How China’s Xi Jinping destroyed religion and made himself God

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13 tonnes of hair taken from China’s Uyghur Muslims has ‘Nazi resonance’
Influential MP on human rights speaks of 'many distressing echoes' for Jews over China's 'brutal suppression' of Muslim minority, as communal figures call on the UK to do more
By ADAM DECKER
July 16, 2020, 9:11 am  2
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A senior member of an influential parliamentary committee on China this week spoke of “distressing echoes” for Jews in China’s “brutal suppression” of its Uyghur minority after 13 tonnes of human hair was found on a US-bound ship.

It follows a huge US Customs seizure of human hair products believed to have been taken from Muslim Uyghurs, more than a million of whom have been detained in vast indoctrination camps in China’s western Xinjiang province.


US Customs and Border Protection assistant commissioner Brenda Smith said the production of the weaves and other hair products found onboard the ship “constitutes a very serious human rights violation”.

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The news, together with the implication that hair is being forcibly removed from thousands of prisoners then sold, has horrified UK Jewish groups – including the Board of Deputies, Rene Cassin and the Jewish Council for Racial Equality – with some citing its “chilling and obvious resonances” with the Holocaust.

Alistair Carmichael MP, vice-chair (human rights) of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on China, said states around the world “need to hold the Chinese Government to account for their brutal suppression of the Uyghurs”, which is understood to be on an industrial scale, comprising 1,200 camps.


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“It is never a good idea to compare any contemporary incident to the Holocaust,” said Carmichael. “My fundamental rule is that nothing can be compared to the Holocaust. I know, however, that this report has many distressing echoes for those who know the history of that most dreadful episode. 

“Events in Srebrenica and Rwanda in recent decades should teach us that genocide can still happen and that no one is safe unless everyone guards against it.”

Carmichael, a Liberal Democrat and senior MP who served as Secretary of State for Scotland under the coalition government, has supported Israeli-Palestinian peace-building programmes and in 2018 spent a day with London’s Jewish community to better understand the issue of antisemitism. 

It is never a good idea to compare any contemporary incident to the Holocaust. My fundamental rule is that nothing can be compared to the Holocaust. I know, however, that this report has many distressing echoes for those who know the history of that most dreadful episode

Mia Hasenson-Gross, director of René Cassin, said: “A trade in forcibly removed human hair has chilling and obvious resonances. This is yet another terrible example of the systematic de-humanisation of the Uyghur Muslims by the Chinese state.”


Alistair Carmichael MP
She said the Uyghurs’ suppression already includes mass internment, “re-education,” slave labour, forced sterilisation, organ-farming and other abuses. 

“The Chinese Communist Party is engaged in genocide in Xinjiang, attempting to wipe out an entire culture, language and way of life,” she said. “It is time for the world to take a stand against such inhumanity. There can be no ‘business as usual’ with a government that abuses its own citizens on such a scale.”

Dr Edie Friedman, director of the Jewish Council for Racial Equality (JCORE), said the report “naturally rings alarm bells for those concerned with human rights and will arouse particular emotions for Jewish people given the Nazi resonances”.

She added: “The international community must call for a fully independent inquiry into this episode.”

Listen to the Jewish News Podcast on: The plight of Uyghur Muslims and EHRC’s report into the Labour Party  
Board of Deputies’ vice president Edwin Shuker said the news was “further evidence of the systematic persecution of the Uyghur minority in China”, adding: “We ask that the Government uses its position at the UN to raise these matters on the international stage, and with the Chinese government.”

Read more – Voice of the Jewish News: This moment hits our rawest nerve

China footage reveals hundreds of blindfolded and shackled prisoners
 This article is more than 9 months old
Video shows what appear to be Uighur or other minority prisoners led away by police
Lily Kuo in Beijing
Mon 23 Sep 2019 07.56 BSTLast modified on Mon 23 Sep 2019 18.50 BST
 Footage shows hundreds of blindfolded and shackled prisoners in China – video
Drone footage has emerged showing police leading hundreds of blindfolded and shackled men from a train in what is believed to be a transfer of inmates in Xinjiang.

