In China religious organizations and sites for religious activities must register with the government in accordance with the law, which is the case in some other countries as well. Applications for such registration must meet the following basic requirements: a permanent site and name; regular attendance; a management organization composed of adherents to the relevant religion; clerical personnel for officiating religious activities or personnel with qualifications stipulated in regulations of various religions; management regulations and lawful income.
Government departments shall defer the registration or only approve temporary registration of religious sites which cannot completely satisfy these basic requirements or have prominent management problems. Government departments shall not permit the registration of, for example, sites for religious activities which illegally occupy land or violate the statutes of city planning, which have been set up without authorization or which promote superstitious activities, such as exorcising evil spirits under the pretext of religious activities.
Once a site for religious activities is registered according to law it has legal status and its lawful rights and interests shall be protected. If its rights and interests are infringed upon the organization in charge of the site is entitled to seek administrative and legal protection by appealing to the relevant government organ or taking the case to a people's court.
There is no registration requirement for, to quote from Chinese Christians, ''house services,'' which are mainly attended by relatives and friends for religious activities such as praying and Bible reading.
People's congresses at different levels, which are organs through which the people exercise their power, and the Chinese people's political consultative conferences at different levels, which are playing an important role in the political and social life of the State, shall supervise the implementation of the policy and laws relating to the freedom of religious belief. There are about 17, religious personages who are deputies to people's congresses or members of political consultative conferences at different levels.
On behalf of religious circles they participate in the discussions of important State and social affairs at the people's congresses and political consultative conferences, and offer comments, suggestions and criticisms, or submit proposals and motions relating to the government's work on religion. During the three years from to alone the Religious Affairs Bureau of the State Council heard and responded to more than 50 motions proposed by deputies to the National People's Congress and the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
China 's religious affairs are handled by the various religious bodies, their clergy and followers themselves. China 's religious affairs and religious bodies are not subject to any foreign domination. The Chinese government supports the management of religious affairs by the various religions themselves according to the Constitution and laws. The principle of independence and taking the initiative in their own hands in the management of churches is a historical choice made by the Chinese religious believers of their own accord as part of the Chinese people's struggle against colonialist and imperialist aggression and enslavement.
Following the Opium War of China declined to a semi-feudal and semi-colonial country. During this process Western Protestantism and Catholicism were used by colonialism and imperialism as a tool for aggression against China , and a number of Western missionaries played an inglorious part in this.
Some missionaries strongly advocated resort to force by Western powers to make the Qing government open its coastal ports, saying that it was only war that could open China to Christianity, and directly participated in the British mititary activities to invade China. A number of missionaries, serving as guides, interpreters and information officers, took part in the slaughter of Chinese civilians and the robbing of money and property.
According to Mark Twain, the renowned American writer, some of the missionaries imposed on the poor Chinese peasants fines 13 times the amount they were supposed to pay, driving their wives and innocent children to lingering death from starvation, so that they were thus able to use the money gained through such murder to propagate the Gospel.
According to these unequal treaties, Western Catholic and Pretestant missionaries could lease land for building their own places of worship in trade ports and enjoyed the protection of local officials; missionaries could also freely lease or buy land for construction and other purposes in the provinces; local Chinese officials must treat kindly and protect those missionaries who came to inland regions to preach their religions; Chinese officials must not impose prohibitions on Chinese who professed a religious faith; etc.
The Western powers gave their missionaries in China protection on the strength of the consular jurisdiction they enjoyed. Taking advantage of extraterritoriality some Western missionaries, backed by the aggressive imperialist forces, went to inland China to build churches and set up parishes. They forcibly occupied land, and bullied and oppressed Chinese officials and civilians. These missionaries even wilfully extended the extraterritoriality to Chinese converts and interfered in Chinese judicial authority.
In the period between and , some such cases occurred in China. On the pretext of these religious cases the Western powers imposed military and political pressure on the Chinese government. They put forward various unreasonable demands, compelled the Chinese government to pay indemnities, and arrested and executed innocent people. Moreover, they even launched aggressive wars on such a pretext.
In a case in Tianjin in alone, the Western powers compelled the Qing government to execute 20 people and exile After Japan invaded Northeast China the Vatican took a stand which was, in fact, supporting the Japanese aggression. It took the lead in recognizing the puppet Manchukuo regime set up by the Japanese and sent a representative there. After the victory in the War of Resistance Against Japan some Western missionaries stirred up hostility against the people's revolution among the converts and even organized armed forces to help the Kuomintang fight in the civil war.
After the founding of New China in the Vatican issued papal encyclicals several times instigating hatred against the new people's political power among the converts. While playing an inglorious role in modern Chinese history, Western Catholicism and Protestantism manipulated and controlled Chinese churches turning them into the appendages to Western religious orders and mission societies.
Under these circumstances Chinese clergymen and the vast majority of their followers had no rights. In the s among the 20 archbishops in China there were 17 foreigners and only three Chinese; in the parishes there were some foreign bishops but only about 20 Chinese bishops. Some Chinese Christians early on expressed their wish to cast off such control and began establishing their own independent Christian organizations.
However, in the semi-colonial and semi-feudal old China it was absolutely impossible for Chinese churches to maintain real independence and realize self-management. The founding of the People's Republic of China put an end to the era of semi-colonial and semi-feudal society in China , thus providing the historical conditions for Chinese Catholicism and Protestantism to become independent and self-managing.
