Official urges Xinjiang to reject wrong influences

Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region will develop better if it rids itself of misleading historical, cultural, ethnic and religious thoughts, China’s top political adviser said at a seminar.

Clearing out those negative thoughts will build the ideological and political basis for a legal and united Xinjiang, Yu Zhengsheng, chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference National Committee said at a two-day meeting on Xinjiang, which concluded on Wednesday in Beijing.

“Over the decade, China has seen great changes in religions. New conflicts and problems have become increasingly prominent. Foreign-influenced religious beliefs have intensified, and religious extremism is spreading in some regions. The commercialization of religions and other problems are getting worse,” Wang Zuo’an, director of the State Administration for Religious Affairs, wrote in the People’s Daily on Tuesday.

Their comments came after the State Council revised religious affairs regulations in September.

The ordinance stresses “selfmanagement” of religious groups to avoid being controlled by foreign forces, and stresses that religious groups cannot spread content harmful to national security, engage in religious extremism and ethnic disunity.

Wang said that “the regulation makes religion a positive influence by adapting to socialist doctrine.”