Imagine, within one generation, religion could be completely wiped out in the People’s Republic of China. Ponder that catastrophic sociological and spiritual reality.
Recently, President Xi Jinping decreed that the CCP must eliminate all deities, to make room for himself, as the one and only true god of the Middle Kingdom.
President Xi Jinping is following in the footsteps of his predecessor Mao Zedong. In fact, some have described Xi Jinping as the Mao of the 21st century, evermore the authoritarian strongman. Mao instructed his followers that children are the masters of the new society. The new society envisioned by Mao and now implemented by Xi does not include religion. As the newly installed Emperor for Life, Xi Jinping commanded that the CCP roll out his anti-religion campaign in 2018:
“We Must Solemnly Reject Religion, We Must Not Believe in Religion.”
In the Chinese Communist state, loyalty and homage to the almighty state remain the only permissible sect. Thou shalt have no other gods before me, according to President Xi Jinping. So, at his direction, the CCP is tearing down paintings and icons of Jesus Christ in churches throughout China, and quickly replacing them with photos of Xi Jinping.
The new China policy, issued as Regulations on Religious Affairs, which came into force in February 2018, states that “religion is dangerous for minors, and they are prohibited from participating in any religion-related activities, so as to help them establish a correct worldview, outlook on life, and system of values and form a healthy mind.”
On March 18, 2019, President Xi Jinping urged the importance of cultivating generations that will support the CCP leadership and the Chinese socialist system. Xi stated that this policy must start with schools. Thus, Chinese schools, as early as kindergarten, must ensure that even the youngest Chinese child grow with the “right ideas and thoughts” of communism and atheism. Immediately, CCP government agents began a massive countrywide dragnet to carry out this policy by wiping out religious practice and worship throughout China, and targeting especially, all Chinese children.
The damage is devastating and widespread:
- In the first half of 2018, a kindergarten independently operated by Beijing Agape Church and a kindergarten founded by Xunsiding Church in Fujian Province were forcibly closed down by authorities.
- In April of 2018, UCAN China reports that a priest in Hebei Province, stated that local authorities demanded that signs reading “Minors Are Prohibited from Entering” [be] posted all over China. This practice is also being reported in the Catholic churches in the Dioceses of Kaifeng and Anyang in Henan. The Henan government also directed agents to physically extricate minors who attended services in the Catholic churches.
- On April 1, 2018, Easter, during a Catholic church mass in the diocese of Zhengzhou, Henan Province, the local authorities rushed into the church and forcibly drove out the minors. Afterward, every Sunday following, police cars were parked outside the church and at least three enforcement officers were guarding, forbidding the churchgoers to take their children into the church. Even young children carried by their parents are prohibited.
- May 1, 2018, the pro-government Henan Province Catholic Patriotic Association, gave notice that any training activities for minors, including summer and winter camps, as well as participation of minors in religious services, should be immediately suspended. Churches that do not comply would be closed forthwith.
- In September 2018, in Henan Province, the Department of Education anti-religion propaganda machine now extends as a condition of graduation opportunities. Students must pass a test demonstrating their anti-religious knowledge to graduate. At Shangqui Institute of Technology, students were threatened by expulsion if they were exposed for having religious beliefs.
- By September 2018, the crosses of most churches in Henan province have been demolished. The total number exceeds 7,000
- The government has also forcibly and arbitrarily shut down kindergartens and primary schools sponsored and managed by house churches throughout mainland China.
- October 2018, World Watch Monitor, a religious persecution watchdog, reported that hundreds of Christian children in Zhejiang province “have been asked to fill out a form stating that they did not follow a religion” and “Christian children have sometimes faced ‘shaming’ incidents” for their faith. According to World Watch Monitor, over 300 children from two high schools in the region known for its strong Christian presence were handed a “questionnaire in class about faith.”
- In March 2019, measures were implemented to force students to report on any religious persons. Over 20 plainclothes police officers arrived at the grade six classroom of a primary school in Beijing’s Fangshan district to question each student about whether any of their family members are religious. Officers even tried to obtain the information by bribing the children, promising 500 RMB (about $75) as a payoff. The government is instructing children to snitch on their family and friends and accept bribes for reporting on religious practice.
