NEWS//Update: Religious Sinicization

The China Communist Party (CCP) is celebrating its 100th anniversary. In addition to parades, speeches, and fireworks, the CCP is marking its centennial by more firmly insisting that socialist ideology impacts every corner of Chinese society.

That includes religion. All religion.

The Catholic League reports, "Under [China's President] Xi, the CCP has pushed to Sinicize religion, or shape all religions to conform to the officially atheist party’s doctrines."

Buddhism

Zhang Liangtian, the Tibet Buddhism College’s top communist party official, explains, “We must adhere to the leadership of the party over the religious affairs and the Sinicization of religions. We must continue to accommodate the religions to the socialist system of China,”

Zhang was following the lead of President Xi. Last year at a meeting focused on Tibet, Xi stated, “Tibetan Buddhism should be guided in adapting to the socialist society and should be developed in the Chinese context.”

Islam

Islam is faring even worse. According to Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, "The Chinese authorities have created a dystopian hellscape on a staggering scale in Xinjiang. Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other Muslim minorities face crimes against humanity and other serious human rights violations that threaten to erase their religious and cultural identities."

All religions

In May, the U.S. State Department’s released its annual International Religious Freedom Report. Secretary of State Antony Blinken used the occasion to chide China for severe restrictions on its citizens’ ability to worship freely.

“China broadly criminalizes religious expression and continues to commit crimes against humanity and genocide against Muslim Uyghurs and members of other religious and ethnic minority groups,” Blinken said.

The report documents that Christians, Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists, and Falun Gong practitioners in China all suffer from “severe societal discrimination in employment, housing, and business opportunities.”

Sources: Amnesty International, Catholic League, AP News 01, 02, Heritage Foundation, Council on Foreign Relations, International Religious Freedom Report