Antireligious campaigns in China
Antireligious campaigns in China refer to the Chinese Communist Party's official promotion of state atheism, coupled with its persecution of people with spiritual or religious beliefs, in the People's Republic of China.[3][4][5] Antireligious campaigns began in 1949, after the Chinese Communist Revolution, and continue in Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, and other religious communities in the 21st century.[6] State campaigns against religion have escalated since Xi Jinping became General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party.[7] For Christians, government decrees have mandated the destruction of houses of worship, such as Christian churches.[8] In Tibet, similar decrees have mandated the destruction of Tibetan Buddhist monastic centers, of sacred Buddhist sites, of monastic residences, the denial of the Tibetan people's right to freely access their cultural heritage, and resulted in the ongoing persecution of high Buddhist lamas and of Buddhist nuns and monks. Reports of forced reeducation camps, arrests, beatings, rape, and destruction of religious sites in Tibet are likewise being made with regard to the Uyghur people, who are also allegedly being subjected to an ongoing cultural genocide.
Cultural Revolution
As a result of anti-religious campaigns carried out between 1950 and 1979, churches, mosques, and temples were closed and reeducation was forced upon clergy.[9] In Tibet, monasteries were demolished and monastics were arrested or killed.
The Cultural Revolution also criminalized the possession of religious texts.[10] Monks were beaten or killed, and many Tibetans escaped with sacred texts and compiled teachings in exile communities in India.[11]
1989-2002: Jiang Zemin administration
The Chinese government and the Communist Party, led by Jiang Zemin from 1989 to 2002, commenced the persecution of Falun Gong; it called for the "education of Marxist materialism and atheism" to counter Falun Gong.[12]
Tibetan Buddhists
In 1989, violent repression spread in Tibet after prolonged rebellions against Chinese rule. Under the local authority of Hu Jintao, then CPC Secretary of Tibet, possibly hundreds of Tibetans were killed. Martial Law was declared for a year until 30 April 1990, during which hundreds more were killed and thousands imprisoned,[13] under Jiang's Beijing authority and Hu's local authority. Hu was later promoted to top leadership posts for his work.[14]
In 1991 while crafting policy towards Tibetan Buddhists, Jiang's preliminary decree stated reincarnated lamas must be approved by China's central government.[15] The decree was later revised and termed State Religious Affairs Bureau Order No. 5 in 2007 during the administration of Hu Jintao.
In 1992, Jiang's government formally accepted the 14th Dalai Lama's official recognition and the enthronement of Orgyen Trinley Dorje as the reincarnated 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, spiritual leader of the Karma Kagyu school. The recognition process was led by the 3rd Jamgon Kongtrul who died in a mysterious car crash earlier in 1992. The Karmapa, along with the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama, are highly respected by Tibetans and considered to be living Buddhas. By 1999, the Karmapa escaped to India, afterwards pointing to interference by the Chinese government in his spiritual leadership and studies as his motive.[16][17]
Also in 1992, 13 monks from Drepung Monastery were arrested on 12 May for protesting peacefully. Samdup was jailed for 7 years, and in 2020 became the fourth former political prisoner to die from medical complications within the previous six months.[18]
In 1994, a Chinese policy called "grasping with both hands" was implemented in Tibet, targeting Tibetan Buddhism and culture. It was credited with leading to the 2008 Tibetan unrest.[19]
On 17 May 1995, Jiang's government officially reversed its acceptance policy of recognized reincarnated lamas and of Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leaders, and abducted Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the 11th Panchen Lama, three days after his official recognition by the Dalai Lama. Chadrel Rinpoche and two others involved in the recognition process were also disappeared, then imprisoned. Months later in November, Jiang's government installed its proxy Panchen Lama, Gyaltsen Norbu. The recognized 11th Panchen Lama Gedhun Choekyi Nyima continues to be forcibly detained in an unknown location.[20][21]
In 1996, Jiang's administration officially banned all photographs of Tibet's spiritual leader the 14th Dalai Lama.[22]
By March 1998, the Central Tibetan Administration reported the Dalai Lama statement that Chinese campaigns of repression have travelled beyond monasteries and nunneries, and that Jiang was undertaking "a deliberate policy of cultural genocide in Tibet".[23]
In 2001, the Chinese government began persecuting and forcibly evicting nuns and monks studying at Larung Gar Buddhist Academy and at Yarchen Gar in Tibet.[24]
2002-2012: Hu Jintao administration
Under the Chinese government and the Communist Party, led by Hu Jintao from 2002 to 2012, land redevelopment was used as a form of religious persecution, while the demolition of spiritually sacred buildings and sites was undertaken.[25]
Tibetan Buddhists
In 2006, Tibetans were arrested after responding to calls from the Dalai Lama to burn animal skin clothing. Bon fires spread throughout Tibet as a form of defiance.[26]
The persecution of Tibetan Buddhists escalated under Hu Jintao, leading to the 2008 Tibetan unrest. The uprising is described as the biggest challenge to China's invasion since 1959.[27] As unrest over Chinese persecution grew, waves of protests began, including street demonstrations which were met with excessive force.[28] A mass arrest of 280 monks at the Labrang Monastery was reported during this time, as was torture during confinement.
