Communist national anthem, gave a speech, laid flower baskets, and “chanted” sutras. Hanshan College claimed to guide teachers and students to “further strengthen the leadership of the Party”, “to inherit the legacy of the martyrs”, “adhere to the direction of the Chineseization of Buddhism”, and so on.
Venerable teachers and monks from Hanshan College of Jiangsu Buddhist Institute visited the tomb of the martyrs in Suzhou. (Photo source: Internet)
In addition, during the Ching Ming period, monks of the Buddhist Association of Jinzhou City, Liaoning Province, went to the Liao-Shen Battle Martyrs’ Cemetery to pay respect to the “martyrs” of the Chinese Communist Party who died in the civil war between the Communist Party and China. Similar activities were held in Huludao Buddhist Association in Liaoning, Guangde Temple in Suining, Sichuan, Tongze Temple in Shangyu District, Shaoxing, Zhejiang, as well as in Bengbu Yuwang Palace in Anhui, Taoist Institute in Zhejiang, Maoshan Taoist Institute, and Taoist Association in Qingdao, which belong to the Taoist Association.
All the resident members of the two Catholic churches in Shandong Province visited the memorial hall of the Communist base in Jinan’s Dafeng Mountain during the Qingming period, declaring that they had been “purified spiritually.
Fujian Buddhist College and Putian Buddhist Association jointly held a ceremony to celebrate the centenary of the CPC at Guanghua Temple, and invited Feng Haibo, a scholar from the Central Socialist Institute, to explain the history of the CPC under the theme of “Learning the history of the CPC, feeling the party’s grace and following the party”.
On March 25, a training lecture on learning and educating the history of the Party of the Chinese Catholic Church (the Patriotic Association and the Episcopal Church) was held, and Tian Yueyang, director of the Research Office and secretary of the Party Branch of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, gave the lecture.
In fact, every time there is a politically sensitive period, several major religions in China will show their loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party and its leader.
Last November, Beijing authorities held the 14th meeting of the Joint Conference of National Religious Groups. The heads of the five major religious groups – Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholicism and Christianity – claimed that they wanted to “unify their thoughts and actions with the decisions of the Party Central Committee” and to engage in what they called “religious Sinicization.
At the meeting, Catholic Bishops’ Conference President Ma Yinglin said that Chinese Catholics should “closely unite around the Party Central Committee with Xi Jinping at the core” and adhere to the so-called “four consciousnesses” and “two safeguards”. The “four consciousnesses” and the “two safeguards” will be upheld.
On Nov. 6 last year, Xi’an Daci’en Monastery organized monks to study the Communiqué of the Fifth Plenary Session of the Communist Party of China. At the meeting, Abbot Zeng Qin emphasized the need to unify thoughts and actions to Xi Jinping’s “important speech” and to achieve the “two safeguards”, and so on.
Similar thunderous remarks made by Abbot Zeng Qin of Daci’en Temple were also exposed after the 19th CPC National Congress.
After Xi Jinping’s claim of “fixing the situation in one place” at the 19th CPC National Congress in 2017, a wave of praise and virtue was launched in official circles across the country, and the religious community was no exception. The current vice president of the Chinese Communist Party’s Buddhist Association, monk Yin Shun, publicly declared at the time that the 19th National Congress report was a “Buddhist scripture” and that he had copied it by hand three times and would copy it 10 more times, and asked Buddhists to follow his example.
The State Administration of Religious Affairs of the Communist Party of China officially issued the Measures for the Administration of Religious Clergy on February 9 this year, which will be officially implemented on May 1 this year. The content stipulates that religious clergy should support the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the socialist system. One of the more comical aspects is that religious personnel are also subject to an examination as the basis for their rewards and punishments.
In response to the unusual acceleration in recent years of the full-scale chanting of religion under the CCP, former Central Party School professor Cai Xia tweeted, “Xi’s proposed Sinicization of religion is a political abduction of religious people and their followers by the CCP! The Sinicization of religion is a blatant politicization of religion that is backed by the tyrannical power of the state and the unity of church and state. Whether it is Buddhism, Taoism, Catholicism, Christianity or Islam, their clergy have in fact become the CCP’s alternative propaganda ministry, carrying out the CCP’s task of brainwashing and poisoning minds and combining it with stability maintenance to control the minds of their followers and faithful.”
Since the establishment of the Chinese Communist Party, the CCP has been vigorously promoting atheism, not only destroying traditional Chinese culture, but also infiltrating traditional Chinese religions from within, and religion has effectively become the CCP’s officialdom, with Party “secretaries” at all levels, and led by religious bureaus that are direct government departments. The CCP Buddhist Association, founded in 1952, and the CCP Taoist Association, founded in 1957, both explicitly stated in their founding documents that they would be “under the leadership of the People’s Government,” which in effect means under the leadership of the “atheistic” Communist Party.
Religion under the Communist Party is said to be a political tool, an administrative unit, of those in power.
In an interview with overseas media, Professor Nie Sen, head of the Catholic University of America, said that the current religious chaos in mainland China is due to the fact that the Communist Party forces religious people to listen to it in the first place, and that the Communist Party is their real patriarch. Therefore, the Communist Party is the state religion, the great cult, and the devil religion of the mainland.
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