Say good-bye to 2020 and welcome 2021 with something reminding you every day that the persecution of banned religions should be supported—or else
by Massimo Introvigne
The CCP has launched an exceptional campaign to eradicate The Church of Almighty God, the largest among the groups classified as xie jiao (“heterodox teachings,” sometimes less correctly translated as “evil cults”), and continues its cruel repression of Falun Gong and other banned religious movements.
One difference between this and the campaigns of Chairman Mao’s era is the continuous attempt to elicit the citizens’ support (and, if possible, some sympathy abroad) for this brutal repression.
Bitter Winter recently reported about the proliferation of anti-xie-jiao theme parks in China. For the (Western) new year, another initiative is the massive distribution of anti-xie-jiao calendars. In Yancheng City, Jiangsu Province, 150,000 calendars were printed and distributed door-to-door.
The calendars remind citizens every day that those supporting xie jiao will be severely punished. But there is also good news: those reporting to the police on neighbors or co-workers who are members of The Church of Almighty God, Falun Gong, or other xie jiao will receive attractive monetary rewards.
The calendars are not new. Bitter Winter has learned that in some provinces, they had already appeared in 2015. But it seems the initiative is gaining momentum.
The calendars’ distribution offers additional evidence of a massive nation-wide effort to persuade Chinese citizens that what the world denounces as a shameful violation of human rights and religious liberty should be regarded as a product of the CCP’s superior wisdom and supported—or else.
Massimo Introvigne (born June 14, 1955 in Rome) is an Italian sociologist of religions. He is the founder and managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), an international network of scholars who study new religious movements. Introvigne is the author of some 70 books and more than 100 articles in the field of sociology of religion. He was the main author of the Enciclopedia delle religioni in Italia (Encyclopedia of Religions in Italy). He is a member of the editorial board for the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion and of the executive board of University of California Press’ Nova Religio. From January 5 to December 31, 2011, he has served as the “Representative on combating racism, xenophobia and discrimination, with a special focus on discrimination against Christians and members of other religions” of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). From 2012 to 2015 he served as chairperson of the Observatory of Religious Liberty, instituted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to monitor problems of religious liberty on a worldwide scale.
