Ban on religion is 'unshakeable' principle of Communist Party, cadres are warned
Zhu Weiqun rebutted claims that the lack of religious belief could be blamed for widespread corruption among cadres or any moral decay in Chinese society
Communist Party members must not follow any religion, a senior official has stressed – saying it is an “unshakeable” principle of the party.
In an opinion piece in Friday’s Global Times, Zhu Weiqun rebutted claims that the lack of religious belief could be blamed for widespread corruption among cadres or any moral decay in Chinese society.
The article came after the party’s powerful Central Commission for Discipline Inspection criticised some local party members for following religion and taking part in religious activities in the second round of graft inspections around the country this year.
”Communist Party members cannot follow any religion – this is the important ideological and organisational principle which has been upheld since the founding of the party. There is no doubt about it,” wrote Zhu, chairman of the ethnic and religious affairs committee of the Chinese Peoples’ Political Consultative Conference.
He said the “high level of consistency” between the party’s political platform and its worldview is a political advantage of the party, which contributes to its unity. “Without the foundation of the worldview, the mansion of the party’s ideologies, theories and organisations will all collapse. We could no longer be called the ‘Chinese Communist Party’,” he wrote.
The fact that the communist parties in Vietnam, Cuba and Russia now all allow members to choose their own religion should not affect the policies of the Chinese Communist Party, Zhu argued, as the Chinese party should make its religious policies according to China’s own conditions.
”If the stronger the religion is, the higher a society’s moral level is, then Middle Ages Europe under the influence of the Vatican should have been the golden age of human morality, and there would have been no need for the Renaissance,” he wrote.
Zhu also accused some scholars who advocate that party members should be free to follow religion of “preaching”, because “in fact they have already been converted to Christianity a long time ago”.