The video, posted anonymously on YouTube last week, shows what appear to be Uighur or other minorities wearing blue and yellow uniforms, with cleanly shaven heads, their eyes covered, sitting in rows on the ground and later being led away by police. Prisoners in China are often transferred with handcuffs and masks covering their faces.

Nathan Ruser, a researcher with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s international cyber policy centre, used clues in the footage, including landmarks and the position of the sun, to verify the video, which he believes was shot at a train station west of Korla in south-east Xinjiang in August last year.

Much of the focus of international criticism of China’s far-reaching anti-terrorism campaign in Xinjiang has centred on the extrajudicial detentions of more than 1 million ethnic Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in internment and political re-education camps.

Q&A
Who are the Uighurs?
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The number of formal arrests and prison sentences has also increased. According to analysis by the New York Times, local courts sentenced 230,000 people to prison or other punishments in 2017 and 2018, as the campaign got under way. Xinjiang accounts for less than 2% of the country’s population but about 21% of all arrests in 2017.

Ruser said the detainees were most likely being transferred to prisons in Korla from Kashgar, where the crackdown has been particularly severe. The area is believed to be home to several re-education camps but fewer detention centres.

“It counters the propaganda offensive China is trying to show,” he said, underlining the treatment of those within the penal system.

China has been taking diplomats and select groups of journalists on carefully orchestrated tours of Xinjiang and has defended its anti-extremism methods, describing them as a model for other countries to follow.

On Sunday, Australia’s foreign minister, Marise Payne, described the video as “deeply disturbing”.

The video was posted on YouTube by an account named War on Fear, whose stated goal is to fight fear inspired by hi-tech surveillance.

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China footage reveals hundreds of blindfolded and shackled prisoners
 This article is more than 9 months old
Video shows what appear to be Uighur or other minority prisoners led away by police
Lily Kuo in Beijing
Mon 23 Sep 2019 07.56 BSTLast modified on Mon 23 Sep 2019 18.50 BST
 Footage shows hundreds of blindfolded and shackled prisoners in China – video
Drone footage has emerged showing police leading hundreds of blindfolded and shackled men from a train in what is believed to be a transfer of inmates in Xinjiang.

The video, posted anonymously on YouTube last week, shows what appear to be Uighur or other minorities wearing blue and yellow uniforms, with cleanly shaven heads, their eyes covered, sitting in rows on the ground and later being led away by police. Prisoners in China are often transferred with handcuffs and masks covering their faces.

Nathan Ruser, a researcher with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s international cyber policy centre, used clues in the footage, including landmarks and the position of the sun, to verify the video, which he believes was shot at a train station west of Korla in south-east Xinjiang in August last year.

Much of the focus of international criticism of China’s far-reaching anti-terrorism campaign in Xinjiang has centred on the extrajudicial detentions of more than 1 million ethnic Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in internment and political re-education camps.

Q&A
Who are the Uighurs?
Show
Advertisement
The number of formal arrests and prison sentences has also increased. According to analysis by the New York Times, local courts sentenced 230,000 people to prison or other punishments in 2017 and 2018, as the campaign got under way. Xinjiang accounts for less than 2% of the country’s population but about 21% of all arrests in 2017.

Ruser said the detainees were most likely being transferred to prisons in Korla from Kashgar, where the crackdown has been particularly severe. The area is believed to be home to several re-education camps but fewer detention centres.

“It counters the propaganda offensive China is trying to show,” he said, underlining the treatment of those within the penal system.

China has been taking diplomats and select groups of journalists on carefully orchestrated tours of Xinjiang and has defended its anti-extremism methods, describing them as a model for other countries to follow.

On Sunday, Australia’s foreign minister, Marise Payne, described the video as “deeply disturbing”.

The video was posted on YouTube by an account named War on Fear, whose stated goal is to fight fear inspired by hi-tech surveillance.

Since you're here ...
… we have a small favour to ask. Millions are flocking to the Guardian for quality news every day. We believe everyone deserves access to factual information, and analysis that has authority and integrity. That’s why, unlike many others, we made a choice: to keep Guardian reporting open for all, regardless of where they live or what they can afford to pay.

