China’s Religious Freedom Threatened by “Red Tours”
(Sichuan – December 31, 2024) The religious freedom rights of Chinese Catholic believers are increasingly being infringed upon by the Chinese Communist Party’s campaign to “sinicize religion.” Recently, the Chinese Communist Party, through its subordinate organizations, has pushed Catholic dioceses to organize “Red Tours” to express gratitude for the revolution led by the Chinese Communist Party. These activities are systematically implemented from the top down.
In October and November, the Yibin Diocese of Sichuan Province led a group of 39 individuals, including all priests, nuns, and “grassroots patriotic association leaders,” on a “Red Tour to Express Gratitude to the Party.”
Revolutionary Sites Highlighted in Red Tours
According to official Catholic sources with ties to the Chinese government, the Catholic delegation visited sites associated with CCP history, including the Nanchang August 1st Uprising Memorial Hall, the Jinggangshan Revolutionary Martyrs Memorial Hall, the Red Army Mint, and the former site of the Lushan Conference in Jiangxi Province.
The report stated that “by listening to explanations of revolutionary deeds on-site, watching patriotic education documentaries, and laying wreaths for revolutionary martyrs, the delegation gained a deeper understanding of the great motherland, the Chinese nation, Chinese culture, the Communist Party of China, and socialism with Chinese characteristics.”
The delegation, led by Bishop Peter Luo Xuegang of the Yibin Diocese, also visited multiple Catholic churches in China “to promote the process of sinicization.” The diocese highly praised the activity, stating, “All participants believed that this ‘Red Tour to Express Gratitude to the Party’ was rich in revolutionary spirit and cultural significance and found it deeply rewarding.”
Broader Agenda of Sinicization via Red Tours
They affirmed that in their future work, they would continue to uphold and carry forward the fine tradition of patriotism and religious devotion, strengthen the “five identifications,” solidify the direction of sinicization of Catholicism in China, and “listen to the Party, feel grateful to the Party, and follow the Party.”
This “Red Tour” event, expressing gratitude for the Communist Party’s blessings, took place shortly after the renewal of the secret China-Vatican agreement.
Jinggangshan holds significant ties to the Chinese Communist Party’s revolutionary history. In the 1920s, early Party leaders established the first revolutionary base there, launching an armed struggle that eventually led to nationwide victory. In 1994, it was designated as a national patriotic education base. Religious figures visiting Jinggangshan carry profound implications, symbolizing alignment with the bloodshed and revolutionary warfare that marked China’s civil war. During over seventy years of CCP’s rule, its political campaigns have resulted in the unnatural deaths of an estimated 80 million people, inflicting immense suffering on the nation.
The term “red” has long been associated with revolutionary movements. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Marxists adopted “red” as a symbol of the working class and proletarian revolution, representing struggle, fervor, and sacrifice. The CCP has extensively utilized red as a symbol through the red flag, the Red Army, red revolutionary bases, and red tourism to foster a sense of identity and solidarity among the masses. These efforts have solidified red as the Party’s emblematic color, making it one of its most enduring and well-known symbols.
The CCP’s goal is to imbue Catholicism with its ideological influence. These so-called “red tourism” activities have systematically spread across major Catholic dioceses.
In Wenzhou, the Catholic “Red Tour” seminar included visits to three CCP-designated patriotic revolutionary education bases: Wenzhou, Xibaipo, and Yan’an.
Catholic Delegation Embarks on Red Tours to Honor CCP Legacy
Similarly, in November, Bishop Yang Xiaoting of the Yulin Diocese in Shaanxi Province led a delegation to Jiangxi’s Jinggangshan and Hunan’s Shaoshan for patriotic education and training programs on Sinicization of Catholicism.
The delegation paid homage to the CCP’s revolutionary “cradle” in Jinggangshan and Shaoshan, visiting Mao Zedong’s former residence, venerating Mao’s statue, collectively laying wreaths, and performing a ceremonial triple bow to honor Mao’s legacy.
The political slogans accompanying these red tours—such as “Follow the Party, Be grateful to the Party, Walk with the Party”—along with rituals like bowing and offering flowers, blatantly exhibit the worship of an atheistic political party and adulation of revolutionary leaders. Such practices starkly contradict Catholic doctrine.
The Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association’s Role in Sinicization
The Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, a fervent collaborator of the CCP’s United Front Work Department under the Central Propaganda Department, has been under direct control of the propaganda department since 2018. These activities are largely orchestrated or endorsed by this department, reflecting a deliberate effort by the CCP to bring Catholic communities firmly under government control.
Under the influence of the Chinese regime’s power, the so-called “Sinicization of Religion” promoted by the United Front strategy is, in reality, the “Redification” or “Communist Party-ification” of religion. In essence, the CCP and the Chinese state are inseparably intertwined; the governance model adopted by the CCP is a “Party-State” system where the state is the Party, and the Party is the state, with actual state power firmly in the hands of the Party. The concept of Sinicization of religion is thus a deceptive political slogan.
In the interpretations of “Sinicization of Religion” by Chinese Catholic bishops, especially those officially recognized by both the state and the Vatican in key dioceses, it is often described as an interaction and integration between Catholicism and traditional Chinese culture. However, this interpretation is largely self-deceptive or deliberately mocks the Holy See and the global Catholic Church. Such “Sinicization” inevitably entails submission to the political regime.
Conflict Between Faith and Communist Ideology
Catholicism in China maintains theological consistency with the universal Church, but in practice, it reflects “Chinese characteristics.” The core issue lies in reconciling differences between faith and these “Chinese characteristics,” especially when significant conflicts arise between faith and socialism or related policies.
The fundamental question for believers is whether they obey the teachings of Christ or the Communist Party: whose words do they follow—the Lord’s or the Party’s? If the Party diverges from the Lord’s path, do believers follow Christ or the Party? This is a fundamental matter of faith.
Although the Chinese Constitution claims that citizens enjoy freedom of religion, in reality, the atheist Chinese Communist Party maintains strict control over religious activities. They have established the state-controlled Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, which operates independently of the Vatican but under the authority of the regime.
This association acts as a Trojan horse for the government’s influence within the Church, issuing orders to Catholic dioceses to control, co-opt, and indoctrinate Chinese Catholics.
Relevant Coverage:
- Hudson Report of the Institute Center for Religious Freedom – Ten Persecuted Catholic Bishops in China.
- Examine the China-Vatican confidential agreement: Where are the bishops who were forcibly disappeared by the Chinese Communist authorities?
(Reported by Special Correspondent Gao Zhensai of ChinaAid)