NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • All Blacks
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather forecasts

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Budget 2025
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
    • Cooking the Books
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • What the Actual
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / World

China's war on religion, academics: Xi Jinping moves to reassert Communist Party dominance

By Jamie Seidel, AP
news.com.au·
14 Aug, 2018 05:54 AM8 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Chinese President Xi Jinping said in 2016: "We must resolutely guard against overseas infiltrations via religious means." Photo / AP
Chinese President Xi Jinping said in 2016: "We must resolutely guard against overseas infiltrations via religious means." Photo / AP

Chinese President Xi Jinping said in 2016: "We must resolutely guard against overseas infiltrations via religious means." Photo / AP

China's Communist Party doesn't like difference. So it has set about eradicating any trace of it among its 1.38 billion population.

First they moved on Tibet. Its ancient spirituality and unique identity has been suppressed for decades. Its remaining leadership has long since been co-opted by the Party.

China's Christian community has also long been a source of embarrassment. The Bible has been banned. Crosses must not be displayed in public. Its leadership must be approved by the Communist Party. Its teachings must now conform to Party ideals, news.com.au reports.

But, for the moment, Beijing has another ancient community in its sights: the Uighurs. China invaded the East Turkestan Republic in 1949. It's now named Xinjiang province, bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan.

To Beijing, it represents the nation's largest reserve of coal and natural gas.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Now it's not Chinese enough for the Communist Party.

It's the primary focus of President Xi Jinping's determination to "Sinicize" the entirety of China's domain. "Chinese characteristics" must be incorporated into all activities, beliefs and traditions. Chief among them — unwavering loyalty to the Communists party.

And that's not something that sits easily with China's 200 million believers, of all faiths.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

CHRISTIANITY 'WITH CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS'

In April, China's religious affairs department published an article saying that churches must endorse the party's leadership as part of "Sinicization."

"Only Sinicized churches can obtain God's love," the article stated.

It's part of Beijing's "Principle for Promoting Chinese Christianity in China for the Next Five Years (2018-2022)" plan, which details how it will "Sinicize" Christianity within its borders.

Its censors immediately moved in.

Bibles have been seized and banned. Digital versions can no longer be found online. Only an officially approved version from the government-sanctioned open church is available.

But Beijing's crackdown goes far beyond that.

Images of Christ are being replaced with posters of President Xi. As with the Tibetans and Uighur's before them, Christian children are no longer allowed to attend church.

"Through our thought reform, they've voluntarily done it," Qi Yan, a member of the township party committee, told the AP by phone.

"The move is aimed at Christian families in poverty, and we educated them to believe in science and not in superstition, making them believe in the party."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

One Beijing pastor told AP otherwise: "A lot of our flock are terrified by the pressure that the government is putting on them," he said. "It's painful to think that in our own country's capital, we must pay so dearly just to practise our faith."

In this photo taken June 3, a demolished house church is seen in the city of Zhengzhou in central China's Henan province.  Photo / AP
In this photo taken June 3, a demolished house church is seen in the city of Zhengzhou in central China's Henan province. Photo / AP

Hundreds of small and private churches have been shut down. Party enforcers have been making life uncomfortable for many of the remainder, a Chinese Christian communities complain. Many of China's Christian communities have responded in a time-honoured fashion: they're now worshipping together in secret.

Beijing sees Christianity as a Western threat, and its 67 million followers as infected by dangerous Western ideals.

President Xi stated in 2016: "We must resolutely guard against overseas infiltrations via religious means."

And any community that places any entity above himself is not putting the Party first.

"Chinese leaders have always been suspicious of the political challenge or threat that Christianity poses to the Communist regimen," Xi Lian, a scholar of Christianity in China at Duke University, told AP.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"Under Xi, this fear of Western infiltration has intensified and gained a prominence that we haven't seen for a long time."

RE-EDUCATING UIGHERS

There are 11 million Uighurs in Xinjiang. With one million in detention, and two million forced into re-education camps, Beijing's crackdown would be something felt by every family.

They are not ethnic Chinese. They speak Turkic. Their culture was heavily influenced by the Mongols and Islamic caliphates.

They are an ethnic minority in China.

President Xi Jinping pushes the need for greater creativity and faster research output but educated minds do not always conform with Party lines. Photo / AP
President Xi Jinping pushes the need for greater creativity and faster research output but educated minds do not always conform with Party lines. Photo / AP

Islamic crescents and minarets have been torn down from mosques. They've been banned from naming their children "Muhammad". Children are not allowed to enter mosques. They're not allowed to fast during Ramadan. Men cannot wear long beards. Veils are banned in public.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The Uighur detainees are being re-educated. They are being forced to sing Communist Party songs, and recite its slogans. They must vow personal loyalty to President-for-life Xi Jinping.

They must attend lectures about the anti-social nature of Islam.

It wasn't always so.

One of China's most revered historical figures — explorer Admiral Zheng He — was Muslim. Though you wouldn't know that from modern interpretations of his story. However, he is now being used to help justify Beijing's claims to the South China Sea, and beyond.

Since September 11, 2001, when terrorists claiming to represent Muslim beliefs hijacked aircraft and crashed them into buildings in the United States, Beijing declared the existence of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) — "a major component of the terrorist network headed by Osama bin Laden".