As an open, independent news organisation we investigate, interrogate and expose the actions of those in power, without fear. With no shareholders or billionaire owner, our journalism is free from political and commercial bias – this makes us different. We can give a voice to the oppressed and neglected, and stand in solidarity with those who are calling for a fairer future. With your help we can make a difference.

We’re determined to provide journalism that helps each of us better understand the world, and take actions that challenge, unite, and inspire change – in times of crisis and beyond. Our work would not be possible without our readers, who now support our work from 180 countries around the world.

But news organisations are facing an existential threat. With advertising revenues plummeting, the Guardian risks losing a major source of its funding. More than ever before, we’re reliant on financial support from readers to fill the gap. Your support keeps us independent, open, and means we can maintain our high quality reporting – investigating, disentangling and interrogating.

Every reader contribution, however big or small, is so valuable for our future. Support the Guardian from as little as £1 – and it only takes a minute. Thank you.

How China’s Xi Jinping destroyed religion and made himself God
Feb 03, 2020 08:59 am
How China’s Xi Jinping destroyed religion and made himself God
(NYP) – Catholic churches were torn down or denuded of their crosses and statues. Images of the Madonna and Child replaced with pictures of “People’s Leader” Xi Jinping. Signs posted outside evangelical churches forbidding anyone under the age of 18 from entering. The Ten Commandments painted over with quotes from Xi. These are just some of the ways that the Chinese Communist Party is persecuting Christians in China. But it’s not just Christians.
How China’s Xi Jinping destroyed religion and made himself God
Feb 3, 2020 | 0  |     

How China’s Xi Jinping destroyed religion and made himself God
(NYP) – Catholic churches were torn down or denuded of their crosses and statues. Images of the Madonna and Child replaced with pictures of “People’s Leader” Xi Jinping. Signs posted outside evangelical churches forbidding anyone under the age of 18 from entering. The Ten Commandments painted over with quotes from Xi. These are just some of the ways that the Chinese Communist Party is persecuting Christians in China. But it’s not just Christians. In China’s Far West, over a million Muslims languish in concentration camps — Beijing cutely calls them “vocational training centers” — while mosques are being torn down, religious signs removed and ancient cemeteries leveled.
Elsewhere in China, Buddhist temples are being turned into shrines celebrating Xi Jinping, China’s President For Life. His picture adorns the walls, his recorded voice booms out of the loudspeakers, and it is his “Thought” — not Buddha’s — that the monks are now required to meditate upon.

Not even the Taoists, China’s ancient folk religion, have escaped this new Cultural Revolution. Temples that have stood for over 1,000 years have been closed and ancient statues smashed, all on the orders of “Religious Affairs” officials. Perhaps some of those who are concerned about protecting cultural sites in Iran could spare a thought for the daily demolition derby now going on in China. A demolition derby that is about to get worse, a lot worse. READ MORE

Continue reading How China’s Xi Jinping destroyed religion and made himself God at End Time Headlines.
https://endtimeheadlines.org/2020/02/how-chinas-xi-jinping-destroyed-religion-and-made-himself-god/



https://nypost.com/2020/02/01/how-chinas-xi-jinping-destroyed-religion-and-made-himself-god/
How China’s Xi Jinping destroyed religion and made himself God
By Steven W. Mosher
February 1, 2020 | 1:38pm
Catholic churches torn down or denuded of their crosses and statues. Images of the Madonna and Child replaced with pictures of “People’s Leader” Xi Jinping. Signs posted outside evangelical churches forbidding anyone under the age of 18 from entering. The Ten Commandments painted over with quotes from Xi.

These are just some of the ways that the Chinese Communist Party is persecuting Christians in China.
But it’s not just Christians. In China’s Far West, over a million Muslims languish in concentration camps — Beijing cutely calls them “vocational training centers” — while mosques are being torn down, religious signs removed and ancient cemeteries leveled.

Elsewhere in China, Buddhist temples are being turned into shrines celebrating Xi Jinping, China’s President For Life. His picture adorns the walls, his recorded voice booms out of the loudspeakers, and it is his “Thought” — not Buddha’s — that the monks are now required to meditate upon.

