On Religion

Hey Laowinners!

If there were 2 topics that could potentially destroy a relationship they'd be politics, and religion. 

Religion is one of those things that commands faith, and faith is something that people can't prove valid or invalid, however, that's not what we are here to talk about today. Today we are expanding on what I talked about in yesterday's video - the legality and crackdown of religion in China. I will focus on Christianity and Islam.

Video if you haven't watched yet- https://youtu.be/7aRCmLPnd2E

Current state of Christians -

When I first moved to China, all the way up to fairly recently, there were more and more Christian churches springing up. There were a fair few Catholic churches as well, but they can't follow the Vatican for appointing clergy; only the government. 

Picture - Xi Jinping Thought is the new bible in town. 

 
Christianity has been traditionally tolerated in China, and has been flourishing. However, recently, the current leadership has found it problematic for his "Xi Jinping Thought First" campaign. Old school Mao level propaganda in schools and in billboards is making a massive return these days. The kids don't care. 

Churches are being knocked down, and underground house churches are being cracked down on left and right now.  Church leaders and pastors/priests are being imprisoned, or disappeared. Religious crackdown in the past has not been a good idea for China in the past. The Falun Gong gained massive international popularity and funding - specifically anti-government targeted funding, because the CCP outright banned it. I imagine the Christians in China are none too pleased, either.

Christianity remains "legal", but the clause in the constitution says "normal religious practices" are legal, and in a one party state, that definition gets skewed. 

Honestly, I was not shocked about the crackdown on Islam, since the western region of China doesn't identify as Chinese, and China hates separatism, but Christians being cracked down on surprised me. All of the Christians I know in China are quite patriotic, and haven't lashed out much in the past (Taiping rebellion ahem). The Chinese Christian community is pretty tight knit, and has usually done well in community building. Maybe that is what the government gets worried about, though - organized community.

Current state of Islam - 

Having the pleasure to visit Ningxia, a Hui Muslim minority province in China, I was surprised to find out that there were secret Mosques in the countryside, where kids learned only Arabic, and studied from the Quran. The taxi driver brought us to these gender separated schools, which I would be very surprised if they still existed today. The Hui people are ethnically Chinese, but are practicing muslims. They have typically done ok under Chinese rule, but have had some scuffles in the past. Their Chinese identity has given them a bit of leniency under Han Chinese rule.

Picture - The female school 

Picture - The male school

However, the Xinjiang region of western China is a whole different kettle of fish. I met some Xinjiang people throughout China, and they look nothing like Han Chinese people. They speak a different language, are typically muslim, and have an ancient culture with very little ties to China. 

Picture - A mixed Hui/Xinjiang girl I met. Notice her green eyes.

According to news sources, they are being rounded up and sent to camps. China claims that they are being taught trades and language, meanwhile, runaways and interviewees claim they are being beaten, tortured, and killed. Some say 100,000+, some say millions. There has been periodic internet and cell phone blockage in the province. Troops are everywhere. 

Since the amazingly efficient crackdown of media and journalism in China, it's difficult to get reliable intel, but the whole region is on crackdown, and you can be sure if Winston and I tried to even step foot in there, we'd be in big trouble.