China chases ‘rejuvenation’ with control of tycoons, society
Since taking power in 2012, Xi has called for the party to return to its “original mission” as China’s economic, social and cultural leader and carry out the “ rejuvenation of the great Chinese nation.”
The party has spent the decade since then silencing dissent and tightening political control. Now, after 40 years of growth that transformed China into the world’s factory but left a gulf between a wealthy elite and the poor majority, the party is promising to spread prosperity more evenly and is pressing private companies to pay for social welfare and back Beijing’s ambition to become a global technology competitor.
To support its plans, Xi’s government is trying to create what it deems a more wholesome society by reducing children’s access to online games and banning “sissy men” who are deemed insufficiently masculine from TV.
Chinese leaders want to “direct the constructive energies of all people in one laser-focused direction selected by the party,” Andrew Nathan, a Chinese politics specialist at Columbia University, said in an email.
Beijing has launched anti-monopoly and data security crackdowns to tighten its control over internet giants, including e-commerce platform Alibaba Group and games and social media operator Tencent Holdings Ltd., that looked too big and potentially independent.
In response, their billionaire founders have scrambled to show loyalty by promising to share their wealth under Xi’s vaguely defined “common prosperity” initiative to narrow the income gap in a country with more billionaires than the United States.
Xi has yet to give details, but in a society where every political term is scrutinized for significance, the name revives a 1950s propaganda slogan under Mao Zedong, the founder of the communist government.
Xi is reviving the “utopian ideal” of early communist leaders, said Willy Lam of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. “But of course, huge question marks have arisen, because this will hurt the most creative and lucrative parts of the economy.” …
(ChinaAid—September 09, 2021) In The Politics of Inclusive Pluralism: A Proposed Foundation for Religious Freedom…, the latest book of Bob Fu, PhD., founder of ChinaAid, Dr. Fu states:
Under the CCP’s rule in China, the pattern of State supremacy and official orthodoxy persists. Any religion must adhere to legal State ordinances and operate within CCP religious policies. As the State seeks to propagate its own official orthodoxies, namely Marxism, Leninism, and the Thought of Mao, it only endorses these religions. The CCP considers all other ideologies and beliefs to be heterodox. According to Jason Kindopp:
The apparatuses of control include the United Front Work Department of the Party, the Religious Affairs Bureau of the state, and “patriotic religious organizations.” Church activities that are conducted within this sphere of control are called “normal religious activities” and are given legal status. Only eight major patriotic religious organizations* are allowed to operate legally under the CCP’s control.**
*These comprise: China Taoist Association, the Buddhist Association of China, the Three-Self Patriotic Movement Committee of the Protestant Churches of China, the National Christian Council of China, the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, the Chinese Catholic Bishops College, the National Administrative Commission of the Chinese Catholic Church, and the Islamic Association of China.
**Excerpts used by permission from Wipf and Stock Publishers,
~ Proverbs 6:16–19 (NKJV)
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