President ready to examine party thinking on religious freedom

Chinese President Xi Jinping said his country must beware of religious “infiltrations”, writes Ellen Teague.

Speaking last Saturday in Beijing, at a top-level meeting on “managing religion”, he said: “We must resolutely guard against overseas infiltrations via religious means and prevent ideological infringement by extremists.” He added that religious affairs carry “special importance” in the work of the Chinese Government.

Religious groups must submit to the ruling Communist Party’s control, he said, and not “interfere with government administration, judiciary and education”.

At the same time, however, Mr Xi offered an endorsement of religious freedom, albeit narrowly hedged in and at odds with the principles accepted in the West. He promised to “fully implement the Party’s policy of religious freedom”, manage religious affairs in line with laws, and help religions “adapt” to the communist society. He urged religions “to merge religious doctrines with Chinese culture, abide by Chinese laws and regulations, and devote themselves to China’s reform and the opening-up drive and socialist modernisation”.  

Articles have appeared in state media recently about managing the surging popularity of Christianity on the one hand and violent fundamentalism of Islamist militants on the other. On 21 April party mouthpiece The People’s Daily reported that the Central Committee is looking for fresh ideas on how to manage China’s more than 100 million believers, including around six million Catholics and 23 million Protestants. Mr Xi’s comments follow a campaign to remove church crosses in eastern China and bans on the wearing of veils and beards in the far-west region of Xinjiang where there has been violence between Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese.