President Xi Jinping of China held a top-level meeting on managing religion in the country. Xi warned the country to be on the lookout for foreign infiltration using religion to spread extremist ideology.
As reported by the South China Morning Post, Xi believes that religious groups should merge religious doctrines with the Chinese culture. The Chinese president also said these religions should abide by Chinese laws and regulations and also devote themselves to the country's reform. Moreover, religions should open up the drive to socialist modernization in order to contribute to the realization of the Chinese dream of national transformation.
The Chinese government has clarified that it protects all forms of religion but it keeps a close eye on religious activities and only allows officially recognized religious institutions to operate due to the growing influence of the Islamic religion in the far west region of Xianjiang as per Reuters.
The region has seen hundreds of people being killed because of the chaos between the Muslim Uighur community and the majority of Han Chinese. Government officials have already increased the regulations on religious observance which include the banning of veils and beards.
On the other hand, Chinese Christians have also been given limits on their activities particularly in churches located in coastal Zhejiang province. As reported by ABC News, Chinese authorities in eastern Zhejiang has been destroying down church crosses and outward symbols of Christian faith over the past two years due to violations of building codes.
Critics somehow believe that the fast growth of Christian groups as well as the increasing contacts of Chinese churches to foreign supporters have made the Communist Party nervous. The demolition job over the Christian faith has resulted in a protest by the city of Wenzhou and Zhenjiang in 2014.
Christian pastors were also investigated by the Chinese authorities for allegedly embezzling public funds following pastors' opposition to the removal of the crosses.
