Government/Politics - 57. page

Beijing has been actively transforming religions in order to further its political agenda.

Last February, China’s National Religious Affairs Administration released the regulations called, “Measures for the Administration of Religious Personnel.” Under the regulations, religious groups must follow the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) leadership, publicize the CCP’s directives and policies, and also educate and guide religious believers to support the CCP’s leadership and the socialist system.

Leaked documents from the Chinese Communist Party in Liaoning Province reveal more efforts have been underway to sinicize religions.

The United Front Work Department of the Kuandian County CCP Committee in Liaoning Province disclosed in an internal document dated January 3, 2020, that it would step up efforts to sinicize the Bible.  The document said that it is inevitable to sinicize Christianity and that Christian groups must proactively include core socialist values in their religious activities.

The United Front Work Department of the Dandong City CCP Committee in Liaoning Province stated in an internal document dated May 8, 2020, that, the primary task in sinicizing religions is to “guide religions to adhere to the correct political direction.”

Other CCP documents from Dandong showed that in 2020, local authorities organized a training course titled “Dandong City’s Adherence to the Sinicization of Buddhism” with the theme, “Love the country and love religion, and be a qualified monk in the new era.” These documents also disclosed that the CCP held a number of lectures and preaching competitions, which were “guided by the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party” and resolutely promoted the “sinicization of religions.”

The CCP’s internal documents show that the CCP requires that religions support the CCP leadership and control, and engage in CCP political activities. The Civil Religious Affairs Bureau of Yuanbao District, Dandong City, stated in a work report on April 14, 2021, that [people must] “promote the sinicization of religion and promote the patriotism of religious staff.” The Puji [Buddhist] Palace in Dandong recently laid a wreath in the Korean War Memorial Hall in memory of Chinese soldiers who died in support of North Korea.  Documents also disclosed that on October 25, 2020, the Kuandian County Christian Church celebrated the 70th anniversary of the CCP victory in the 1949 Korean War, as the church conducted its Sunday Christian activity.

Source: Epoch Times, June 18, 2021

https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/21/6/18/n13031727.htm

Days prior to the 100th anniversary of the communist party, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection published an article and reminded the communist party members that they must never betray the party.

On June 19, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection published an article. Nearly two-thirds of the article was about Gu Shunzhang who is a former security chief and alternate member of the Political Bureau. In 1931, he betrayed the communist party and was arrested. Then in 1935 he tragically died in prison. The article stated that “Never Betray the Party is not just an oath; it is also a political red line.” It reiterated that the party members must display loyalty to the party and that they must unite around the party and never rebel against the party.

The official media also reported that, during his recent visit to Qinghai Province, Xi Jinping told the party members to be loyal to the party. Xi even personally led dozens of officials to a historical exhibition hall to swear to the party oath and pay allegiance to the party.

Source:
1. Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, June 19, 2021
https://www.ccdi.gov.cn/yaowen/202106/t20210619_244195.html
2. Xinhua, June 19, 2021
http://www.qh.xinhuanet.com/2021-06/19/c_11275787p11.htm

A former CCP media official revealed that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) sends its intelligence officers as media reporters to spy on the host countries.

During a recent interview, Cheng Kai, former chief correspondent at People’s Daily in Shenzhen and editor-in-chief of Hainan Daily, stated that, based on his experience during the 1980s, over half of the reporters that the CCP media send overseas are intelligence officers.

Xinhua News Agency and People’s Daily are minister-level organizations. Other national newspapers such as Guangming Daily, Economic Daily, Farmers’ Daily (Nongmin Ribao), and Workers’ Daily (Gongren Ribao) are deputy ministerial-level organizations. These media are authorized to send reporters overseas. When in the host country, they have considerable responsibilities to collect intelligence for the CCP.

Cheng recounted a memorial service for a former colleague, a People’s Daily reporter stationed in Algeria who died in a car accident. In addition to the president and editor-in-chief of People’s Daily, CCP leaders in charge of intelligence also attended the memorial service. It turned out that the former colleague was a spy and a People’s Daily reporter.

