China is Advancing Sinicization of Religious Expression, USIRF Warns

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has warned that China’s ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is seeking to elevate China over God through its ongoing policy of Sinicization, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports. Sinicization aims to impose Chinese nationalism on religious expression and institutions.

In a report published the USCIRF warns: “Sinicization, or the complete subordination of religious groups to the CCP’s political agenda and Marxist vision for religion, has become the core driving principle of the government’s management of religious affairs.”

“They also forcibly eradicate religious elements considered contradictory to the CCP’s political and policy agenda with ultranationalist overtones,” the USCIRF report continues. “Government officials have installed CCP loyalists as leading religious figures, altered houses of worship with CCP-approved architecture, integrated CCP propaganda into religious doctrines, and otherwise criminalized non-CCP-backed religious activities, all to ensure the stability of CCP rule.”

With the CCP advancing an oppressive program of Sinicization of religious expression, China ranks 19 on the Open Doors World Watch List 2024 of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.

“The Chinese Communist Party’s goal is to make sure churches don’t fall out of line with official viewpoints”, the Open Doors international Christian advocacy organization explains in a 2024 website statement. “In the case of official churches, this means they are encouraged to praise and pledge allegiance to the Communist Party and its ideology. Churches that claim Christ as King are viewed with suspicion, especially since Christianity is seen as a primarily Western influence.”

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