China orders crackdown on outdoor religious statues

China's ruling Communist Party has ordered the provincial governments to regulate construction of large outdoor religious statues in a bid to prevent "commercialisation" of Buddhist and Taoist religions, official media reported on Saturday.

Both Buddhism and Taoism have been officially recognised in Communist China with thousands of temples, even though they were subjected to heavy crackdown during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) headed by Communist Party of China (CPC) founder Mao Zedong to cleanse China of its spiritual past.

Local governments have been asked to ramp up efforts to regulate the construction of new large outdoor religious statues, the United Front Work Department (UFWD) of the CPC directed on Friday.

Chinese society has reached common ground on regulating the commercialisation of Buddhist and Taoist activities and the practice of building large outdoor religious statues has made some progress, but more challenges still lie ahead, according to a meeting held by the UFWD in Beijing on Wednesday, Global Times reported. While Buddhism which emanated from India remained the oldest religion in China, Taoism, also known as Daoism, is an indigenous religious or philosophical tradition of Chinese origin.

Buddhist statues are dotted all over China as Buddhism remained a dominant religion in the country.