Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2003, Page 163
totalitarian religiopolitical context of Chinese treatment of religious minorities shouldn‘t be
ignored.
Whatever their ultimate origin, dissident sects in Imperial China were brutally persecuted.
Professor Scott Lowe writes:
In the coached, formulaic ―confessions‖ of NRM [new religious movement]
leaders preserved in official documents we can discern the motives that
government inquisitors projected upon these groups. Under torture, leaders
usually ―confessed‖ to being frauds who had tricked their followers into
seditious behavior in order to gain power and wealth. Many also confessed to
outrageous acts of sexual license and flagrantly immoral behavior. It is
significant that the charges brought against the leaders of Chinese NRMs
hundreds of years ago are virtually indistinguishable from the accusations
made today against modern ―cult‖ leaders in the mass media, East and West.
And of course, these same formulaic charges of financial and sexual
exploitation are currently being brought by the government of the PRC
[Peoples Republic of China] against the leaders of a wide range of NRMS.3
Much of what is now going on in China manifests continuity with pre-Maoist patterns.
Chinese Buddhist monasticism may never have fully recovered from the ―Great Persecution‖
under the Tang dynasty in the ninth century. In Dr. Lowe‘s view, ―The suffocating
regulation of monastic Buddhism since the founding of the PRC [Peoples Republic of China]
in 1999 might plausibly be viewed as a simple continuation of earlier patterns of social
control, though it must be acknowledged that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has
proven far more efficient and severe than any of its predecessors.‖4
Despite his Marxist veneer, Chairman Mao ―was very much a product of his culture.‖
Like his imperial predecessors, he believed in the almost magical power of
society-wide conformity and felt personally threatened by all ideological
dissent. Since religions are competing ideologies, providing alternative
centers of power and allegiance, they ultimately had to be eliminated. As an
exponent of a totalistic political system, Mao was incapable of allowing
religion to exist in a separate (non-secular) realm independent of politics ...
.[when religions failed to die out in a socialist context, as anticipated] ...all
public believers in any religion were subjected to re-education those who
continued to profess their faith faced imprisonment, torture and even death.
As the recent histories of Falun Gong, Zhong Gong, the Protestant Christian
―shouters‖ and other less well-known groups have shown, 21st century NRM
members still face re-education, imprisonment, torture and death.5
The Constitution of the PRC guarantees to citizens ―the freedom of religious belief.‖
―However, the Constitution rather pointedly does not recognize the right to engage in
religious practices or propagate religious teachings. Since the founding of the Peoples
Republic in 1949 several laws have been employed to restrict severely the outward
expression of a wide range of religious practices in Buddhist, Taoist, Muslim, Christian,
sectarian, and popular traditions.‖6
In the last two decades the PRC has more or less ceased to pursue Mao‘s goal of
suppressing all persisting religious activity. ―However, one can easily overestimate the
degree to which the police state is in decline the forces of control are still strong and have
recently demonstrated their power and the length of their reach.‖7 The commotion over
Falun Gong may even have somewhat reinvigorated the repressive control apparatus.
Registered religious groups approved by the Religious Affairs Bureau are allowed to operate
freely ―so long as they follow strict government regulation and engage in approved
totalitarian religiopolitical context of Chinese treatment of religious minorities shouldn‘t be
ignored.
Whatever their ultimate origin, dissident sects in Imperial China were brutally persecuted.
Professor Scott Lowe writes:
In the coached, formulaic ―confessions‖ of NRM [new religious movement]
leaders preserved in official documents we can discern the motives that
government inquisitors projected upon these groups. Under torture, leaders
usually ―confessed‖ to being frauds who had tricked their followers into
seditious behavior in order to gain power and wealth. Many also confessed to
outrageous acts of sexual license and flagrantly immoral behavior. It is
significant that the charges brought against the leaders of Chinese NRMs
hundreds of years ago are virtually indistinguishable from the accusations
made today against modern ―cult‖ leaders in the mass media, East and West.
And of course, these same formulaic charges of financial and sexual
exploitation are currently being brought by the government of the PRC
[Peoples Republic of China] against the leaders of a wide range of NRMS.3
Much of what is now going on in China manifests continuity with pre-Maoist patterns.
Chinese Buddhist monasticism may never have fully recovered from the ―Great Persecution‖
under the Tang dynasty in the ninth century. In Dr. Lowe‘s view, ―The suffocating
regulation of monastic Buddhism since the founding of the PRC [Peoples Republic of China]
in 1999 might plausibly be viewed as a simple continuation of earlier patterns of social
control, though it must be acknowledged that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has
proven far more efficient and severe than any of its predecessors.‖4
Despite his Marxist veneer, Chairman Mao ―was very much a product of his culture.‖
Like his imperial predecessors, he believed in the almost magical power of
society-wide conformity and felt personally threatened by all ideological
dissent. Since religions are competing ideologies, providing alternative
centers of power and allegiance, they ultimately had to be eliminated. As an
exponent of a totalistic political system, Mao was incapable of allowing
religion to exist in a separate (non-secular) realm independent of politics ...
.[when religions failed to die out in a socialist context, as anticipated] ...all
public believers in any religion were subjected to re-education those who
continued to profess their faith faced imprisonment, torture and even death.
As the recent histories of Falun Gong, Zhong Gong, the Protestant Christian
―shouters‖ and other less well-known groups have shown, 21st century NRM
members still face re-education, imprisonment, torture and death.5
The Constitution of the PRC guarantees to citizens ―the freedom of religious belief.‖
―However, the Constitution rather pointedly does not recognize the right to engage in
religious practices or propagate religious teachings. Since the founding of the Peoples
Republic in 1949 several laws have been employed to restrict severely the outward
expression of a wide range of religious practices in Buddhist, Taoist, Muslim, Christian,
sectarian, and popular traditions.‖6
In the last two decades the PRC has more or less ceased to pursue Mao‘s goal of
suppressing all persisting religious activity. ―However, one can easily overestimate the
degree to which the police state is in decline the forces of control are still strong and have
recently demonstrated their power and the length of their reach.‖7 The commotion over
Falun Gong may even have somewhat reinvigorated the repressive control apparatus.
Registered religious groups approved by the Religious Affairs Bureau are allowed to operate
freely ―so long as they follow strict government regulation and engage in approved
