The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is undertaking a sweeping campaign to control religion, aiming to rewrite sacred texts like the Bible and Quran to align with its ideology. This 10-year project is part of President Xi Jinping's vision to 'sinicize' religion, ensuring loyalty to the party supersedes faith.
A chilling example emerged in 2020 when a Chinese university textbook featured a rewritten excerpt from the Gospel of John, where Jesus stones an adulterous woman to death, contrasting sharply with the original message of forgiveness. In Henan province, the Ten Commandments have been replaced with Xi Jinping quotes in some Protestant churches, demonstrating the CCP's ambition to supplant religious authority.
Xi Jinping's power grab extends to religious control, seeking to manipulate faith for political gain.
No sacred text is safe from the CCP's manipulation, as it seeks to bend religious teachings to its will.
China's increasing military power is coupled with an escalating crackdown on personal freedoms, including religious expression.
This control extends to the Vatican, which in 2018 agreed to let the CCP select Catholic bishops in China. The CCP also aims to control the selection of the next Dalai Lama, a move resisted by Tibetan Buddhists. While the Chinese constitution guarantees religious freedom, the CCP's interpretation of this freedom is closer to oppression. Only five faiths are officially recognized, and others, like Falun Gong, face severe persecution, including torture, imprisonment, and organ harvesting.
In Xinjiang, the CCP's actions against Uyghur Muslims amount to cultural genocide. Religious items are confiscated, mosques are destroyed, and children are separated from their families and sent to boarding schools where their faith and language are suppressed. Despite these brutal tactics, faith endures and even grows in China, with underground churches and resilient believers continuing to practice their religion in secret.
The CCP's persecution of religion is a part of a larger war against the human spirit, a fight to crush any loyalty beyond the party.
The CCP sees any devotion outside of its Marxist-Leninist ideology as a threat and aims to eliminate it. However, the resilience of faith in China suggests that this war on the human spirit is one the CCP is destined to lose.
