China Plans to Censor Classic Religious Texts to Comply with Communist Party Standards
Jose Nino
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China is prepared to censor all translated versions of classic religious texts to conform with Communist Party propaganda.
According to the Daily Mail, the new editions of these books cannot contain any content that goes against Communist Party beliefs.
The country’s leading officials on religious matters are setting these standards and paragraphs that catch censors’ attention “will be amended or re-translated,” according to these officials.
Wang Yang, the Chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, directed the country’s officials to interpret different religious principles in line with “’the core values of Socialism.”
This order was made on November 26, 2019 during a meeting organized by the Committee for Ethnic and Religious Affairs of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, which is tasked with overseeing ethnic and religious matters in China.
Wang Yang, the Chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, headed up this meeting. Wang emphasized that religious authorities must comply with President Xi’s instructions and interpret the ideologies of different religions according to the “the core values of Socialism” and “the requirements of the era.”
He called on the officials to create a religious system with “Chinese characteristics.”
The officials were in agreement with Wang’s orders, believing that the mission “is the choice of history.”
Furthermore, they asserted that the re-evaluation of religious books would keep “extreme thoughts” and “heretical ideas” from disrupting the country.
This meeting was held in a time when China was under global scrutiny for its religious policies.
According to leaked documents, the Chinese government operates a system of “re-education” centers to indoctrinate Muslim Uighurs in the northwestern province of Xinjiang.
Contrary to Beijing’s claims, the documents revealed that the indoctrination camps in Xinjiang are not for voluntary job training These documents include guidelines for running detention centers and instructions for using technology to target people.
UN experts and activists contend that at least one million ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims are being held in the internment camps in the region.
Several former detainees claimed that Muslims were coercively fed pork and forced to speak Mandarin in these camps.
China initially denied the existence of these camps. However, the pressure was so significant that it admitted that it had opened “vocational educational centers” in Xinjiang with the goal of deterring extremism by teaching Mandarin and providing job skills.
China’s embassy in London denied the existence of these documents and told the Guardian that the memos were “’pure fabrication and fake news.”
With the microscope on China, it will try to do everything it can to whitewash its image.
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