Antireligious campaigns in China

Antireligious campaigns in China are a series of policies and practices taken as part of the Chinese Communist Party's official promotion of state atheism, coupled with its persecution of people with spiritual or religious beliefs, in the People's Republic of China. Antireligious campaigns were launched in 1949, after the Chinese Communist Revolution, and they continue to be waged against Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, and members of other religious communities in the 21st century.

State campaigns against religion have escalated since Xi Jinping became Chinese Communist Party general secretary in 2012. For Christians, government decrees have mandated the widespread removal of crosses from churches, and in some cases, they have also mandated the destruction of houses of worship. In Tibet, similar decrees have mandated the destruction of Tibetan Buddhist monastic centers, sacred sites, and monastic residences; the denial of the Tibetans' right to freely access their cultural heritage; and the ongoing persecution of high Buddhist lamas as well as Buddhist nuns and monks. The persecution initiated in 1999 by Jiang Zemin against Falun Gong continues unabated with widespread surveillance, arbitrary detention, imprisonment, and torture. In Xinjiang, the CCP has arbitrarily detained more than a million Muslims in internment camps. In addition, the CCP's policies have included forced labor, suppression of Uyghur religious practices, political indoctrination, compulsory sterilization, forced contraception, and forced abortion.

Early PRC
CCP's antireligious campaigns dated back to 1949, when the CCP denounced religions as being associated with "foreign cultural imperialism," "feudalism," and "superstition."

During the Korean War, the United States froze all Chinese assets in the United States and banned the transfer of funds from the United States to within the PRC. Among the effects of these policies was cutting off funding for American-affiliated cultural institutions in China, including Christian colleges and religious institutions. The PRC responded by nationalizing American-affiliated cultural institutions, including religious ones.

As a result of antireligious campaigns which were waged between 1950 and 1979, all churches, mosques, and temples were closed and re-education was imposed upon clergy.

Cultural Revolution
According to Freedom House, during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), the CCP "imprisoned thousands of monks and nuns, destroyed all but 11 of Tibet's 6,200 monasteries, and burned sacred texts." The possession of religious texts was also criminalized. Monks were beaten or killed, and many Tibetans escaped with sacred texts and compiled teachings in exile communities in India.

Falun Gong
On July 20, 1999, the Chinese government, led by Jiang Zemin from 1989 to 2002, commenced the persecution of Falun Gong. It called for the "education of Marxist materialism and atheism" to counter Falun Gong. People practicing in public or disseminating Falun Gong books would be jailed, according to state media.

The Washington Post reported that Jiang Zemin alone decided that Falun Gong must be eliminated. Human Rights Watch observed that the persecution against Falun Gong reflects the Communist Party's belief that “religion is inherently subversive, a vehicle for foreign and domestic anti-China forces.”

In December 1999, four high-profile Falun Gong practitioners were sentenced to between 16 and 18 years in prison. On October 1, 2000, foreign media correspondents witnessed police beating and arresting thousands of Falun Gong practitioners on the Tiananmen Square in Beijing who were protesting against the persecution. An April 2000 Wall Street article described how the Chinese government tortured a 58-year-old woman who refused to renounce her faith in Falun Gong and died in police custody.

According to reports, Falun Gong practitioners have been subjected to medical testing and had their organs forcibly removed since 1999. Another report highlighted that the rapid expansion of the organ transplant industry in China coincided with Jiang's launch of the persecution against Falun Gong in 1999. It referenced accounts from Falun Gong practitioners who underwent medical testing consistent with the requirements for organ transplants.

Tibetan Buddhists
In 1989, violent repression spread in Tibet after prolonged rebellions against Chinese rule. Under the local authority of Hu Jintao, then CCP Secretary of Tibet, possibly hundreds of Tibetans were killed. Martial Law was declared for a year, until 30 April 1990, during which, hundreds more were killed and thousands imprisoned under Jiang's Beijing authority and Hu's local authority. Hu was later promoted to top leadership posts for his work.

In 1991, while crafting policy towards Tibetan Buddhists, Jiang's preliminary decree stated reincarnated lamas must be approved by China's central government. The decree was later revised and termed State Religious Affairs Bureau Order No. 5 in 2007, during the administration of Hu Jintao.

