(TibetanReview.net, Sep30’25) – Chinese President Xi Jinping has on Sep 29 called for further enactment of law and regulation, as well as stricter law enforcement for religious affairs in a push to sinicize religions and thereby ensure ethnic and social harmony in the country, reported the scmp.com Sep 30, citing state media.
“[We must] enhance relevant laws and policies, carry out in-depth legal publicity and education, and implement strict law enforcement,” Xi has said while presiding over a group study session of the ruling Communist Party’s Politburo study session.
He has said continuously promoting the sinicization of religions – a term used by the ruling party to describe efforts to adapt all religions in China to the party-state’s political and cultural orientations – was “the only way” for religious, ethnic and social harmony, and the long-term stability of the country.
Xi has also stressed that working to inspire religious figures to “take the initiative and reform themselves” was crucial to the long-term integration goal.
He has emphasized, as reported by the state news agency Xinhua, that China’s religious leaders should be better “guided” to embody Chinese characteristics in religious doctrines, rules, management systems, rituals and customs, as well as improve their “self-education, self-management and self-discipline”.
Religions in China could only be passed down in a healthy manner by always having their roots in Chinese culture, he has emphasized.
China’s National People’s Congress is presently reviewing two legislative proposals to ramp up a drive for further ethnic integration through the use of standard Chinese – both the spoken and written language – among minority groups.
The draft Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress and the revised draft of the Law on the Standard Spoken and Written Chinese Language were submitted to the NPC Standing Committee for deliberation earlier this month. Both were listed among the priorities of the top legislature, the report noted.
Earlier, in 2017, China revised its Regulations on Religious Affairs to explicitly ban all organisations and individuals from using religion to carry out activities that could endanger national security or support extremism. The revisions also banned preaching or the establishment of religious organisations in schools, and blocked religious groups from accepting donations from overseas.
Xi made similar calls for the sinicization of religions in both his trip to Tibet last month and to Xinjiang earlier this month. On both visits, he became the first sitting Chinese president to attend events celebrating the founding of those autonomous regions, the report noted.
The legal drive is stated to be part of the concept of “comprehensive and strict governance over religious affairs” tabled at the National Religious Works Conference chaired by Xi in Dec 2021.