Official head of China’s Protestant churches says religions must be purged of ‘Western influences’

The senior Chinese official who oversees state-sanctioned Christian churches has pledged to rid the faith in China of any Western “imprint” and called for further “Sinicisation” of religion.

Xu Xiaohong, chairman of the National Committee of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM), a government-controlled body that runs state-approved Protestant churches, on Monday attacked what Beijing perceived as “Western influence”.

“[We] must recognise that Chinese churches are surnamed ‘China’, not ‘the West’,” Xu told delegates to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

“The actions by anti-China forces that attempt to affect our social stability or even subvert the regime of our country are doomed to fail,” he said.

Xu’s speech was scripted to demonstrate support for President Xi Jinping’s campaign to “Sinicise” religion. The campaign has sparked international condemnation because of intensified repression of believers, especially Protestants, Catholics and Muslims, who the party fears could become tools of foreign influence or ethnic separatism.