The founder of modern China chairman Mao Zedong.
China officially guarantees freedom of religion for major belief systems like Christianity, Buddhism and Islam, but party members are meant to be atheists and are especially banned from participating in what China calls superstitious practices like visiting soothsayers.
The party’s official People’s Daily yesterday said in a commentary it had not been uncommon over the past few years to see officials taken down for corruption to have also participated in “feudalistic superstitious activities”.
“In fact, some officials often go to monasteries, pray to God and worship Buddha,” it said.
“Some officials are obsessed with rubbing shoulders with masters, fraternising with them as brothers and becoming their lackeys and their money-trees.”
Chinese people, especially the country’s leaders, have a long tradition of putting their faith in soothsaying and geomancy, looking for answers in times of doubt, need and chaos.
The practice has grown more risky amid a sweeping crackdown on deep-seated corruption launched by President Xi Jinping upon assuming power in late 2012, in which dozens of senior officials have been imprisoned.
The People’s Daily pointed to the example of Li Chuncheng, a former deputy party chief in Sichuan who was jailed for 13 years in 2015 for bribery and abuse of power, who it said was an enthusiastic user of the traditional Chinese geomancy practice of feng shui.
“As an official, if you spend all your time fixating on crooked ways, sooner or later you’ll come to grief,” it said.
The People’s Daily said officials must remember Marx’s guiding words that “Communism begins from the outset with atheism”.
“Superstition is thought pollution and spiritual anaesthesia that cannot be underestimated and must be thoroughly purged,” it said. — Reuters
Related Links:
Leading the way in technology - ASEAN/East Asia
China is leading way with global AI revolution in full swing
Leading Chinese computer scientist inducted into 2017 ...
3D printing – the latest in heart disease treatment - ASEAN/East Asia ..
Chinese ideas make wavesMandarin is now rapidly becoming a global language
China will continue to make its contribution
Related posts:
China Wen:Serve the people well, aim for big accomplishments, not big titles!
Jul 2, 2012 ... The mission will be the last docking with the Tiangong-1, which was put ... Then, in a few years, China will launch a more sophisticated version, the Tiangong-2. ... Sourbes-Verger said further advances in China's space station...
Separating politics from religion is a right practice, not only in modern new China but also in western world. Religion and politics don’t mix. Worse still, if politics is messed up with race as this would lead to terrorism, even corruptions as happened nowadays!
ReplyDelete