A “historic” high-level gathering in Beijing tells religions that they should put the “Two Establishes” and “Two Safeguards” at the center of their sermons and activities.
What was presented as a “historical” seminar on “Sinicization” of religion was held in Beijing on June 26. In addition to top-level leaders of the five authorized religions, the conference featured high-level representatives of the Organization Department of the CCP Central Committee, the Ministry of Education, the State Council, the United Front Work Departments, the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Central Academy of Socialism, the China Tibetology Research Center, and all provinces and autonomous regions.
To understand what the seminar was all about, and why so many high-level bureaucrats dealing directly or indirectly with religion were summoned to Beijing, we should focus on the keynote speech, to which all the other speakers referred. It was delivered by Shi Taifeng, member of the Political Bureau of the CCP Central Committee and Minister of the Central United Front Work Department.
Shi said that “Sinicization of religion is the only way to actively guide religions to adapt to socialist society.” In a socialist society, there is no room for “non-Sinicized” religions. They are a threat to social harmony and progress and will be eradicated.
What “Sinicization” is has been clarified many times, and by Xi Jinping itself. It does not mean adapting religion to Chinese culture and traditions (if it was so, calling for “Sinicization” of Taoism and Chinese Buddhism would not make sense) but making religions subservient to the CCP ideology.
The conference was noteworthy because Shi used a comparatively new formula. He explained that a “Sinicized” religion is one that put at the center of all its activities, preaching, and sermons the “Two Establishes” (两个确立) and the “Two Safeguards” (两个维护). This goes beyond generic calls to follow Marxism and the CCP. The “Two Establishes” and “Two Safeguards” are literally everywhere in China and are at the core of all political propaganda. These formulas did not exist nor were they applied to other CCP leaders before Xi Jinping.
The “Two Establishes” are “Establish Comrade Xi Jinping as the core of the CCP Central Committee and at the core position of the entire CCP,” and “Establish the guiding position of Xi Jinping’s Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for the New Era.” The “Two Safeguards” are “Safeguard the core status of Comrade Xi Jinping as the core of the CCP’s Central Committee and of the whole CCP,” and “Safeguard the centralized and unified authority of the CCP’s Central Committee.”
The “Two Establishes” and “Two Safeguards” essentially all mean the same and simplify the ideology: you should believe that the truth is what Xi Jinping and the Central Committee say is the truth. Now, churches and religious organizations are told that this is what they are expected to preach weekly. Or else.
