For background on Orthodox Christianity in China, see here.
“China is Removing Crosses From Churches, Replacing Images of Christ With Xi Jinping,” by
A new report details the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) efforts to “exert total control” over the Catholic Church and other religious faiths within its borders and to “forcibly eradicate religious elements” that the party deems contrary to its political and policy agenda.
The analysis, published by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) last week, asserts that the CCP’s “sinicization of religion” policy consistently violates the internationally protected right to freedom of religion. The term sinicization means to conform something to Chinese culture, but the policy essentially subordinates faiths to “the CCP’s political agenda and Marxist vision for religion,” according to the report.
Chinese officials have ordered the removal of crosses from churches and have replaced images of Christ and the Virgin Mary with images of President Xi Jinping, according to the report. They have also censored religious texts, forced members of the clergy to preach CCP ideology, and mandated the display of CCP slogans within churches.
To subordinate religions to the party, the government forces religious groups to enroll in various “patriotic religious associations” and their local branches. For Catholic churches, this means enrolling in the Bishops’ Conference of the Catholic Church in China, which is officially under the control of China’s State Administration for Religious Affairs and the CCP’s United Front Work Department.
Anyone who practices religion outside of the state-approved associations is considered to be in a “cult” and subjected to anti-cult provisions in Chinese law, a policy that has resulted in mass arrests and imprisonment, according to the report. Chinese officials have enforced the anti-cult provisions against underground Catholics who do not recognize the authority of the government-backed clergy and the distortion of the faith.
USCIRF Commissioner Asif Mahmood told CNA that the CCP considers underground Catholics to be a threat because they do not recognize the government’s purported authority “to dictate religious doctrine and regulate religious affairs.”…