In July , 40 leading figures from various religious denominations headed by Wu Yaozong published the ''Three-Self Declaration,'' titled ''The Way in Which the Chinese Christianity Works for New China's Construction,'' expressing the attitude of Chinese Christians who supported New China, and their determination to cast off imperialist influence and achieve the ''Three Selfs'' self-administration, self-support and self-propagation of Chinese churches. In September , 1, leading Christians signed the declaration.
Three or four years later the number of Christians who had signed the document reached more than ,, about two-thirds of the total number of Christians in the country.
Christians have since then adhered to the principles of the ''Three Selfs. The declaration was welcomed by the leading Catholic clergymen and other converts in all parts of China. Though the Vatican took repeated political actions of hostility against New China, the Chinese church reported the appointment of one acting bishop and two full bishops, selected in and , to the Vatican.
However, the Vatican refused to recognize them threatening to mete out extraordinary punishments, greatly hurting the feelings of the Chinese Catholics.
Since then the Chinese Catholic church has firmly taken the way of selecting and ordaining its own bishops and independently managing the churches. In religious belief Chinese Catholicism is the same as Catholicisms anywhere else in the world, while in church administration all the internal affairs are handled according to decisions made by the Chinese Catholic church independently.
In the past few decades the Chinese Protestantism and Catholicism have stuck to the principle of independence and self-management, which has met with assent and support from the vast majority of believers and enabled the church and its religious activities to develop soundly. Now the total number of Chinese Christians is 14 times as many as in Chinese Catholicism has parishes under the direction of Chinese bishops or priests.
While adhering to the principle of independence and self-administration, Chinese religions are active in making exchanges and contacts with their counterparts all over the world on the basis of equality and friendship.
China is always open to foreign religious organizations and individuals who are friendly to China , respect China 's sovereignty and Chinese religions' principle of independence and self-administration. China 's Protestantism and Catholicism have maintained friendly contacts with churches in many countries. In recent years Chinese churches have sent quite a number of students to study abroad and invited foreign lecturers and scholars to teach in China 's theological seminaries.
Friendly international exchanges are also increasing in the areas of China 's Buddhism, Taoism and Islam. The Chinese government has consistently adhered to a peaceful foreign policy of independence and taking initiative in its own hands, and is willing to improve the relations with the Vatican. However, such improvement requires two basic conditions: First, the Vatican must end its so-called diplomatic relations with Taiwan and recognize that the government of the People's Republic of China is the only legal government in China and that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China 's territory.
Second, the Vatican must not interfere in China 's internal affairs on the pretext of religious affairs. In the first place, the relationship between China and the Vatican is one between two countries. Therefore, only when the relations between the two countries improve can religious issues be discussed. The discrimination and persecution they have been subjected to have intensified in recent months to the level that it can no longer be ignored by the international community.
Chinese Catholics hold candles at a mass on Holy Saturday during Easter celebrations at the China, an officially atheist country, places a number of restrictions on Christians, allowing the legal practice of the faith only at state-approved churches.
The policy has driven an increasing number of Christians and Christian converts "underground" to congregations in private homes and other venues. It alleges that this practice of re-education is the largest mass incarceration of a minority population in the world today. The letter states:. Thousands are being held for months at a time and subjected to political indoctrination sessions. Reports have emerged of the deaths of detainees in these centers, including the death of a well-known Muslim religious scholar who may have been held in such a facility, and there are reports that torture and other human rights abuses are occurring in overcrowded centers secured by guard towers, barbed wire, and high walls.
Christians have also been subjected to various methods of discrimination and persecution in China. The treatment complained of includes the closures of churches, the ban on the sale of bibles online, the removal of crosses and the arrest of priests and worshipers.
Limiting Religious Freedom For All. This situation will only deteriorate. China recently revised its Religious Affairs Regulations. As a result, the right to freedom of religion or belief has suffered significant restriction. For example, the regulations state that citizens can enjoy freedom of religious belief but that no organization or individual may compel other citizens to believe in, or not to believe in, any religion.
While the provisions appear not to have any practical implication upon the enjoyment of the right, the empirical reality suggests otherwise. Indeed, such an argument has been used as a means to persecute in other countries.
First Amendment bans the government from establishing religion, and various U. China's Constitution says that citizens "enjoy freedom of religious belief. However, since the manifestation of religion is omnipresent in many societies, critics wonder why religious architecture and figures do not have the same level of presence or exposure in China. Does the Chinese Government secretly restrict people's religious freedom? The contrast could be attributed to the differences of cultural tradition and national conditions of countries.
It is widely acknowledged that the United States was founded as a Christian nation. At the beginning of the 21st century, roughly 78 percent of the U. Now it is about 70 percent, according to a Pew Research Center survey in The number of Americans who profess to have no religious belief has risen dramatically, accounting for The situation is different in China. Of the mainstream religions in China, Taoism is an indigenous religion, with a history of over 2, years.
Buddhism has been preached in China for nearly 2, years. Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism have individually and collectively influenced the Chinese people and the society.
Many Chinese go to temples to pray and worship the Buddhas and believe in fengshui, traditional geomancy principles now followed in other parts of the world as well.
They believe that to bring harmony and happiness, they must be surrounded by good qi, or energy. So they follow fengshui rules to build their houses and arrange furniture accordingly. But they do not see themselves as being religious.
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