Xi and Mao replace Jesus and Mary in Chinese churches

[aussie_aussie_oi_oi]

The sudden order to remove the symbol of the cross from the roof and entrance of a village church in China’s Anhui province cited unspecified “safety” hazards. The notice, issued in March, was a shock to the church in Yongqing, eastern China, which had reportedly passed official safety inspections for the cross on the roof five years ago. The second cross had stood at the door of the church for over 40 years without any security concerns.
ChinaAid, a US-based group that advocates for religious freedom in China, alleged the order had been made by the villagers’ committee with no legal basis, suggesting it may have originated with higher-level authorities who wanted to avoid international criticism.
Party slogans and censorship.
It was one of multiple examples of oppression cited in a report last week by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), an agency that reviews violations of religious freedoms overseas and makes policy recommendations to the President and Congress.
In their effort to “exert total control” over religion and to “sinicise” Catholic and Protestant Christianity, the authorities have “ordered the removal of crosses from churches [and] replaced images of Jesus Christ or the Virgin Mary with pictures of President Xi Jinping,” the report said.
The Chinese government has also required “the display of CCP [Chinese Communist Party] slogans at the entrances of churches, censored religious texts, imposed CCP-approved religious materials, and instructed clergy to preach CCP ideology,” the USCIRF report said.
Its investigation pointed to a report from 2019 of a Catholic church in the eastern province of Jiangxi that was forced to replace a painting of the Virgin Mary with her child with one of President Xi.

Other similar instances have been recently reported by local media and human rights groups. An image from a separate church shows a photograph of Mr Xi at the end of one arm of a cross and Chairman Mao at the end of the other.
The report concluded that “every facet of religious life for Buddhists, Catholics and Protestant Christians, Muslims, and Taoists” was facing pressure to incorporate CCP ideology, and religious elements considered contradictory to the state’s political agenda were being eradicated.
“Under Xi Jinping’s rule as the paramount leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the government has implemented the coercive “sinicisation of religion” policy, which has fundamentally transformed China’s religious environment,” it said.
The communist regime has enforced controls on religion for decades, prompting a split between “patriotic” state-sanctioned churches and unrecognised denominations sometimes referred to as “underground” churches, which operate openly but with caution.
Restrictions began to intensify in 2018 under revised regulations for religious affairs which aimed to compel religious organisations to come under state control. Since then, informal churches and worshippers have come under more scrutiny, many have been shut down, and prominent clergy have been arrested. Prohibitions on all children under the age of 18 receiving religious education have been strictly enforced.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/ ... -churches/

[Doom]

Is anyone really surprised by this? This is exactly the kind of thing every sane human being on Earth said would happen if Francis' planned "rapprochement" with China took place.