China asks religious groups to pledge loyalty to the state

BEIJING — China’s President warned yesterday that the practice of religion in the country must be independent of foreign influence, as the government asked domestic religious groups to pledge loyalty to the state.

“We must manage religious affairs in accordance with the law and adhere to the principle of independence to run religious groups on our own accord,” President Xi Jinping said at a high-level party meeting that sought to unite non-Communist Party groups and individuals. His comments were widely reported in the state media.

“Active efforts should be made to incorporate religions into socialist society,” Mr Xi said, adding that the party’s religious work should be about winning over the hearts and minds of the public for the party.

China is ruled by the officially atheist Communist Party, and Beijing attempts to control a variety of religions and their spread. As part of its religious policy since the 1990s, the government believes that hostile foreign forces can use religions to infiltrate Chinese society by winning over the population and subverting party rule.

It has banned foreign missionary work, refused to acknowledge any appointment by foreign religious entities such as the Vatican, and declared any unregistered religious groups illegal.

In line with the government’s rhetoric, China’s military newspaper said yesterday that the Internet is the most important front in China’s ideological battle against “Western anti-China forces”.

China must defend its “sovereignty” in cyberspace with ideological purity, or “the public will be led astray by the enemy”, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Daily said in a commentary reposted on the website of Seeking Truth, a leading Communist Party journal.

“Western hostile forces, as well as a few ‘ideological traitors’ in our country, are using the Internet on their computers and mobile phones to viciously attack our party,” it added. “The fundamental purpose is to use ‘universal values’ to confuse us, and ‘constitutional democracy’ to disturb us.”

Despite the government’s efforts to curb the influence of foreign ideas, religions have spread quickly in the country, which is suffering a crisis in beliefs as people largely abandon Communist values.

In the western regions of Xinjiang and Tibet, the government said foreign forces are using Islam and Tibetan Buddhism to incite local people to defy Chinese rule.

Since early last year, the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang has forcibly removed crosses from more than 400 Christian churches in an apparent effort to reduce the rapidly growing religion’s visibility.

However, the government has been vague about what constitutes foreign forces and whether the term refers to foreign individuals, foreign non-governmental groups, foreign cultural traditions or foreign governments, said Dr Yang Fenggang, a scholar of Chinese religions at Purdue University in Indiana, America.

Such a policy can also be difficult to carry out in an age of globalisation and at a time when China wants to promote its own culture outside China, he said. “How can you influence the foreign, but not be influenced by the foreign?” Mr Yang wrote in an email.

Besides religion, the Communist Party has long railed against other foreign and Western values, including concepts such as multi-party democracy, judicial independence and universal human rights.

The commentary by the PLA Daily called for a massive “Red Army” of “seed-planters and propaganda teams” to defend the “online Great Wall”.

China operates one of the world’s most sophisticated online censorship mechanisms, known abroad as the Great Firewall. Censors keep a grip on what can be published online, particularly content seen as potentially undermining the party.

“Western anti-China forces have consistently sought in vain to make use of the Internet to topple China,” the commentary added, calling control of the Internet a “hidden war” for the hearts and minds of the public.

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