(TibetanReview.net, Dec25’19) – China has called for a “comprehensive evaluation of the existing religious classics aiming at contents which do not conform to the progress of the times” and it has been understood to mean that the Bible and the Quran should be rewritten by “re-translation”. The order was issued during a meeting in Nov 2019, reported dailymail.co.uk Dec 24.
The order was given in November during a meeting held by the Committee for Ethnic and Religious Affairs of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, which oversees the ethnic and religious matters in China, the report said.
It cited China’s official Xinhua news agency as saying a group of 16 experts, believers and representatives of different religions from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China attended the conference.
The meeting was stated to have been supervised by Wang Yang, Chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.
The report cited the French newspaper Le Figaro as reporting Dec 23 that Wang had stressed that religious authorities must follow President Xi Jinping’s instructions and interpret the ideologies of different religions in accordance with “the core values of Socialism’ and ‘the requirements of the era.”
Toeing behind Wang’s call on the officials to build “a religious system with Chinese characteristics”, the officials have called the mission underlying Wang’s directives “the choice of history.”
They also claimed that by “re-evaluating” religious books, they would prevent “extreme thoughts” and “heretical ideas” from eroding the country, the report added.