- In early April 2019, the Suiyang District Education and Sports Bureau in Shangqiu city, in the central province of Henan, ordered primary and secondary schools to hold signing events, which pledge to stay away from religion. Other signing ceremonies were held in all 18 schools and kindergartens in Gaoxin, which warned that any student who believes in God would be expelled. Teachers and students were forced to sign their names on a large propaganda banner promising not to enter a religious venue. Then, the banner was hung on the outer facade of the school.
- Early May 2019, the State Bureau of Religious Affairs sent a supervisory team to Shandong province, reportedly to implement the religious policies that had been implemented in Zhejiang and Henan provinces, including forcing the demolition of crosses, forbidding children under 18 to enter churches, banning training centers in churches, and removing all Christian symbols from churches.
- August 2019, The Bethany Home for Children with Disabilities, located in Taiyuan, Shanxi, was founded by a Catholic nun in 1997 and has housed over 100 children. The Xiaodian District Civil Affairs Bureau unexpectedly visited Bethany Home and notified its staff that the children were to be sent to state-run orphanages because they were suspected of “illegally adopting children.” The authorities removed all the orphans from the only home and caretakers they had ever known.
- In August of 2019, throughout dioceses in China, churches received warnings from Communist authorities to prohibit holding summer camps. The purpose of this prohibition is to further disconnect children from any attachment to the Church, even recreational.
- The comprehensive 2019 China Aid Annual Report specifically recounts and documents the widespread CCP campaign of destruction of churches, persecution of Christians, and disruption of religious activities. Churches continued to be demolished by force or face demotion in Shaanxi, Hubei, Inner Mongolia, Jiangxi, Tianjin, Anhui, Hebei, Henan, and Jiangsu.
In China, no child is allowed in a church, nor are they allowed to participate in any religious activities. Furthermore, the anti-religion posse ambushes and swoops in on children housed in facilities, run by religious organizations, such as, religious summer camps or any quasi-religious recreation. To further impose its atheistic propaganda machine, the CCP also transforms schools into political re-education camps to brainwash children in anti-religion indoctrination. Schools operating as re-education camps demand that teachers erase all mention of God and religion in the curriculum and serve as surveillance agents of the anti-religion state.
To enforce the CCP anti-religion policy and “incentivize” its compliance, these ‘warped fanatics’ impose school tests to gauge a student’s true atheistic belief system. Students are required to pass atheistic exams to graduate on to university level.
The prophetic and chilling words in the religious persecution Open Doors 2019 China Report predicts that “we will lose the next generation of Christians. This is China’s war on children.”
The net effect of this onerous government policy is to wipe out all faith in China’s next generation. There are approximately 300 million youths under the age of 18 in China—300 million souls who will never be taught or know God. Under natural and international law every child is endowed with the inalienable and sacrosanct right of religious freedom. It is their birthright. Unless, they are born in China.
The scope, magnitude, and implementation of this draconian policy imposed upon this vulnerable population cries out for justice.
Tragically, the world remains silent and impotent as religion in China is eradicated by the CCP through ordinance after ordinance. Young children must watch the horror of the wholesale demolition and destruction of their beloved place of worship.
The children of China are denied their human right to religious freedom. The CCP is eradicating the religious legacy and family heritage of the children of China. President Xi Jinping decreed that this fundamental right to religious freedom shall be bulldozed into rubble. Thus far, the Xi regime is astonishingly successful in demolishing religion from cradle to grave.
Long ago, warnings were sounded about this catastrophe. The dire prediction was foretold by Bishop James E. Walsh, an American Maryknoll China missionary who was imprisoned by the CCP for 12 years from 1958-1970. Walsh witnessed firsthand that, “nobody has any illusion about Red determination to eliminate all religion.”
All that remains for the children of China, who have been banished by Xi, are the catacombs, where they send up their sighs, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears.
Elizabeth Yore is an international child rights attorney and Founder of YoreChildren. She is a coalition partner of Save the Persecuted Christians.