A farming boycott began in 2009 in protest for those people detained or "disappeared" into Chinese custody. Civil disobedience became widespread, as all the monks in a Jomda, Chamdo province monastery deserted in June 2009 instead of participating in "patriotic education".[29]
On 13 July 2007, the State Religious Affairs Bureau Order No. 5 was passed, requiring reincarnated lamas and religious institutions in Tibet to apply for permission with People's Republic of China's bureaus so as be legal.
Acts of self-immolation began in 2009 at Kirti Monastery.[30] In 2010, two Tibetan laypeople were killed while trying to stop a mass arrest of approximately 300 monks at Kirti Monastery.[31][32]
In 2011, China's foreign ministry announced only Beijing could appoint the 15th Dalai Lama.[33] A monk at Nyitso monastery, Tsewang Norbu, self immolated after chanting "Long live the Dalai Lama" and "Tibetan people want freedom". The non-profit organization Free Tibet said telephone and internet services were subsequently cut to keep the news from spreading, and the monastery's utilities had been repeatedly cut. Author Tsering Woeser said Chinese security forces surrounded the monastery the same night of Tsewang Norbu's death.[32]
2012-Present: Xi Jinping administration
The Chinese government and Communist party led by Xi Jinping from 2012–present has intensified the most recent antireligious campaigns. Xi reemphasized that members of the Chinese Communist Party must be "unyielding Marxist atheists" and specifically "instituted a broad campaign to suppress all forms of dissent."[34][35]
In September 2019, the UN Human Rights Council was informed that the Government of China "is harvesting and selling organs from persecuted religious and ethnic minorities on an industrial scale".[36] The tribunal concluded that some Uyghurs, Falun Gong, Tibetan Buddhists and Christians are being “killed to order... cut open while still alive for their kidneys, livers, hearts, lungs, cornea and skin to be removed and turned into commodities for sale”.[36]
According to The Christian Post, fingerprinting and facial recognition technology is being installed in churches, temples, and other religious meeting places throughout rural areas of China, with a completion date of 2020.[37]
Tibetan Buddhists
Under Xi Jinping, the widespread targeting of Tibetans and of Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, together with the persecution of ordained Khenpos, nuns and monks escalated.[38] The settlement of Han Chinese in Tibet also continues, creating a majority population of Han Chinese settlers that benefit from forced land redistribution in Tibet.[39]
Massive redevelopment projects including railways, mines, roadways, dams and shopping centers forcibly displace Tibetans and erode the environment.[40] From 2015 to present, farmlands and ancestral nomadic grazing lands are also being confiscated from Tibetans.[41]
Reports state that administrators of monasteries have been replaced by police or by people considered government infiltrators, while military surveillance units have been installed at Kirti Monastery, Yarchen Gar, Shak Rongpo Gaden Dargyeling Monastery, and at other monasteries, along with CCTV cameras.[42][43] Drongna Monastery was forcibly closed in 2013, and its chant master Thardhod Gyaltsen received an 18-year prison sentence in 2014 for possession of a picture and recording of the 14th Dalai Lama.[44][45]
By 2013, Xi continued using tourism and redevelopment plans as methods to separate Tibetans from their Buddhist culture, to forcibly dislocate Tibetans, and to destroy heritage sites intrinsically important to Buddhists.[46]
By 2020, after Chinese state-sponsored tourist agencies funneled people from inner China to Lhasa, reports state the tourists disrupt ceremonies, are disrespectful to Tibetan customs, and throw trash around sacred sites. Police support the tourists confronted by complaints.[47]
Reports also indicate tourism is used to disrupt monastic life within Buddhist monasteries.[31] Monastic residences of nuns and monks were demolished before mass evictions began in 2016 at Larung Gar, in 2019 at Yarchen Gar, in 2013 at Jhada Gon Palden Khachoe Nunnery, and elsewhere. Reports indicate that nuns and nunneries are targeted for demolition more often than those of monks. Tourist accommodations and roads replaced the residences, or are planned for the sites where residences were demolished. Other monasteries are partially renovated for tourist accommodations whose proximity disrupts daily life.[31]
After the mass evictions, nuns and monks were bused away, and reportedly detained in reeducation centers.[39] Among others, an identified reeducation center is named Ningtri.[48] Reports include beatings and the torture of monastics and of laypeople at reeducation centers, and in jails after arrests.[49]
