China’s Communist Party is intensifying its crackdown on the Catholic Church, systematically removing Christian symbols and replacing them with images of President Xi Jinping, according to a report by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). The study highlights the Chinese government’s efforts to exert total control over the Church and other religious groups through a process of “sinicization,” which involves conforming faiths to Chinese culture.
The report alleges that Chinese officials have been ordering the removal of crosses from churches and replacing images of Christ and the Virgin Mary with pictures of Xi Jinping. They have also censored religious texts, forced clergy to preach Communist ideology, and required the display of Communist slogans within churches. The government has also established “patriotic religious associations” that churches must join, effectively subordinating them to the Party’s control.
Those who refuse to comply with these measures, including underground Catholics, face persecution and imprisonment under the state’s anti-cult law. The USCIRF report notes that underground Catholics have become a primary target of the government’s crackdown due to their refusal to accept government control over their faith.
Commissioner Asif Mahmood warned that even Catholics who worship within the state-controlled Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association are not truly free, as they must comply with the government’s strict controls and interference. “The Chinese government is only interested in instilling obedience and devotion to the Party, not protecting the religious freedom rights of Catholics,” he said.
The report sheds new light on the 2018 agreement between Pope Francis and the Chinese government, in which the Vatican agreed to cooperate with the Communist Party in the selection of bishops in China. However, the USCIRF document reveals that the Chinese government has consistently disregarded this agreement, selecting bishops without consulting the Vatican and disappearing those who resist government control.
Nina Shea, director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom, noted that Catholic bishops are particularly vulnerable to persecution due to their role in ensuring communion with the Pope. “Those who resist government intrusion are detained, banished, or prevented from exercising their ministries,” she said. The agreement between the Vatican and China, Shea added, fails to provide any protections for bishops who resist joining the government-controlled association for reasons of conscience.
The Chinese government’s persecution of Catholics is part of a broader pattern of repression against various faiths, including Uyghur Muslims, who are subjected to forced labor and other forms of oppression.
