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More folk religion temples destroyed in China

Amid the turmoil of COVID-19 and the legal suppression of Hong Kong by the Chinese central government, a curious video emerged on YouTube two weeks ago showing the destruction of a folk religion statue in Handan, China.

The video appears to show a statue of the Yellow Emperor being toppled. The Yellow Emperor, Huangdi, is one of the legendary sovereigns of China and one of the nation’s great cultural heroes. He is said to have reigned about 5,000 years ago.

Bitter Winter reports that this is but one of more than one hundred other such temples destroyed in the Zhejiang, Henan, and Hebei provinces. (Hebei province is not to be confused with Hubei province, where the first major outbreaks of COVID-19 occurred.) “Officials used various pretexts to eliminate the places of worship and destroy religious statues,” reports Bitter Winter, “in the likes of ‘unapproved private constructions,’ ‘disorderly buildings’ that ‘affect the city’s image.'”

Previous reports suggest that the campaign of folk religion suppression is part of a strategy to eliminate religious devotion and the construction of an atheist state consistent with communism. As a local official told Bitter Winter in a previous report, “Currently, the state is cracking down on all religions, and investigations are going on in the village to find out just how many villagers believe in God.” Buddhist temples and Christian churches have also reportedly been destroyed by local law enforcement.

But the persecution is facilitated by other religious groups that comply with state actions as well. The Chinese Church Support Ministries, which serves the “Church in China” and supplies books and teaching materials to Chinese Christians, notes in Antioch Missions that “Economic and human needs encourage ‘god-making’ behaviour.” They request that the faithful “pray for all levels of the Chinese government to eradicate poverty in rural areas.”

The Temple no longer exists. Bitter Winter says that the Nainai Temple now “has become the Moxiang Book Studio—an entertainment center to play Chinese chess and other games or read books.” All economic activity from the former use is over.

Religious persecution in China has not been limited to folk religions, however. All religious communities, including those of major faiths like Christianity and Islam, have been threatened. The ruling government has issued instructions against “foreign religious infiltration,” although the Chinese government does offer state recognition – that is, state registration – of five faiths: Chinese Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholicism, and Protestantism. Folk religions are not included in state recognition, although some folk practices are related to Buddhism and Taoism – The Yellow Emperor, for example, is also worshiped by Taoists.

As Cathy Sun notes in Harvard Political Review notes “China’s persecution of religious minorities is part of a broader, systematic strategy to eradicate external influence in the social and political lives of citizens while harnessing aspects of religion that could serve the state’s interests. Its campaign of religious persecution is a not unprecedented effort to cement public recognition of the state’s authority and thereby generate political conformity.”

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) continues to refer to new religious movements as xié jiào (邪教), or “cults.” They are viewed as hostile to the CCP and its social objectives. The threat is serious enough that the Chinese Criminal Code’s infamous Article 300 punishes those involved in xié jiào – which can sometimes simply mean possession of religious literature from a xié jiào – with three to seven years of imprisonment.

Last week, a new announcement in the People’s Network offered cash rewards for information regarding xié jiào activities, with so-called “Level 1” information, leading to verified cult detection, receiving rewards as high as RMB 100,000 (~US$14,000).

[Submitter’s note: not sure how to do quote bars? I’ll just put brackets around what he’s quoting, and if someone without my technical ineptitude could fix it, that would be smashing] [Edit: fixed]

In fact, North Korea is ranked at or near the bottom of several freedom rankings, including Freedomhouse and Heritage.org.

Philosophically, we disagree. Personal freedom is a lie. An ideal for Christians. Nature only knows the survival of the population. This way, I am philosophically fascist, authoritarian - all men and women in Juche Korea work for the betterment of their entire nation. Even the lowliest job is important.

Life for one's own self is disgusting, no wonder southern Koreans are emigrating to the USA by the millions, and never have children. This is so funny when only a few hundred people per year emigrate from the DPRK.

the common citizen thats being oppressed or for the Kim dynasty that only seeks to expand their power.

We are all "oppressed" by life. The way of individualism is suicide - collective suicide. Beauty lies in embracing our oppression, and by working out a great future together, not dying alone.

if NK did not pose such a threat and be so aggressive against literally everyone then the US would have no reason to have a presence in SK.

Asking a foreign power for help in the matters of civil war is unfair and scummy. See the Irish in the 12th century.

Also, American occupiers kill Korean girls (Wikipedia).

I honestly get green with envy that the DPRK can have such glory, and my nation is drowning in squalour.

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Thats not even taking into account the soldiers used by the PRC, which amounted to roughly 3 million over the course of the war.

Wasn't the RoK propped up by Americans? Then it's fair game to bring in friends (the Chinese are far closer to the DPRK both racially and ideologically, Mao Tse-tung was like a brother to Comrade Kim Il Sung).

I find it amusing that you preach about being independent when the nation you have trumped up as the golden standard has failed by the very metric you hold South Korea against.

Southern Korea bases its entire raison d'être on being a cog in the machine of Christian American capitalism. If they survive its collapse, then we'll talk. But a far more likely scenario is that they'll beg for a reunification under the DPRK to save them from utter chaos.

(The fall of the USSR is nothing like what will happen when the colossus with the feet of lay that America is disintegrates.)

Also, authoritarian governments only care about remaining in power and accruing more power, they don't care about you or anyone else as anything more than a tool by which they can spread their influence.

Yes, the government cares about its people, for without the people, it will not exist. In a word, fascism.

No, the DPRK government is rooted in the Korean race, not in economics or memetics. It is precisely the opposite - it is the southern Korean government that would rather import Filipinos to prop up its failing economy than care for its very population. It is the capitalists who view their people as interchangeable units to produce the idea of money - not the hard matter of blood.