In 1992, Jiang's government formally accepted the 14th Dalai Lama's official recognition and the enthronement of Orgyen Trinley Dorje as the reincarnated 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, spiritual leader of the Karma Kagyu school. The recognition process was led by the 3rd Jamgon Kongtrul, who died in a mysterious car crash earlier in 1992. The Karmapa, along with the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama, are highly respected by Tibetans and considered to be living Buddhas. By 1999, the Karmapa escaped to India, afterwards pointing to interference by the Chinese government in his spiritual leadership and studies as his motive.

Also in 1992, 13 monks from Drepung Monastery were arrested on 12 May for protesting peacefully. Samdup was jailed for seven years, and in 2020, became the fourth former political prisoner to die from medical complications within the previous six months.

In 1994, a Chinese policy called "grasping with both hands" was implemented in Tibet, targeting Tibetan Buddhism and culture. It was credited with leading to the 2008 Tibetan unrest.

On May 17, 1995, Jiang's government officially reversed its acceptance policy of recognized re-incarnated lamas and of Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leaders, and abducted Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the 11th Panchen Lama, three days after his official recognition by the Dalai Lama. Chadrel Rinpoche and two others involved in the recognition process were also disappeared, then imprisoned. Months later, in November, Jiang's government installed its proxy Panchen Lama, Gyaltsen Norbu. The recognized 11th Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, continues to be forcibly detained in an unknown location.

In 1996, Jiang's administration officially banned all photographs of Tibet's spiritual leader, the 14th Dalai Lama.

By March 1998, the Central Tibetan Administration reported the Dalai Lama statement that Chinese campaigns of repression had spread beyond monasteries and nunneries, and that Jiang was undertaking "a deliberate policy of cultural genocide in Tibet".

In 2001, the Chinese government began persecuting and forcibly evicting nuns and monks studying at Larung Gar Buddhist Academy and Yarchen Gar in Tibet.

Christians
According to Human Rights Watch, Christians who met in private homes, including those involved in underground churches and house churches, and did not register with the authorities, were repeatedly detained, fined, or harassed by the police. On January 27, 1994, Huang Fangxin was arrested and labeled a “ringleader of an illegal religious organization” due to his involvement in “illegal religious” activities, which included organizing a gospel team.

Harsher punishments, including lengthy imprisonment terms, were imposed on those identified by the authorities as leaders of “illegal” religious groups. In 1996, it was reported that some Christians in Zhoukou, Henan Province, were so frightened that they dared not stay in their homes. Instead, they had to sleep and worship in the fields.

In August 2000, the authorities arrested 130 members of an underground Christian church in central China. According to reports, the family church group had 500,000 members and refused to register with the authorities. The founder of the church, Zhang Rongliang, was charged of leading a "cult" and sentenced to two years in forced labor camp in December 2000.

In November–December 2000, the authorities destroyed, closed, or confiscated about 400 unregistered Protestant and Catholic church buildings in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, alone, as a part of the most destructive campaign since the late 1970s.

Muslims
On May 18, 1996, state media Xinjiang Daily under Jiang's administration, published a commentary on the government policy, stating “Freedom of religious belief is not freedom for religion.” According to Ethan Gutmann, a China analyst and human-rights investigator, the Chinese government began harvesting organs from members of the predominantly Muslim Uyghur ethnic minority group in the 1990s. "Each year, about 25,000-50,000 captive Uyghurs go missing," wrote Gutmann. Other reports also concluded the targeted populations of state-sanctioned organ harvest include Uyghurs in Xinjiang in addition to Falun Gong.

2002–2012: Hu Jintao administration
Under the Hu–Wen Administration from 2002 to 2012, land redevelopment was used as a form of religious persecution, while the demolition of spiritually sacred buildings and sites was undertaken.

Tibetan Buddhists
In 2006, Tibetans were arrested after responding to calls from the Dalai Lama to burn animal skin clothing. Bonfires spread throughout Tibet as a form of defiance.

On 13 July 2007, the State Religious Affairs Bureau Order No. 5 was passed, requiring reincarnated lamas and religious institutions in Tibet to apply for permission with state bureaus so as to be considered legal.

The persecution of Tibetan Buddhists escalated under Hu Jintao, leading to the 2008 Tibetan unrest. The uprising is described as the biggest challenge to China's invasion since 1959. As unrest over Chinese persecution grew, waves of protests began, including street demonstrations, which were met with excessive force. A mass arrest of 280 monks at the Labrang Monastery was reported during this time, as was torture during confinement.

A farming boycott began in 2009 in protest for those people detained or "disappeared" into the CCP's custody. Civil disobedience became widespread, as all the monks in a Jomda, Chamdo province monastery deserted in June 2009 instead of participating in "patriotic education".