In the 1980s, People’s Daily had over 40 branches overseas. About half of its overseas reporters were officials from the CCP intelligence organization. With a reporter’s pass, it was convenient to interview people in the host countries. These so-called reporters spent most of their time collecting intelligence. One would not see them publish any news reports for as long as a year.

According to Cheng, if a reporter from People’s Daily or Xinhua contacts someone for an interview, the person should first ask himself whether the reporter is a Chinese intelligence officer.

Even reporters from Chinese regional newspapers may be state agents. For example, during his tenure as editor-in-chief of Hainan Daily, the Hainan Provincial CCP Committee directed Cheng to issue 20 Hainan Daily reporter identification cards, 10 to the Hainan Provincial Public Security Department, and 10 to its State Security Department. Cheng did not know who would hold these reporter ID cards. He was assured that he would not be held responsible for the actions of these 20 “reporters.” The CCP would make sure he would not be aware of any activities of these “reporters.’ He believed that these individuals were state agents who were spying on political dissidents.

Source: Epoch Times, June 25, 2021.

https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/21/6/11/n13015628.htm

China’s Hebei Provincial government recently announced a list of candidates for the province’s Natural Science Award this year. One scholar on the list sparked a public uproar when he used Marxist philosophy to invalidate Einstein’s “Theory of Relativity.”

Li Zifeng, a professor at Yanshan University in Hebei Province, proposed in his project titled, “Adhere to the Materialist View of Space-Time-Mass-Energy and Develop Newtonian Physics,” to use Marxist philosophy to overthrow Einstein’s theory of relativity. The Hebei Provincial government recommended his “research” for the Natural Science Award, as “a non-consensual theoretical physics project that adheres to materialistic philosophy and is subversive and innovative.” The content of the research is about “the most fundamental problems of philosophy and physics, correcting fallacies in physics, and exploring answers to ancient questions.”

The recommendation states that Li’s project “resolves a possible contradiction between physics and philosophy” and even “overturns Einstein’s theory of relativity, which has misled the physics community and mankind’s basic approach to understanding the world, and clears a huge obstacle to the healthy development of science.”

Li is a researcher and Ph.D. advisor at the School of Vehicles and Energy, with a focus on oil and gas mechanics and drilling engineering.

Although Li’s academic specialty has nothing to do with Marxism, his research has been encouraged by the Minister of Science and Technology and is featured in official media, including Xinhua News Agency.

A writer named Cai, who is based in mainland China, told Radio Free Asia that there are many cases like this. “These professors and scholars are doing these studies totally against basic common sense, and actually he was able to get funding for the subject.”

Source: Radio Free Asia, June 22, 2021
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/ac-06222021062526.html

China Global Television Network (CGTN) launched a plan to recruit foreign students and social media Vloggers (someone who creates short films recording thoughts, ideas or opinions and posts them on the Internet) to be pro-Beijing media promoters. According to the British media The Times, CGTN was suspended in the UK this February. It launched a “media challengers” campaign in April “to recruit internet influencers and Vloggers globally. Some of those recruited will promote China and counter western narratives that damage China’s image.” Successful applicants can receive a bonus of up to 10,000 U.S. dollars and get a part-time or full-time job on CGTN. The Times found that at least six students from the University of Leeds and one student from the University of Manchester had signed up.

This is part of the effort that Beijing wants to use to neutralize its wolf-warrior diplomacy by using western faces to tell the “China Story” to the West. Xi Jinping recently stated that he wants to build a credible, lovable and respectable image of China. On May 31, he told the members of the Political Bureau that China should make great efforts to strengthen its international communication capabilities, build a strong talent team, improve the art of communication, and expand its circle of friends in the global media.

Beijing has made a heavy investment in infiltrating foreign media. According to documents disclosed by the U.S. Department of Justice last month, China Daily invested more than $1.6 million in advertising expenses in The Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Financial Times, and Foreign Policy. They paid $1 million to newspapers such as the Chicago Tribune and the Houston Chronicle to print the China Daily publications.

