Lose religion, top China official tells party members
The Communist Party of China (CPC) wants its members to give up religion and seek faith and belief within the party’s ideology or face punishment, the country’s top official overseeing religious affairs has said.
Writing for CPC’s top political theory journal, Qiushi or “Seeking Truth”, Wang Zuoan, the director of the State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA), said CPC members should be atheists and not have religious beliefs.
“Party members should not have religious beliefs, which is a red line for all members…Party members should be firm Marxist atheists, obey Party rules and stick to the Party's faith…they are not allowed to seek value and belief in religion,” Wang wrote.
“Officials who have religious faith should be persuaded to give it up, and those who resist would be punished by the Party organisation,” he wrote.
China is officially an atheist country but the CPC-run government recognises five religions: Buddhism, Islam, Taoism, Protestantism and Catholicism.
Under China’s Constitution, citizens have the liberty to follow a religion of choice but in reality, the freedom of religion is severely curtailed. In recent years, the government has carried out crackdowns on fast spreading Christianity, besides restricting the practise of Islam in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).
Wang’s pronouncement in Qiushi seems to be the latest effort to curb individual freedoms, which can be a threat to “unity” as perceived by the CPC.
His writing echoed, almost word-to-word, what President Xi Jinping had said earlier this year.
“We must resolutely guard against overseas infiltrations via religious means,” Xi had said.