In 2016, the CCP commenced a campaign to sinicize religion, which intensified after 2018.[50][51] The Sinicization of Tibet was condemned by the Dalai Lama as cultural cleansing.[52]
The ethnic cleansing policies in Tibet were managed by hardliner Chen Quanguo, before his 2016 transfer to govern Xinjiang.[53] A United States Department of State report in 2019 documented incidents of sexual abuse, rape, and gender-based violence at the Chinese detention centers.[54]
In April 2019, the Chinese police-enforced ban against photographs of the Dalai Lama spread to remote areas of Tibet.[55]
Christians
The persecution of members of other spiritual organizations is also continuing under Xi Jinping. Journalist Ian Johnson noted that officials have targeted Christianity, and Islam, with particular intensity because of their perceived foreign ties.[56] In the Chinese province of Zhejiang alone, over 1200 Christian crosses have been removed from their steeples since 2013.[57][58]
In August 2017, a number of Catholic Christian priests, as well as laypeople, were injured while they were trying to prevent a government-owned bulldozer from demolishing their historic church in the Shanxi province.[59][60] In February 2018, government authorities in Kashgar, "launched an anti-religion propaganda drive through local police stations", which included policemen erecting a banner proclaiming “We Must Solemnly Reject Religion, Must Not Believe in Religion”.[61]
In December 2018, Chinese officials raided Christian house churches just prior to Christmas and coerced their owners to close them down; Christmas trees and Santa Clauses were also forcibly removed.[62][63] In 2018, the United Front Work Department initiated a crackdown on large outdoor religious statues.[64][65]
The government of China continued to persecute Christians during the 2019 COVID-19 pandemic, demolishing the Xiangbaishu Church in Yixing and removing a Christian Cross from the steeple of a church in Guiyang County.[66][67] In the Shandong Province, "officials issued guidance forbidding online preaching, a vital way for churches to reach congregants amid both persecution and the spread of the virus".[66][67]
In 2020, the Chinese government put additional regulations in place to restrict religious education and proselytizing.[68]
Muslims
By November 2018, the Chinese government had detained over one million Uyghurs in what it refers to as "training centers" as part of a thought reform campaign, "where Uyghur Muslims are remade into atheist Chinese subjects".[25][69][70] For children forcibly taken away from their parents, the Chinese government has established "kindergartens" with the aim of combating 'three evil forces' ("separatism, extremism and terrorism"), and "converting future generations of Uyghur Muslim children into loyal subjects who embrace atheism".[71][72][70][73] Under Xi Jinping, thousands mosques and Muslim religious sites were damaged or destroyed according to estimates from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.[74] Government campaigns against Islam have extended to the Hui people and Utsul community in Hainan.[75][76][77][78]
Chinese officials did not acknowledge the existence of any sort of detention camps. The Chinese government claims that Uyghurs are being sent to vocational training centers in order to prevent the spread of extremism and to increase their employability.[79] In November 2019 the detention centers were described in the leaked Xinjiang papers.[25][80]
Jews
The Kaifeng Jewish community has reported increasing suppression by the authorities since 2015, reversing the modest revival it experienced in the 1990s. The observance of public religious services and the celebration of religious festivals like Passover and Sukkot have been prohibited, and Jewish community groups have been shut down. Signs have been removed from the Kaifeng Synagogue, a historical site located on Teaching the Torah Lane that is now under strict surveillance.[81]
Responses
In December 2020, the Tibet Policy and Support Act became law in the United States in support of Tibetan Buddhists' right to determine Dalai Lama succession.[82][83]
See also
References
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This virulent anti-religion campaign seems to be officially linked to the development plan for western Tibet, for which social stability is necessary (see Part VIII, "Economic Development," below). But the hardening of this policy in Tibet is probably also a consequence to spread atheism launched in China, in response to the religious problems mentioned above, including problems inside the Party.
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It’s hardly celebrated here at all,” he said. “We had this break in our history—you know, the missionaries being expelled in 1949 and then the anti-religious campaigns—so a lot has been lost. A lot of people don’t really know too much about Lent. We had a service trying to reintroduce the idea and explain it.
