China’s so-called Christian patriotic organizations have established a new “Special Committee To Advance the Sinicization of Christianity” supposedly to promote the development of Christianity in the Chinese Communist context.
In Qingdao City, a ceremony was reportedly held on March 16 this year to establish the special committee. A report by the Qingdao City Christian Council said more than 30 people, including “representatives of pastoral ministry, representatives of believers, and expert scholars from Qingdao,” attended the ceremony.
A report on the ChristianAid website said the committee should adhere to the direction of developing religions in the Chinese context. It said those in government-sanctioned religious groups “should actively guide religions to adapt to a socialist society,” also known as Sinicization.
At the National Conference on Work Related to Religious Affairs in 2021 and the 20th National People’s Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2022, President Xi Jinping made a clear request to “fully and faithfully implement the Party’s policy on freedom of religious belief.”
He, however, said that it should “adhere to the direction of developing religions in the Chinese context and actively guide religions to adapt to the socialist society.”
Xi also proposed specific measures to carry out patriotic education in religious circles and strengthen the ideology of religious people.
With the support of the government, China has comprehensively promoted the Sinicization of religion, “which is in line with the interests of the ruling Communist Party,” said the ChristianAid report.
The official “Sinicization of Christianity Training Course” is being promoted in government-controlled churches in Mainland China.
