Seven state-controlled religious organizations are legally required to assist in implementing CCP’s repressive policies.
China’s state-run bodies that oversee legally recognized religions are complicit in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violation of religious freedom by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), says the latest report from the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).
“The ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its government exercise comprehensive and extensive control over religion in China through a complex web of state laws, regulations, and policies, which the Party and government agencies implement and enforce at all levels,” the report stated.
The Commission said that central to the CCP’s institutional control of religion are the seven state-controlled national religious organizations — the Buddhist Association of China (BAC), the Chinese Taoist Association (CTA), the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA), the Bishops’ Conference of the Catholic Church in China (BCCCC), the Protestant Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM), the China Christian Council (CCC), and the Islamic Association of China (IAC) — and their local subsidiaries, often known as “patriotic religious associations.”
The report said that the CCP’s United Front Work Department (UFWD) and State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA) supervise these seven state-controlled religious organizations, which are responsible for managing religious affairs of the five officially recognized religions — Buddhism, Taoism, Catholicism, Protestantism, and Islam.
Followers of the recognized religious groups must register with the government and are subject to ongoing supervision and control by the state-controlled religious organizations, as well as by the government and CCP.
“Authorities often target for repression independent groups, such as Protestant house churches and underground Catholics, that have refused to join these officially recognized religious organizations,” the report stated.
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