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The profusion of churches seems to have unnerved some Chinese authorities, who have undertaken a campaign to tear down hundreds of crosses, and in some instances entire churches, in Zhejiang, a coastal province where a prosperous Christian community and large numbers of churches have taken root.
- Buang, Sa'eda; Chew, Phyllis Ghim-Lian (9 May 2014). Muslim Education in the 21st Century: Asian Perspectives. Routledge. p. 75. ISBN 9781317815006. OCLC 880235482.
Subsequently, a new China was found on the basis of Communist ideology, i.e. atheism. Within the framework of this ideology, religion was treated as a 'contorted' world-view and people believed that religion would necessarily disappear at the end, along with the development of human society. A series of anti-religious campaigns was implemented by the Chinese Communist Party from the early 1950s to the late 1970s. As a result, in nearly 30 years between the beginning of the 1950s and the end of the 1970s, mosques (as well as churches and Chinese temples) were shut down and Imams involved in forced 're-education'.
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Seeking a complete annihilation of religion, places of worship were shut down; temples, churches, and mosques were destroyed; artifacts were smashed; sacred texts were burnt; and it was a criminal offence even to possess a religious artifact or sacred text. Atheism had long been the official doctrine of the Chinese Communist Party, but this new form of militant atheism made every effort to eradicate religion completely.
- Pittman, Don Alvin (2001). Toward a Modern Chinese Buddhism: Taixu's Reforms. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 9780824822316. JSTOR j.ctt6wqt85.
Yet in the first years after Liberation there were places in China where monasteries were destroyed, monks were beaten or killed, copies of the Buddhist canon were burned, and sacred images were melted down for their metal.
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Gedhun Choekyi Nyima was nominated as the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama the second most important figure in Tibetan religion, culture and politics after the Dalai Lama himself. But China disagreed with the choice and arrested the boy a few days later. Mystery surrounds his fate and outside China he is known as one of the world's youngest political prisoners.
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Chinese authorities are skittish about any organization or movement outside party control. In recent years, they have repeatedly tried, without success up to now, to scale back the Serthar settlement and limit study there to nearby residents. This time, according to the International Campaign for Tibet, officials from Beijing as well as the provincial capital, Chengdu, have gone to the site to expel most of the students. The officials have burned down abandoned cabins to limit visitors and declared that the total number of residents should be held to 1,400, according to accounts received by the international campaign.
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There must be effective educational remolding and transformation of criminals,” [Xi] told officials in southern Xinjiang on the second day of his trip. “And even after these people are released, their education and transformation must continue.”' 'Within months, indoctrination sites began opening across Xinjiang — mostly small facilities at first, which held dozens or hundreds of Uighurs at a time for sessions intended to pressure them into disavowing devotion to Islam and professing gratitude for the party.' 'Then in August 2016, a hard-liner named Chen Quanguo was transferred from Tibet to govern Xinjiang. Within weeks, he called on local officials to “remobilize” around Mr. Xi’s goals and declared that Mr. Xi’s speeches “set the direction for making a success of Xinjiang.
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Police began tearing down crosses in the coastal city of Wenzhou in late 2013, citing building regulations, and have since removed more than 1,200 crosses throughout Zhejiang. The campaign was protested by China's state-approved Catholic and Protestant associations, as well as by Cardinal John Tong Hon of Hong Kong, who appealed to Communist Party chiefs in August to "return to the right path." However, Catholic sources say up to 4,000 crosses may have been targeted for removal from spires and towers, while churches have also been bulldozed and numerous Christians arrested for protesting.
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Among those arrested are a prominent pastor and his wife, of the Early Rain Covenant Church in Sichuan. Both have been charged with state subversion. And on Saturday morning, dozens of police raided a children's Bible class at Rongguili Church in Guangzhou. One Christian in Chengdu told the BBC: "I'm lucky they haven't found me yet." China is officially atheist, though says it allows religious freedom.
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Christmas is not a recognised holiday in mainland China – where the ruling party is officially atheist – and for many years authorities have taken a tough stance on anyone who celebrates it in public. ... The statement by Langfang officials said that anyone who was caught selling Christmas trees, wreaths, stockings or Santa Claus figures in the city would be punished. ... While the ban on the sale of Christmas goods might appear to be directed at retailers, it also comes amid a crackdown on Christians who are practising their religion across the country. On Saturday morning, more than 60 police officers and officials stormed a children’s Bible class in Guangzhou, the capital of southern China’s Guangdong province. The incident came after authorities shut down the 1,500-member Zion Church in Beijing in September and Chengdu’s 500-member Early Rain Covenant Church last week. In the case of the latter, about 100 worshippers were snatched from their homes or from the streets in coordinated raids.
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