Communist party members in Tibet irk Beijing by engaging with religion
February 7, 2019
Taiwan News, February 3, 2019 – According to reports, the Chinese communist party is having trouble trying to keep party members in Tibet from engaging in religious activities and adopting attitudes sympathetic to local religious traditions.
The officially atheist communist party has been attempting to suppress Tibetan Buddhism for decades in order to eradicate the ethno-religious identity of the Tibetan people, however some of the local beliefs seem to be influencing communist party members.
Recently a whistleblower in the local government released video evidence of CCP members in violation of party rules on religious activities. The video footage has been crafted into a 45 minute video that will be broadcast on state television as an part of China’s far reaching “anti-corruption” campaign under the regime of Xi Jinping.
Party investigators from a commission established in Tibet in 2018 have identified 215 communist party members who are charged with “worshipping gods and observing religious rites,” reports AFP.
State backed tabloid the Global Times released an article entitled “Taking religious beliefs, sympathizing separatists violate party rules.”
Participating in religious activities in Tibet also counts as engaging in “separatist activities” since permitting or engaging in Buddhist rituals amounts to implicit promotion of Tibetan independence in the eyes of the CCP.
Those found guilty of betraying the official Marxist doctrine of the party will be expelled from the CCP, and possibly fined or imprisoned if they are deemed to be guilty of promoting “separatist elements” in the region.
Despite the best efforts of the communist party to eradicate religion and folk tradition, it appears such efforts have been far from successful.
The Global Times quotes a party member and an official at Tibet Television as saying the party must pay ever more attention to even the most trivial actions in order to keep party members from being “corrupted by wrong political ideas.”
An unnamed official from the Tibetan party commission is also quoted in the report, and seems to indicate a belief that the Dalai-Lama is somehow responsible for the lapse in party discipline.
“We must wage a tit-for-tat battle with the Dalai Lama and his group. If any CCP member has the wrong attitude on this subject, it would be a serious problem,” said the official.