Informers ensure party members, gov’t officials in a Qinghai County stick to atheism

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(TibetanReview.net, Oct01’21) – China has deployed a large number of informers in a county in the traditionally Tibetan province of Qinghai to ensure that Party members and government officials, including the retired, abide by the country’s strict ban on them from engaging in any kind of religious belief or practice. The new measure followed the holding in Beijing on Sep 13 of the 6th meeting of the National Political and Legal Team Education and Rectification Leading Group, said Dharamsala-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy Sep 29.

CPC Politburo member Guo Shengkun, the leading group’s leader, who ​​​presided over the meeting had said party members must take the lead in implementing the second batch of education rectification campaign with higher standards and stricter requirements to ensure that tangible results were achieved.

In Darlag (Chinese: Dari) County of Golok (Guoluo) Prefecture this has meant deploying a large number of informers to ensure that Tibetan party members and government officials engaged in religious rituals such as going for a kora (religious circumambulation), using a religious rosary, digital prayer beads, or any other religious object. The ban also includes keeping photos of the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader.

The centre noted that last weekend, local authorities conducted searches in the homes of Party members in the county for photos of the Dalai Lama.

The guideline banning religious practices by the designated categories of Tibetans in the county was stated to be similar to a Code of Conduct circulated earlier this year in Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). The centre said the above bans were likely to be imposed in other parts of Golok County as well as other Tibetan prefectures outside the TAR in coming days.

The six-point directive being enforced in Darlag is said to required Party members and government officials to stay clear from all aspects of religious way of life. The list of bans was stated to include enrolling children in monasteries, inviting monks and nuns to perform liturgical services, and engaging with religious material online. The 14th Dalai Lama is not only required to be shunned but also denounced.

At the Beijing meeting on Sep 13, Guo was stated to have made it clear, “The role of the special agency of the Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision must be enhanced in order to thoroughly investigate outstanding problems in key areas, eliminate black sheep, and rectify stubborn diseases.”

And the Qinghai Party Secretary Wang Jianjun was stated to have told a provincial-level meeting on Sep 25 that the province ​must carefully implement the instruction of the ​leading group’s sixth meeting.

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