The Chinese government is set to implement the new “Administrative Measures for Religious Clergy” in May, which will provide the Chinese government with the legal basis to strengthen the management of different religious groups and personnel in the country. The law will also expressly provide that Catholic bishops shall be approved by the state and the religious personnel shall “pledge loyalty to the Communist Party”. This is a violation of the “Provisional Agreement on the Appointment of Bishops” signed by the Chinese government and the Holy See in 2018, under which China should allow the Vatican to appoint bishops on its own.

Under the law, the Chinese government’s interference with the freedom of religious belief will be justified. It is likely to reignite the long-standing controversies over religious freedom and human rights in China. People familiar with the history of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will understand that the move to tighten control over religion in China is fully consistent with the CCP’s long-standing attitude towards and stance on religious affairs since the establishment of the CCP regime.

The CCP is atheist. Although it tolerates traditional folk religion to a certain extent without interfering excessively in it, many traditional religious beliefs, cultures and institutions were severely damaged during the “Breaking the Four Olds” movement of the Cultural Revolution. Many local temples and cultural relics were destroyed by the Red Guards and have not been able to be restored to their original state even today. Foreign religions such as Christianity and Islam, which do not originate in China, are even more strictly controlled by the CCP.

From the historical perspective of the CCP, Christianity has been an accomplice to the Western imperialist invasion and colonization of China. As for the Holy See, it remains steadfast in its relations with the Republic of China and is not swayed by any kinds of threats or temptations by the CCP. For this reason, the CCP has, on the one hand, been suppressing the religious organizations loyal to the Vatican since its establishment of the new regime. On the other hand, it has been encouraging some Catholics to establish the “Patriotic Church” association that is loyal to the CCP and willing to be controlled and managed by the government. All this is aimed at ensuring the CCP’s tight control over the religious affairs so as to prevent interference by foreign forces or even threats to the survival of the CCP regime.

This, however, has irritated the Holy See. Many Catholics who are unwilling to abandon their religious freedom have been forced to go underground to counter the Patriotic Church. Therefore, news about the CCP’s different kinds of crackdown on underground church activities has been heard repeatedly for decades.

In addition to maintaining its one-party dictatorship, the CCP, which rose to prominence through a mass movement, has always adopted the strategy of suppressing any organizations or people with leadership qualities who are not willing to cooperate. If someone possesses the charisma of a leader, the CCP will first attempt to bring him onto its side to make him part of the establishment. If he refuses to cooperate, the CCP will label him “unpatriotic” or “ambitious” and mobilizes the state apparatus and different social forces to attack him until he is willing to cooperate with the government or give up resistance and leave the country. The 14th Dalai Lama who fled China hastily, those pro-democracy activists in exile, and countless dissidents who are still in prison all bear witness to this trait.

In recent years, the Chinese government has actively cultivated the positive image of a “peaceful rise” and a “responsible major power”. In 2018, it held out an olive branch to the Holy See, promising a certain degree of relaxation of its control over religious affairs within China in an attempt to win the support of the Holy See. The move also seriously affected Taiwan’s diplomatic space. However, the “Administrative Measures for Religious Clergy” announced earlier this month stipulates that “the clergy must declare allegiance to the CCP”, “love the motherland” and “support the leadership of the CCP”. It even states bluntly that Catholic bishops must be approved and ordained by the Bishops Conference of Catholic Church in China (BCCCC). After the appointment, the bishop even has to fill out a form and file it with the State Administration for Religious Affairs as a record.

There has long been a sign of China’s move to bring religion under its strict control. The raging separatist movements in the border areas (such as the Buddhists in Tibet and Muslims in Xinjiang) have touched two sensitive nerves of the Chinese government: the maintenance of sovereign independence, and the maintenance of territorial integrity. After the strongly religious Falun Gong organization launched its campaign against the Chinese government, the Chinese government became even more determined to strengthen its control over and crackdown on religious forces within and without the country simultaneously. Through its administrative means, it has formulated various laws and measures for regulating religions, which give legitimacy to all kinds of actions aimed at strengthening control over religious affairs.

At a time when the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been raging across the world, is easing off thanks to a string of vaccination programs, the Chinese government has, through a decree, justified its domestic measures to bring religions under its control, ensuring that all religious organizations and their members will submit to the leadership of the government and minimizing all possibilities of religions swaying citizens or jeopardizing the stability of its rule. The move is, on the one hand, an attempt to speed up the stabilization of social sentiments, which have been destabilized by the pandemic. On the other hand, when the Chinese government faces criticism domestically and from abroad, it can blame the critics for “interfering in the internal affairs of other countries” so as to circumvent Article 36 of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China, which expressly guarantees citizens’ freedom of religious belief.

Even if the Chinese government continues to strengthen its control over religious affairs in China and interferes with religious freedom and human rights through various legal means, these actions will not have much negative impact on Taiwan. It is because the Chinese government’s amendment of the law is only an attempt to give justification to its interference with religious freedom in China, which has gone on for years. The amendment will not have a substantial impact on religious exchange activities across the Taiwan Strait. After all, important religious groups in China are already under the firm control of the government. Those that are harder to be brought under its control have gone underground, and it is impossible for them to “come out of hiding” and engage in cross-strait exchanges.

However, the Chinese government’s amendment of the law has also given Taiwan a tool to establish a positive image and expand its diplomatic space. In the early days when the Kuomintang government came to Taiwan, it also established a religious management system through legislation (which, for example, forced local temples to establish management committees so as to accept government supervision and guidance). However, the Taiwanese government still adopted a fairly tolerant attitude towards religious affairs. In recent years, when dealing with religious controversies (such as the outcry over reducing incense in temples over the past few years), our government has also been able to resolve conflicts with religious groups through peaceful negotiations and consensus-seeking on the basis of equal footing.

In China, human rights and freedom are constantly deteriorating, which is in stark contrast with the democracy and pluralism that Taiwanese society has painstakingly established over the years. I believe Taiwan will be able to win the support of more friends in the international arena, thus opening a new chapter for Taiwan’s limited diplomatic space.

(Tso Yi-En, Associate Professor of Department of Political Science, Soochow University)

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