Its crackdown on the ethnic minority has been extreme.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Beijing's state media, however, has become a little confused on which official Party line to adopt.

Yesterday it rejected UN human rights committee concerns, asserting that "arbitrary detention" or "re-education centres" do not exist.

But an editorial Communist-Party run Global Times appeared to contradict this assertion, stating its 'security crackdown' in Xinjiang was to "salvage" the region which was on "the verge of massive turmoil".

A resident rides past a slogan which reads "Religious activities should not interfere with social order and order of life" near a church. Photo / AP
A resident rides past a slogan which reads "Religious activities should not interfere with social order and order of life" near a church. Photo / AP

"There is no doubt that the current peace and stability in Xinjiang is partly due to the high intensity of regulations," it reads. "Police and security posts can be seen everywhere in Xinjiang.

"The security situation in Xinjiang has been turned around recently and terror threats spreading from there to other provinces of China are also being eliminated. Peaceful and stable life has been witnessed again in all of Xinjiang."

eijing's actions "has avoided the fate of becoming 'China's Syria' or China's Libya," it stated.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The Global Times was reinforcing its previous harsh stance on Uighur issues, where it endorsed the extensive use of surveillance technology in the region as well as the enforced relocation of hundreds of thousands of its population.

'ENHANCED' PATRIOTISM

Religious belief is not President Xi's only concern. Critical-thought among China's academics has also been deemed a problem.

Now, they've been told to "learn the proper kind of patriotism".

The Communist Party's propaganda arm recently announced a new effort to infuse a "patriotic striving spirit" among its universities and research institutes.

It's all about "political guidance" and "ideological and political identification".

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The Communist Party's People's Daily news service declared it wanted to "make the vast numbers of intellectuals … more determinedly follow the party."

President Xi must walk a tenuous tightrope.

He's urgently pushed the need for greater creativity and faster research output in his bid to outstrip the rest of the world economically and technologically.

But educated minds do not always conform with Party lines.

A law professor in Beijing, Xu Zhangrun, is one such example. He recently dared to post to social media: "People throughout China — including the entire bureaucratic class — are feeling a sense of uncertainty, a mounting anxiety in relation both to the direction the country is taking as well as in regard to their personal security. These anxieties have generated something of a nationwide panic."

He said China's sudden return to strict ideological control, an international 'closed-door policy' the return to totalitarianism and President Xi's unrestricted term in office had become a source of much anxiety.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"The amendments earlier this year shocked the world and caused a lot of concern among Chinese," he wrote. "This amounts to a negation of the last 30 years of the reform and opening-up policy. It is feared that in one fell swoop, China will be cast back to the terrifying days of Mao."

UIGHERS UNRESOLVED

China's delegation told the UN yesterday that "there is no arbitrary detention … there are no such things as re-education centres."

It said authorities in Xinjiang have cracked down on "violent terrorist activities," while convicted criminals are provided with skills to reintegrate themselves into society at "vocational education and employment training centres."

Chinese delegate Hu Lianhe said through an interpreter: "there is no suppression of ethnic minorities or violations of their freedom of religious belief in the name of counter-terrorism." But he also said "those who are deceived by religious extremism … shall be assisted through resettlement and education."

Xinjiang has been enveloped in a suffocating blanket of security for years, especially since a deadly anti-government riot broke out in the regional capital of Urumqi in 2009.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Gay McDougall, the committee vice-chairwoman who raised the issue of detentions last week, said she wasn't convinced by China's "flat denial". She said China "didn't quite deny" that re-education programs are taking place.

"You said that was false, the 1 million. Well, how many were there? Please tell me," she said. "And what were the laws on which they were detained, the specific provisions?" There was no direct response to that, which addressed a broad range of issues that went well beyond the Uighurs.

But delegation leader Yu Jianhua said some panel members had treated "some of the unsubstantiated materials as credible information." He contended that some of that information came from groups which "seek to split China" and have links to terrorist organisations.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from World

World

'Really proud': Team show dedication to caring for rescued bear cub

23 May 05:32 AM
World

'An orgy of corruption': Trump criticised for crypto event with top investors

23 May 04:40 AM
World

Investor unease over Trump tax plan spikes US borrowing costs

23 May 01:20 AM

The Hire A Hubby hero turning handyman stereotypes on their head

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from World

'Really proud': Team show dedication to caring for rescued bear cub

'Really proud': Team show dedication to caring for rescued bear cub

23 May 05:32 AM

Staff wear bear costumes to prevent bonding with the cub before his release into the wild.

'An orgy of corruption': Trump criticised for crypto event with top investors

'An orgy of corruption': Trump criticised for crypto event with top investors

23 May 04:40 AM
Investor unease over Trump tax plan spikes US borrowing costs

Investor unease over Trump tax plan spikes US borrowing costs

23 May 01:20 AM
US Education Department must reinstate nearly 1400 fired workers

US Education Department must reinstate nearly 1400 fired workers

23 May 01:10 AM
Gold demand soars amid global turmoil
sponsored

Gold demand soars amid global turmoil

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • What the Actual
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven CarGuide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP
search by queryly Advanced Search