On January 26, Yu Zhengsheng, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee and chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, held a Chinese New Year celebration conference and invited representatives from a number of religious groups to attend. Yu praised the religious groups’ efforts for being closely united with the Party and the government and for persistently demonstrating their patriotism. Yu hoped that the members of the religious organizations would become an important driving force in China’s development of socialism with Chinese characteristics. He also wished that the religious organizations would strengthen their organization, ideology, behavior, and talent development and guide their religious members to “conduct religious activities that comply with the rules of law and with the government’s policies.”
The participants attending the conference included Liu Yandong, the Vice Premier; Ling Jihua, head of the United Front Work Department; and directors from the Buddhist, Taoist, Islamic, Catholic, and Christianity Associations of China as well as the National Committee of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement of the Protestant Churches.
Source: Xinhua, January 27, 2014
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2014-01/27/c_119142267.htm