(Nanjing, Jiangsu Province – August 26, 2024) The Chinese government is currently imposing public courses aligned with Communist Party ideology on religious institutions, including Christian seminaries and Catholic monasteries.
According to the official website of the Jiangsu Provincial Ethnic and Religious Affairs Committee (August 8), Jiangsu Province is carrying out the review and approval of teaching syllabi for some public courses in religious institutions.
The report states that experts from institutions such as the Jiangsu Provincial Party School, Soochow University, and Jiangnan University, who are responsible for drafting the syllabi, provided detailed interpretations of six public course syllabi: “Outline of Chinese History,” “College Level Chinese,” “Introduction to Chinese Culture,” “Introduction to Religious Studies,” “General History of Religion in China,” and “Introduction to the Community of the Chinese nation.” These interpretations covered the background of the textbooks compilation, innovative features, practical significance, and implementation requirements.
The report states that relevant leaders overseeing religious schools from the provincial “Two organizations of Christianity/Lianghui,” deans of various religious institutions, personnel from the Provincial Religious School Service Center, and members of the Provincial Buddhist Association were all participants. They engaged in in-depth discussions and exchanges with experts and scholars on the syllabi’s design, including class hours, teaching objectives, teaching methods, teaching content, key difficulties, and assessment methods, focusing on aspects such as ideological orientation, standardization, and completeness.
The Jiangsu Provincial Ethnic and Religious Affairs Committee also stated that the province has completed the drafting of all public course syllabi for religious institutions, saying, “This effort is an important measure to implement the Central United Front Work Department’s ‘Curriculum Framework for Public Courses in Religious Institutions.’” The syllabi are described as having made “a new contribution to enhancing the role of religious institutions in fostering talents who are proficient in both religious and secular knowledge.”
Jiangsu officials stated that the editing and review efforts for religious courses aim to cultivate a large number of qualified religious talents who are “politically reliable, knowledgeable in religion, morally exemplary, and helpful in crucial times.”
These efforts are part of the broader context of aligning with the “Measures for the Administration of Religious Institutions” issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs of China, which came into effect on September 1, 2021. The Measures cover requirements for education and teaching in religious institutions, including curriculum development. The real purpose is to safeguard the interests of the Communist Party rather than those of the religious groups.
In conjunction with this, promoting the core socialist values into religious institutions, churches, and into the hearts and minds of individuals is also one of the main tasks for the year of 2024 outlined in the government’s official “Outline of a Five-Year Work Plan To Further Advance the Sinicization of Christianity (2023-2027).”
These official claims are presented as efforts to rationalize, legalize, and standardize management. However, various regulations and measures are seen as corrosive to religious freedom and as invasive alterations to religious groups, including Christianity.
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