10-13-2018, 10:43 PM
*** 14-Oct-18 World View -- China defends million-prisoner 'reeducation camps' and Sinicization of Islam in Xinjiang
This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
****
**** China defends million-prisoner 'reeducation camps' and Sinicization of Islam in Xinjiang
****
![[Image: g181013b.jpg]](http://Media.GenerationalDynamics.com/ww2010/g181013b.jpg)
Uighur people mingle in the old town of Kashgar, Xinjiang, China on March 22, 2017 (Reuters)
Since the end of World War II, China's atheist government has been on
a "Sinicization" program of all religions. Typically this means
brutal suppression of followers who display allegiance to anything not
approved by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). For example,
in April of this year, the CCP declared:
<QUOTE>"The core and soul of Sinicization of Christianity are
the Sinicization of theological thought. Only by the realization
of Sinicization of theological thought will there be Sinicization
in the true sense. Otherwise, the Sinicization of Christianity
will be empty slogans like trees without roots, water without a
source."<END QUOTE>
In practice, China's storm troopers in recent years have invaded
churches and torn down posters of Jesus and replaced them with posters
of Xi Jinping.
As has been widely reported, the Sinicization of Islam in has meant
sending millions of Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang province to
"reeducation centers," where they are imprisoned, raped, tortured, and
forced to recite Chinese Communist propaganda at the tops of their
lungs. When the existence of these camps was first reported, the
Chinese vehemently denied that they existed. But in the last few days
they've admitted their existence, but say that the camps are
necessary, for the same reason that they give for the violent
suppression of all religions: to prevent "extremism" and "splittism,"
and to promote ethnic solidarity and religious harmony.
In August, China declared a war against "halalization." Everyday
halal products, such as food and toothpaste, must be produced
according to Islamic law.
As part of the sinicization of Islam, the government is pulling down
mosques that have Islamic domes that look too much like Arab mosques.
All Arabic script must be removed. The mosques must look like Chinese
religious temples, presumably Daoist temples.
Books on Islam and copies of the Koran have been removed from souvenir
shops. Private Arabic schools have been forced to shut down. It's
also forbidden to have a long beard.
Although Islam is the main current target, the same kinds of harsh
measures are being applied to the other non-indigenous religions --
Catholicism, Protestantism and Buddhism. According Xi Jinping last
year, "[We] should adhere to the direction of Sinicizing religion in
our country, and actively guide religion to adapt to a socialist
society." Reuters and CNN and South China Morning Post (14-May) and Al Jazeera
****
**** Brief history of China's religions
****
Recently I've been doing my own research on China's teachings and
religions, and this is a summary of what I've learned so far.
As an imperialistic country throughout its multi-millennial
history, China's religions have always been heavily tied
in with war -- either wars of conquest or internal civil wars.
China's core cultural teachings, developed around 500 BC, are Sun
Tzu's The Art of War and Confucius' Analects. These
teachings tell the harsh rules for winning wars, and the harsh rules
for maintaining a "Mandate from Heaven" for a unified, harmonious
society. Insofar as they can be called religions, they are the
pro-government religions.
Daoism as a religion was a reaction to Confucianism. It
teaches peasants how to maintain harmony with nature without the harsh
Confucian rules, whether you're pro-government or anti-government,
and so Daoism has sometimes been the core of anti-government
protests.
Buddhism: As a religion imported from India, not indigenous in China,
Buddhism has historically been the most important vehicle for
anti-government protests. Subjugated people in particular have
adopted Buddhism, because in Buddhism all people are equal, and
someone who is evil in this life will be punished when he is
reincarnated in the next life. Major historical anti-government
branches of Buddhism were the White Lotus Society, Tibetan Buddhism,
and Falun Gong, all of which have been violently suppressed by the
government as major threats.
Catholicism has existed in China since the 600s AD. It became very
popular in China, thanks to Jesuit missionaries, but the Chinese
government has always considered it a major threat because it requires
allegiance to an outsider -- the Pope. Since 1949, the government has
been harshly hostile to Catholicism, and has demanded to control all
functions, including appointments of bishops and priests. So today,
there are two Catholic churches in China, the Chinese Catholic Church,
and the underground Catholic Church, with allegiance to the pope.
Chinese leaders fear Protestantism because the massive Taiping
Rebellion (1850-64) was launched by a Protestant convert who believed
he was the brother of Jesus. Since 1949, China has harshly controlled
Protestantism, even to the point of replacing worship of Jesus with
worship of Xi Jinping.
Islam: China's wars with the Mongols and the Turkic tribes in Central
Asia have been against Muslims. Today, the Chinese government has
opened "reeducation camps" for millions of Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang
province, and Uighurs are regularly raped, tortured and slaughtered.
Throughout Chinese history, all the internal rebellions or external
invasion have had as their underlying motivation a widespread popular
religious belief. Therefore the non-indigenous religions (Buddhism,
Protestantism, Catholicism, Islam) have been permitted only when
carefully (and violently controlled by the government.
