Below are three selected articles from the website, bitterwinter.org, quoted in part without hyperlinks:
II. Eradicating Islam [3], from an article dated May 29, 2019:
III. Eradicating Christianity [4]. from an article dated May 18, 2019:
I. Eradicating Buddhism [2], from an article dated May 29, 2019:
In China’s war against religious belief, more and more reminiscent of the Cultural Revolution, even the country’s traditional religions of Buddhism and Taoism are not safe from persecution. Numerous temples have been shut down or destroyed, and religious statues have been forcibly demolished, sometimes by using explosives. Bitter Winter continues to receive shocking reports indicating that the campaign to suppress Buddhism is escalating.
Classified as a national 4A-level scenic area, the Bodhi Island Scenic Area, also known as “Buddhist Kingdom on the Sea,” is located in Bohai Bay to the southeast of Tangshan city in north China’s Hebei Province. As early as February 2001, the area was designated as a historical and cultural site protected by Hebei Province.
On February 15 this year [2019], the authorities sealed off multiple buildings on Bodhi Island, including the temples of Chaoyin and Chaoyang, on the grounds that government funds cannot be used for the construction of Buddhist venues. The authorities also ordered the monks at the two temples to leave the premises within one week.
Since the monks left, the sounds of the morning and evening bells and the chanting of Buddhist sutras that once echoed daily from the temples have disappeared.
The same month, a Buddhist temple in Yicheng district of Zaozhuang city, in east China’s Shandong Province, built at the cost of more than 10 million RMB (about $1,492,600), was also sealed off.
II. Eradicating Islam [3], from an article dated May 29, 2019:
The imam from the north-central province of Gansu agreed to talk to Bitter Winter on the condition of anonymity. The mosque to which he belongs is government-licensed, and most of the worshipers going to the mosque are Hui Muslims. Since last year, the mosque was ordered to raise the national flag and display Party policy propaganda signs.
...
The imam explained that mullahs, Muslims that are learned in Islamic theology and sacred law, are cultivated from childhood, allowing them to study the Arabic language and the Quran. “But from last year, the government started vigorously prohibiting language classes, not allowing people to study or write in Arabic,” he said.
...
With tight restrictions on minors studying the Quran and the imposed strict control by the Religious Affairs Bureau, the number of mullahs has significantly decreased. Taking the example of his mosque, the imam said that they used to cultivate more than 60 mullahs, and now there are only seven or eight.
...
The imam said that since last year [2018], the suppression in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region has been severe. “Domed roofs and crescent moon symbols have been removed from many mosques. The state has greatly hurt the feelings of the Muslim people. Now, the general feeling is that if this trend continues, the government won’t let us believe anymore, because China has a history of suppressing religious belief and closing down religious venues. The situation in Xinjiang is even more dire.”
The imam didn’t expand on the suppression of Muslims in Xinjiang since local police officers had warned him not to speak about it. “We are not interested in politics or political power at all; it is just about faith,” the imam emphasized.
III. Eradicating Christianity [4]. from an article dated May 18, 2019:
On Easter Day, a house church located in Binzhou city’s Gaoxin district of eastern China’s Shandong Province was raided by the police. The meeting venue was forcibly demolished, and three believers were arrested.
That day, a few believers came to the church early to prepare for celebrations. Unexpectedly, however, they were discovered by police officers on patrol. Soon, more than 30 people from Gaoxin district—including public security personnel, special police, the district’s mayor, the police station chief, and an electrician—arrived at the church. They blocked off the entrance to the church, prohibited pedestrians from passing through, and prevented believers from entering.
Special police officers, armed with guns, searched inside the meeting venue for the believer in charge of the celebrations, but to no avail. The police arrested three male believers, and dispersed the others into the church’s courtyard, to be watched over collectively. They then began raiding the church, and confiscated everything they found, including Bibles, furniture, and a piano. Shortly thereafter, the meeting venue’s electrical wires were cut, and the roofs, doors and windows were all demolished. The three arrested believers were later released, but the congregation was effectively dispersed. “Hearing the sound of doors and windows being smashed was both grudging and frightening,” one believer told Bitter Winter.
...
A Catholic believer in Fuzhou told Bitter Winter that at around 8:00 in the evening of April 21, [2019,] more than 100 believers were attending the Easter evening Mass at the church’s meeting venue in Dongcheng Apartment building. The police arrived and dispersed the believers.
How China is cementing its anti-religious agenda [5], from an article dated May 8, 2019:
At the symposium for ideological and political theory teachers held on March 18 in Beijing, President Xi Jinping repeatedly stressed the necessity of cultivating generations of talents that will support the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] leadership and the Chinese socialist system. This must start with schools, he said, to make young people the successors of communism, with teachers doing everything to prevent the spread of “false ideas and thoughts.”
Directed by their leader, schools and kindergartens throughout China are making sure that the new generation of China is growing imbued sufficiently with the “right ideas and thoughts” of communism and atheism.
In early April, 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, pledging to stay away from religion.
In Gaoxin town, under the district’s jurisdiction, such events were held at all 18 schools and kindergartens.
This blogger believes that China's strong-arm approach will eventually backfire because every person knows instinctively that he/she has Free Will and no regime is able to dictate a person's thoughts and beliefs, even if indoctrination begins at Kindergarten levels.
If China insists on spreading atheism, then it is going about it the wrong way. It should instead learn from Satan, by tempting people with all kinds of vices, hedonism, material possessions and mindless entertainment so that by spending all their time on and desiring of all things secular, people would set religion aside willingly and forget about it.
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