Not even the Taoists, China’s ancient folk religion, have escaped this new Cultural Revolution. Temples that have stood for over 1,000 years have been closed and ancient statues smashed, all on the orders of “Religious Affairs” officials.

Perhaps some of those who are concerned about protecting cultural sites in Iran could spare a thought for the daily demolition derby now going on in China.

A demolition derby that is about to get worse, a lot worse.

On Feb. 1, 2020, new restrictions on all forms of religious activity came into force.

The “Control Measures for Religious Groups,” as the 41 new rules are called, deal with everything from the holding of rites and rituals, to the selection of leaders and annual meetings, to the hiring of staff and the handling of funds. All of these must be reported — in advance, no less — to the comrades at the “Religious Affairs” office for their approval.

Enlarge ImageThe demolishing of the Golden Lampstand Church.
The Golden Lampstand Church was one of China’s largest Protestant evangelical places of worship until police officers blasted it with dynamite on January 9, 2018.China Aid via AP
In other words, without the permission of the authorities, you can’t organize a Bible study. And if you do get permission, you’d better hold it in a Party-approved religious venue, at a Party-approved time, with a Party-approved leader and using the new Party-approved Bible, which contains quotations from Confucius and, of course, Xi Jinping.

No Communist directive would be complete without a Catch-22 and the “Control Measures” contain a doozy: “Religious groups must also report to the appropriate government authorities any and all other matters that should be reported.”

Translation: We can shut you down at any time for any reason.

The “Control Measures” are part of Xi Jinping’s New Cultural Revolution, one goal of which is to stamp out all religious groups that the Communist Party cannot co-opt and control. “A religious group cannot carry out any activities,” warns the new rules, “without registration with the Civil Affairs office and the approval of the Religious Affairs office of the people’s government.”

Some religious groups will never be allowed to register, no matter how innocent their activities. The Early Rain Covenant Church and the Falun Gong have already been declared to be “heretical cults” and their followers will continue to suffer arrest, imprisonment and, in some cases, torture. The Early Rain pastor, for example, has just been sentenced to nine years in prison.

Members of other groups are being forced to join existing Party-controlled organizations. In the case of the bishops, priests and laity of the underground Catholic Church, for instance, this is the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, whose leaders are handpicked Party followers.

But, like Mao’s Cultural Revolution, Xi’s copycat version has an even more ambitious goal. It is to extinguish faith in God altogether, replacing it with faith in the Chinese Communist Party and the Party’s own “small-g” god of the moment, who is Xi Jinping himself.

Enlarge ImageMao Zedong
Mao ZedongGetty Images
And it perversely intends to enlist China’s churches, mosques, shrines and temples into this effort.

The new rules order all “religious groups” to “propagandize the principles and policies of the Chinese Communist Party, along with national laws and regulations, to all of their religious staff and followers” and to “educate and guide all religious staff and followers to embrace the Chinese Communist Party’s leadership, to embrace the socialist system, to uphold the path of ‘Socialism with Chinese Characteristics’ . . . and to maintain the overall policy of sinicization of religion.”

If all this sounds like the Party wants to use religious groups and leaders to promote the official ideology and strengthen its own hold on power, that’s because it does. Any group that refuses to be subverted by the Party in this way will be declared heretical, and their churches or temples will be shuttered or torn down. Pastors or priests who refuse to serve the Party in this way — as junior political commissars, as it were — will be sent home or, if they resist, to prison.

As far as the “overall policy of sinicization of religion” is concerned, we know exactly what this portends. It is a policy of replacing the worship of God with the worship of the Communist Party leadership. Hitler and the Nazis attempted something similar in the 1930s with their Nazification program, which was an effort to turn the Catholic and Protestant churches of Germany into ardent supporters of National Socialism and the Nazi leadership.

That is exactly what the Chinese Communist Party is trying to do today in China to every Christian church, Islamic mosque, Taoist shrine and Buddhist temple in China.

The end goal is to one day purge them from the Chinese cultural landscape altogether so that the Communist Party and its now deified leader, Xi Jinping, can reign supreme.

Steven W. Mosher is the president of the Population Research Institute and the author of “Bully of Asia: Why China’s ‘Dream’ is the New Threat to World Order.”