Starting in 1949, China's government has controlled the non-indigenous
religions, but the control took a turn and became extremely harsh
starting in the early 1990s, because of two traumatizing events.
The first traumatizing event was the June 4, 1989, Tiananmen Square
massacre, a massive peaceful student anti-government demonstration
that China's security forces brutally repulsed, killing thousands of
innocent students, creating a bloodbath. Today, a Chinese person can
be thrown into jail for even mentioning the Tiananmen Square massacre.
The second traumatizing event was the 1991 collapse of the Soviet
Union. This terrified the CCP because they realized that the same
thing could happen in China, and the massive Tiananmen Square protests
showed the way.
So today Xi Jinping is terrorized by Winnie the Pooh, because he looks
like Winnie the Pooh, and he's terrorized by all the uncontrolled
religions, since they could lead to an internal rebellion. He fears
Islam because it might be used in an invasion of China from Central
Asia. He fears Tibetan Buddhism because the Tibetans have never
accepted Chinese rule since China viciously invaded the nation of
Tibet in the 1950s.
Xi Jinping and the CCP feel a special terror of the Falun Gong
spiritual movement. This is an offshoot of Buddhism that began in
1992 in reaction to the government's bloody crackdown in Tiananmen
Square. In 1999, when there were tens of millions of practitioners,
China began to arrest, torture, rape and kill practitioners. Human
rights advocates claim that hundreds of thousands of practitioners
have been killed for the purpose of organ harvesting -- to provide
fresh organs to be transplanted into other people. China's State Council Information Office and Union of Catholic Asian News and Council on Foreign Relations and US State Dept.
Related Articles
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, China, Sinicization, Islam, Xinjiang,
Chinese Communist Party, CCP, Xi Jinping, Winnie the Pooh,
Catholicism, Protestantism, Buddhism,
Sun Tzu, The Art of War, Confucius, Analects, Daoism,
White Lotus Society, Tibetan Buddhism, Falun Gong,
Tiananmen Square, Soviet Union
Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail
Contribute to Generational Dynamics via PayPal
John J. Xenakis
100 Memorial Drive Apt 8-13A
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617-864-0010
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.gdxforum.com/forum
Subscribe to World View: http://generationaldynamics.com/subscribe
This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
- China defends million-prisoner 'reeducation camps' and Sinicization of Islam in Xinjiang
- Brief history of China's religions
****
**** China defends million-prisoner 'reeducation camps' and Sinicization of Islam in Xinjiang
****
Uighur people mingle in the old town of Kashgar, Xinjiang, China on March 22, 2017 (Reuters)
Since the end of World War II, China's atheist government has been on
a "Sinicization" program of all religions. Typically this means
brutal suppression of followers who display allegiance to anything not
approved by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). For example,
in April of this year, the CCP declared:
<QUOTE>"The core and soul of Sinicization of Christianity are
the Sinicization of theological thought. Only by the realization
of Sinicization of theological thought will there be Sinicization
in the true sense. Otherwise, the Sinicization of Christianity
will be empty slogans like trees without roots, water without a
source."<END QUOTE>
In practice, China's storm troopers in recent years have invaded
churches and torn down posters of Jesus and replaced them with posters
of Xi Jinping.
As has been widely reported, the Sinicization of Islam in has meant
sending millions of Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang province to
"reeducation centers," where they are imprisoned, raped, tortured, and
forced to recite Chinese Communist propaganda at the tops of their
lungs. When the existence of these camps was first reported, the
Chinese vehemently denied that they existed. But in the last few days
they've admitted their existence, but say that the camps are
necessary, for the same reason that they give for the violent
suppression of all religions: to prevent "extremism" and "splittism,"
and to promote ethnic solidarity and religious harmony.
In August, China declared a war against "halalization." Everyday
halal products, such as food and toothpaste, must be produced
according to Islamic law.
As part of the sinicization of Islam, the government is pulling down
mosques that have Islamic domes that look too much like Arab mosques.
All Arabic script must be removed. The mosques must look like Chinese
religious temples, presumably Daoist temples.
Books on Islam and copies of the Koran have been removed from souvenir
shops. Private Arabic schools have been forced to shut down. It's
also forbidden to have a long beard.
Although Islam is the main current target, the same kinds of harsh
measures are being applied to the other non-indigenous religions --
Catholicism, Protestantism and Buddhism. According Xi Jinping last
year, "[We] should adhere to the direction of Sinicizing religion in
our country, and actively guide religion to adapt to a socialist
society." Reuters and CNN and South China Morning Post (14-May) and Al Jazeera
****
**** Brief history of China's religions
****
Recently I've been doing my own research on China's teachings and
religions, and this is a summary of what I've learned so far.
As an imperialistic country throughout its multi-millennial
history, China's religions have always been heavily tied
in with war -- either wars of conquest or internal civil wars.
