Order No. 19 that came into force on September 1 negatively affects all Chinese territory and all religions. But it is even worse for Tibet and other occupied regions.

by Arya Tsewang Gyalpo

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership has announced that  “Order No.19,” “Administrative Measures for Religious Activity Venues,” has started being implemented from September 1, 2023. This is another CCP’s heinous and lethal move to subjugate and gain control over the religious institutions in China and the China-occupied regions of Tibet, East Turkestan (Ch. Xinjiang), and Southern Mongolia (Ch. Inner Mongolia). It is perhaps the last deadly corrosive sword used to annihilate and smear the fundamental principles of all religions with Communist ideology.

The new decree has ten chapters with seventy-three articles and numerous sub-clauses and notes. These articles are no more than restrictive barbed wires, under the guise of national security and public safety, to obstruct and undermine the free practice of religions and religious education in the country. The ten chapters are 1) General Provisions; 2) Establishment Approval and Registration; 3) Management Organization; 4) Personal Management; 5) Management of Religious Activities; 6) Construction Management; 7) Safety Management; 8) Supervision and Management; 9) Legal Liability; and 10) Final Provisions.

Article 1 of Order19 states that the measures are formulated in accordance with the Chinese Constitution “to protect normal religious activities, and safeguard the lawful rights and interests of places of religious activity and believing citizens.”|

However, many of the articles under the ten chapters contradict article 36 of the Chinese Constitution where freedom to practice religions is theoretically granted. Therefore, the very article 1 of Order 19 is a technical faux pas at the outset. Let us look at some chapters and articles more closely.

Article 3 of the Order clearly stands out in betraying what the CCP leadership has really in mind. “Places of religious activity shall uphold the leadership of the CCP and the socialist system, thoroughly implement Xi Jinping’s ideology of socialism with Chinese characteristics for the new era, abide by the Constitution, laws, rules and regulations, and relevant provisions on the management of religious affairs, practice core socialist values, and adhere to the directions of Sinicization of China’s religions.”

The five major religions recognized by China are Buddhism, Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam, and Taoism. Till now, China has used various means and pretentious laws to crush religious bodies in China, Tibet, East Turkestan, Southern Mongolia, and Hong Kong depending on the circumstances in the regions. Now with this Order, it aims to acquire blanket authority and justification to clamp down on any religion anywhere with impunity. Here China has very boldly and openly made it clear and mandatory for all religions to adopt “Xi Jinping’s ideology of socialism with Chinese characteristics” in their respective religious discourses. This is blasphemous and totally unacceptable!

Where is religious freedom if the religious bodies are forced to assimilate and adopt the ideology of an individual or a system that does not believe in religion at all? How does article 36 of the Chinese Constitution govern this? Is the CCP leadership above the Constitution? These are some pertinent questions the CCP leadership must answer.

Chapter two of the Order, “Establishment Approval and Registration,” includes sixteen articles with more than twenty sub-clauses. It has made the establishment and registration of any monastery, temple, church, or mosque a very fastidious and confusing task. The need to involve local and provincial religious groups, the formation of the management organization through “democratic consultation,”and the identification of member and religious teachers are all complicated tasks. The applicants are left at the mercy of the CCP cadres in the Religious Affairs Department assigned to monitor the issuance of the Certificate of Registration of Place of Religious Activity.

Article 16 states, “The places of religious activity shall not be named after churches, sects, or persons.” But it is very common, especially in Buddhism, to name a monastery or temple after some old ancient seats of learning, the school it is associated with, or its precious teachers. So, this article is a deliberate attempt on the part of the CCP leadership to harass the religious practitioners and to deter them from establishing places of worship.

Article 24 about “Management Organization” is very ambiguous, tricky, and open to abuse and misinterpretation. The purpose of article 27, stating that the members of the management organization of a place of religious activity shall be mainland residents of Chinese nationality, is confusing and irrelevant.

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Arya Tsewang Gyalpo is the Representative of the Liaison Office of H.H. the Dalai Lama for Japan and East Asia. He is the former Secretary of the Department of Information and International Relations (DIIR) and the former Director of the Tibet Policy Institute of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) in Dharamsala, India. Disclaimer: The views expressed above are his own.