Now, Xi Jinping is doing the same thing,” an elderly resident lamented. “During the Cultural Revolution, if you were even slightly disrespectful towards a portrait of Mao Zedong or the Little Red Book, it would be treated as a punishable offense. The officials threatened the believers not to publish the video and insisted the meeting venue be banned. However, the church’s members have video footage proving that the portrait was, in fact, secretly torn down by government personnel to lay the blame on the church so that it would be shut down. On December 24, government personnel from Huangzhuang, in Henan’s Jiaozuo city, arrived at a local Three-Self church meeting venue and ordered it to be shut down because the portrait of Xi Jinping had been torn down without authorization. Tearing down a portrait of Xi Jinping without permission can also be deemed a crime. “Now, the government is conferring the title of ‘gods’ on leaders!” one temple’s director said with a sense of helplessness. Video 1: A Mao Zedong statue is standing next to a statue of Guan Yu, a famous general in ancient China, displayed at the Temple of Lord Guan in Huangzhong township. Similarly, Sansheng Temple (literally, Temple of Three Saints) and the Temple of Lord Guan, (both in Huangzhong township of Yucheng county) were threatened with demolition if they did not erect a statue of Mao Zedong. It’s really ironic!” Mao Zedong statue enshrined at Xiaozhaolou Temple in Huangzhong township. Now, the Jade Emperor statue is inside, and the statue of Mao Zedong is outside. They demanded to erect the statue of Mao Zedong, otherwise will tear down the temple, which was just built for more than 600,000 RMB (about $89,400). The source added, “ Township officials in charge of culture and sanitation, and officers from the police station all came for an inspection. According to a source, the township government demanded to put up the statue of the CCP leader. On November 26, 2018, in Shaji township of Yucheng county, under the jurisdiction of Shangqiu city in central China’s Henan Province, a Mao Zedong statue was placed at the entrance of Mulan Temple (formerly “Jade Emperor Temple”). Monks at Wanshan Temple in Jiangxi’s Lushan city attend a flag-raising ceremony.
#Guan yu statue complex map full
In its 2018 annual report, US-based non-governmental Christian nonprofit China Aid points out that last year, the most significant change in China’s church-state relations was that “politics takes priority subordinates religion.” Making people sing the national anthem, raising the national flag, and hanging portraits of Mao Zedong and Xi Jinping in churches, as well as incorporating the State Administration for Religious Affairs into the United Front Work Department – these are all signs that the Chinese Communist Party ( CCP) is taking full control over religion. Statues and portraits of China’s leaders – former and present – continue to be placed in religious venues, in an effort to make them the only “gods.”
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