China's core cultural teachings, developed around 500 BC, are Sun
Tzu's The Art of War and Confucius' Analects. These
teachings tell the harsh rules for winning wars, and the harsh rules
for maintaining a "Mandate from Heaven" for a unified, harmonious
society. Insofar as they can be called religions, they are the
pro-government religions.
Daoism as a religion was a reaction to Confucianism. It
teaches peasants how to maintain harmony with nature without the harsh
Confucian rules, whether you're pro-government or anti-government,
and so Daoism has sometimes been the core of anti-government
protests.
Buddhism: As a religion imported from India, not indigenous in China,
Buddhism has historically been the most important vehicle for
anti-government protests. Subjugated people in particular have
adopted Buddhism, because in Buddhism all people are equal, and
someone who is evil in this life will be punished when he is
reincarnated in the next life. Major historical anti-government
branches of Buddhism were the White Lotus Society, Tibetan Buddhism,
and Falun Gong, all of which have been violently suppressed by the
government as major threats.
Catholicism has existed in China since the 600s AD. It became very
popular in China, thanks to Jesuit missionaries, but the Chinese
government has always considered it a major threat because it requires
allegiance to an outsider -- the Pope. Since 1949, the government has
been harshly hostile to Catholicism, and has demanded to control all
functions, including appointments of bishops and priests. So today,
there are two Catholic churches in China, the Chinese Catholic Church,
and the underground Catholic Church, with allegiance to the pope.
Chinese leaders fear Protestantism because the massive Taiping
Rebellion (1850-64) was launched by a Protestant convert who believed
he was the brother of Jesus. Since 1949, China has harshly controlled
Protestantism, even to the point of replacing worship of Jesus with
worship of Xi Jinping.
Islam: China's wars with the Mongols and the Turkic tribes in Central
Asia have been against Muslims. Today, the Chinese government has
opened "reeducation camps" for millions of Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang
province, and Uighurs are regularly raped, tortured and slaughtered.
Throughout Chinese history, all the internal rebellions or external
invasion have had as their underlying motivation a widespread popular
religious belief. Therefore the non-indigenous religions (Buddhism,
Protestantism, Catholicism, Islam) have been permitted only when
carefully (and violently controlled by the government.
Starting in 1949, China's government has controlled the non-indigenous
religions, but the control took a turn and became extremely harsh
starting in the early 1990s, because of two traumatizing events.
The first traumatizing event was the June 4, 1989, Tiananmen Square
massacre, a massive peaceful student anti-government demonstration
that China's security forces brutally repulsed, killing thousands of
innocent students, creating a bloodbath. Today, a Chinese person can
be thrown into jail for even mentioning the Tiananmen Square massacre.
The second traumatizing event was the 1991 collapse of the Soviet
Union. This terrified the CCP because they realized that the same
thing could happen in China, and the massive Tiananmen Square protests
showed the way.
So today Xi Jinping is terrorized by Winnie the Pooh, because he looks
like Winnie the Pooh, and he's terrorized by all the uncontrolled
religions, since they could lead to an internal rebellion. He fears
Islam because it might be used in an invasion of China from Central
Asia. He fears Tibetan Buddhism because the Tibetans have never
accepted Chinese rule since China viciously invaded the nation of
Tibet in the 1950s.
Xi Jinping and the CCP feel a special terror of the Falun Gong
spiritual movement. This is an offshoot of Buddhism that began in
1992 in reaction to the government's bloody crackdown in Tiananmen
Square. In 1999, when there were tens of millions of practitioners,
China began to arrest, torture, rape and kill practitioners. Human
rights advocates claim that hundreds of thousands of practitioners
have been killed for the purpose of organ harvesting -- to provide
fresh organs to be transplanted into other people. China's State Council Information Office and Union of Catholic Asian News and Council on Foreign Relations and US State Dept.
Related Articles
- University of N. Florida and Pentagon cut ties with China's Confucius Institutes (30-Sep-2018)
- New book documents extensive Chinese infiltration into Australia's organizations (26-Feb-2018)
- Concerns grow over China's covert infiltration into New Zealand's government (16-Feb-2018)
- China-Australia relations plummet over China's illegal militarization of South China Sea (16-Dec-2017)
- China says that its economy is "sound and stable" (06-Dec-2006)
- China Prime Minister warns country becoming unstable (24-Jan-2006)
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, China, Sinicization, Islam, Xinjiang,
Chinese Communist Party, CCP, Xi Jinping, Winnie the Pooh,
Catholicism, Protestantism, Buddhism,
Sun Tzu, The Art of War, Confucius, Analects, Daoism,
White Lotus Society, Tibetan Buddhism, Falun Gong,
Tiananmen Square, Soviet Union
Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail
Contribute to Generational Dynamics via PayPal
John J. Xenakis
100 Memorial Drive Apt 8-13A
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617-864-0010
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.gdxforum.com/forum
Subscribe to World View: http://generationaldynamics.com/subscribe