Acts of self-immolation began in 2009 at Kirti Monastery. In 2010, two Tibetan laypeople were killed while trying to stop a mass arrest of approximately 300 monks at Kirti Monastery.

In 2011, China's foreign ministry announced only Beijing could appoint the 15th Dalai Lama. A monk at Nyitso monastery, Tsewang Norbu, self-immolated after chanting "Long live the Dalai Lama" and "Tibetan people want freedom". The non-profit organization Free Tibet said telephone and internet services were subsequently cut to keep the news from spreading, and the monastery's utilities had been repeatedly cut. Author Tsering Woeser said that Chinese security forces surrounded the monastery on the same night of Tsewang Norbu's death.

2012–present: Xi Jinping administration
The Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party, led by Xi Jinping from 2012 to the present, intensified antireligious campaigns in the country. In 2016, Xi called for "improved religious work" by uniting religious and non-religious people, and emphasizing that members of the Chinese Communist Party must act as "unyielding Marxist atheists".

In September 2019, the UN Human Rights Council was told by the China Tribunal that the Government of China "is harvesting and selling organs from persecuted religious and ethnic minorities on an industrial scale". The tribunal concluded that religious and ethnic minorities are being "killed to order... cut open while still alive for their kidneys, livers, hearts, lungs, cornea, and skin to be removed and turned into commodities for sale".

Tibetan Buddhists
According to a report by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, under Xi Jinping, the widespread targeting of Tibetans and Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, together with the persecution of ordained Khenpos, nuns, and monks, escalated. Han Chinese settling in Tibet also continues.

Massive redevelopment projects, including railways, mines, roadways, dams, and shopping centers forcibly displace Tibetans and erode the environment. From 2015 to the present, farmlands and ancestral nomadic grazing lands are also being confiscated from Tibetans.

Reports state that administrators of monasteries have been replaced by police or by people considered government infiltrators, while military surveillance units have been installed at Kirti Monastery, Yarchen Gar, Shak Rongpo Gaden Dargyeling Monastery, and at other monasteries, along with CCTV cameras. Drongna Monastery was forcibly closed in 2013, and its chant master Thardhod Gyaltsen received an 18-year prison sentence in 2014 for possession of a picture and recording of the 14th Dalai Lama.

Some also express concerns that construction and tourism are eroding Tibetan culture. By 2020, after Chinese state-sponsored tourist agencies funneled people from inner China to Lhasa, reports stated that the tourists disrupted ceremonies, were disrespectful to Tibetan customs, and threw trash around sacred sites. Police support the tourists confronted by complaints.

Reports also indicate tourism is used to disrupt monastic life within Buddhist monasteries. Monastic residences of nuns and monks were demolished before mass evictions began in 2016 at Larung Gar, in 2019 at Yarchen Gar, in 2013 at Jhada Gon Palden Khachoe Nunnery, and elsewhere. For Yarchen Gar alone, almost six thousand monks and nuns were evicted from their homes. Between 2017 and 2018, at least 4,820 Tibetan and Han Chinese monks and nuns were removed from Larung Gar, and over 7,000 dwellings and other structures were demolished, which began in 2001. Reports indicate that nuns and nunneries are targeted for demolition more often than those of monks. Tourist accommodations and roads replaced the residences, or are planned for the sites where residences were demolished. Other monasteries are partially renovated for tourist accommodations, whose proximity disrupts daily life.

After the mass evictions, nuns and monks were bused away, and reportedly detained in re-education centers. Among others, an identified re-education center is named Ningtri. Reports include beatings and the torture of monastics and laypeople at re-education centers, and in jails after arrests.

In 2016, the CCP commenced a campaign to sinicize religion, which intensified after 2018. The sinicization of Tibet was condemned by the Dalai Lama as cultural cleansing.

The ethnic cleansing policies in Tibet were managed by hardliner Chen Quanguo, before his 2016 transfer to govern Xinjiang. A United States Department of State report in 2019 documented incidents of sexual abuse, rape, and gender-based violence at the Chinese detention centers.

In April 2019, the Chinese police-enforced ban against photographs of the Dalai Lama spread to remote areas of Tibet.

Under Xi Jinping's authority, the CCP's cultural and political "Sinicization" policies have been implemented in schools to indoctrinate Tibetan children with the CCP's ideology. According to United Nations Special Rapporteurs in 2023, Tibetan children are forced to complete a compulsory education curriculum in Mandarin Chinese as part of the CCP's policy of forced assimilation. Radio Free Asia reported that, in early 2024, the CCP intensified efforts to enforce a ban by going door-to-door to prevent Tibetan children from taking private classes and participating in religious activities during school breaks.