On YouTube, Lee Barrett and his son Oli Barrett own a channel with 2.7 million followers. They often praise China on key issues among Beijing’s propaganda list including poverty alleviation, infrastructure, Huawei, and ethnic relations. Jason Lightfoot is a British vlogger and often appears as a guest speaker on CGTN. In addition to Barrett and his son, David Dumbrill, a Canadian who runs a beer hall in Shenzhen, and Raz Galor, an Israeli, all went to Xinjiang and claimed that there was no forced labor there.

Source: Radio Free Asia, June 17, 2021
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/meiti/xx-06172021104240.html

According to Xinhua News Agency, the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) Central Propaganda Department, the CCP’s Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, the Ministry of Education, and the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League, will be jointly promoting the launch of a number of social media platforms in universities and colleges. The “first group of universities and colleges ideological and political public accounts list” includes the social media accounts of Tsinghua University and Peking University.

Since 2013, the CCP has been strengthening the ideological education in schools and universities. As early as 2013, at the CCP’s National Propaganda Work Conference, General Secretary Xi Jinping vowed to solidify the guiding position of Marxism in ideology and propaganda, especially on school campuses.

To celebrate the centennial of the founding of the CCP, the authorities launched a large-scale study campaign on the history of the Party, using the latest version of the “Brief History of the Chinese Communist Party ” as the official designated study material.

At the same time, the Ministry of Education has also blacklisted books that “do not conform to the core socialist values.” They are prohibited from being used in elementary and secondary schools and in kindergartens.

Source: Central News Agency, May 28, 2021
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202105280123.aspx

A national annual English public speaking contest that the Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press hosted drew wide critics online. Considered among the top ranking English public speaking contests in China, the contest [Editor’s note: https://uchallenge.unipus.cn/] is open to college students under the age of 35. The preliminary contest is held from June to October; the provincial finals are held before November 8; and the national finals are held from December 6th to 10th. In the past years, the assigned topics have been closely related to life events or have been about Chinese culture. This year, however, the topic is “Red Star over China.” It asked the contestants to sing praises to the party. People complained that the organizer is simply “training a new generation of party spokespersons.” The authorities have deleted all of the online negative comments.

“Red Star over China” is a 1937 book by an American pro-communist journalist, Edgar Snow. The book describes to Western readers an accounting of the Chinese Communist Party when it was a guerrilla army.

Source: Radio Free Asia, May 21, 2021
https://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/speech-05212021035809.html

On May 14, China’s State Council announced the newly revised regulations for private school education, which will be implemented in time for the new school year on September 1. The contents stipulate that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) organizations in private schools should participate in and supervise major school decisions. This is considered the beginning of the CCP’s strengthening of control over the education industry and part of the CCP’s “Strengthening Social Control Plan.”  It is still unclear which field will be its next target, but the uncertainty has caused education stock prices to drop.

The Voice of America (VOA) Chinese website reported that Article 1 of this newly revised regulation stipulates that private schools should “adhere to the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party.” The specific method for implementing the leadership of the CCP is for the grassroots CCP organizations in schools to “participate in major school decisions and supervision.”

The article also mentioned that the school’s decision-making body “should have the participation of the person in charge of the CCP organization,” and that the relevant supervision agency should also have “representatives from the party’s grassroots organization.”

In addition, this regulation also prohibits any social organization or individual from using a merger and acquisition to control private schools or non-profit based pre-schools. At the same time, it also requires increased supervision of schools that are run by social organizations when their partner is from a foreign country but has a majority of the control.

Before the 1980s, except for a few private schools in remote areas, China’s primary and secondary education were basically government-run public education. After the reform and opening up in the 1990s, domestic private capital and international capital gradually flowed into the elementary education field. Many private schools were formed in large and medium-sized cities. These schools adopted foreign teaching materials and used advanced teaching technology. They were mostly favored by wealthy urban residents who paid hefty fees to send their children to these schools.

Source: Central News Agency, May 16, 2021
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202105160196.aspx