Replace Jesus photos with those of Xi, China’s Christians told
BEIJING: Christian residents in a rural area of the southeastern province of Jiangxi have been directed to replace images of Jesus Christ with photos of President Xi Jinping, according to media reports.
South China Morning Post quoted a local official as saying that people in villages in the region were ignorant and had to be told it was the Communist Party of China, and not any prophet, they have to rely on for help.
“Many rural people are ignorant. They think God is their savior…After our cadres’ work, they’ll realise their mistakes and think: we should no longer rely on Jesus, but on the party for help,” Qi Yan, identified as “chairman of the Huangjinbu people’s congress”, told the newspaper.
Qi added some residents in the area had became Christians due to “illness in the family”, which communists argue can be cured through “the Communist Party and General Secretary Xi”.
According to the Washington Post, the campaign has been running since March in Huangjinbu township, with more than 1,000 portraits of Xi distributed and hung in homes. Christians make up around a third of the population there, with between 5,000 and 6,000 families.
The move is being interpreted as part of a crackdown on Christianity or as part of Xi’s increasing and expanding personality cult.
Xi, 64, who has emerged as the most powerful leader in recent times, was given a second five-year term by the Communist Party‘s Congress last month.
China is officially an atheist country but the Communist Party-run government recognises five religions – Buddhism, Islam, Taoism, Protestantism and Catholicism. Under the Chinese constitution, citizens have the liberty to follow a religion of choice but in reality, freedom of religion is severely curtailed.
Earlier this year, the top official overseeing religious affairs, Wang Zuoan, wrote to party members to give up religion and seek faith and belief within the party’s ideology or face punishment.