Christians
The persecution of members of other spiritual organizations is also continuing under Xi Jinping. Journalist Ian Johnson noted that officials have targeted Christianity, and Islam, with particular intensity because of their perceived foreign ties. In the Chinese province of Zhejiang alone, over 1200 Christian crosses have been removed from their steeples since 2013.

In August 2017, in Shanxi province, a number of Catholic priests and supporters were injured while preventing a government-owned bulldozer from demolishing a church-owned property—an old factory building allocated to the Church as restitution for a church-owned property destroyed in 1992. Local authorities unanimously decided the condition of the property met the criteria for demolition, as required by the city's planned transportation network project. However, the diocese complained they were denied an opportunity to negotiate, and were given no assurance of fair compensation. In February 2018, government authorities in Kashgar, "launched an anti-religion propaganda drive through local police stations", which included policemen erecting a banner proclaiming, “We Must Solemnly Reject Religion, Must Not Believe in Religion”.

In December 2018, Chinese officials raided Christian house churches just prior to Christmas and coerced their owners to close them down. Christmas trees and Santa Clauses were also forcibly removed. In 2018, the United Front Work Department initiated a crackdown on large outdoor religious statues.

The government of China continued to persecute Christians during the 2019 COVID-19 pandemic, demolishing the Xiangbaishu Church in Yixing and removing a Christian Cross from the steeple of a church in Guiyang County. In Shandong Province, "officials issued guidance forbidding online preaching, a vital way for churches to reach congregants amid both persecution and the spread of the virus".

In 2020, the Chinese government put additional regulations in place to restrict religious education and proselytizing.

Muslims
By November 2018, the Chinese government had detained over one million Uyghurs in what it refers to as "training centers" as part of a thought reform campaign, "where Uyghur Muslims are remade into atheist Chinese subjects" and subjected to forced labor. For children forcibly taken away from their parents, the Chinese government has established kindergartens with the aim of combating 'three evil forces' (separatism, extremism, and terrorism), and "converting future generations of Uyghur Muslim children into loyal subjects who embrace atheism". According to estimates from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, under Xi Jinping, thousands of mosques and Muslim religious sites were damaged or destroyed in China. The Chinese government has intensified its repression by using artificial intelligence facial recognition cameras against the Uyghurs, both outside and inside places of worship. Government campaigns against Islam have extended to the Hui people and Utsul community in Hainan.

Chinese officials did not acknowledge the existence of any sort of internment camps. The Chinese government states that Uyghurs are being sent to vocational training centers in order to prevent the spread of extremism and to increase their employability. Muslim prisoners in detention centers and internment camps have faced practices such as being force-fed pork. Prohibitions on fasting during Ramadan are couched in terms of protecting residents' free will.

In November 2019, the internment centers were described in the leaked Xinjiang papers.

Jews
The Kaifeng Jewish community has reported increasing suppression by the authorities since 2015, reversing the modest revival it experienced in the 1990s. The observance of public religious services and the celebration of religious festivals like Passover and Sukkot have been prohibited, and Jewish community groups have been shut down. Signs have been removed from the Kaifeng Synagogue, a historical site located on Teaching the Torah Lane that is now under strict surveillance.

Responses in the United States
On September 4, 2000, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom issued a release stating the "already deplorable" China's record on religious freedom had "further deteriorated," citing "reliable press reports" of religious repression against Falun Gong, Zhong Gong, Uighur Muslims, Protestant and Roman Catholic Christians and Tibet Buddhists.

On July 24, 2002, U.S. House of Representatives passed a unanimous resolution (House Concurrent Resolution 188) condemning the persecution of Falun Gong in China.

In June 2020, the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act was signed into law in the United States in response to the internment camps in Xinjiang. In December 2021, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act became law to ensure that American entities do not fund forced labor in Xinjiang. The law presumes that all goods originating from Xinjiang, where Beijing has established internment camps, are produced using forced labor.

In December 2020, the Tibet Policy and Support Act became law in the United States in support of Tibetan Buddhists' right to determine Dalai Lama succession.

In March 2023, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 2023, which would impose sanctions and penalties on individuals involved in state-sanctioned forced organ harvesting, particularly targeting the Falun Gong and Uyghur communities.