Greetings from China y'all.
Boy have sparks been flying on this thread as I've been able to see.
Well, anyway, here's my around 10 or 12 fen worth (about 2 cents):
I have read as well before, while still in Canada, that Tibet did in fact have a theocracy prior to the Communict takeover, and it wasn't pretty. Granted, the communist regime has caused much damage too, especially to the culture.
As for religious freedom, it's a mixed bag, really. As for personal freedom of religion, I have just as much here as I do in Canada. As for freedom of religious organization, yes, I do feel quite suffocated in that respect. But I still wouldn't go so far as to say I'm persecuted. If it were that bad, I'd be back in Canada. There is, let's say, enough freedom of religion to not warrant the label 'persecution'.
I served as editor for one publication a while back, and my experience was interesting there too. We were explicitly told by the administration to watch for:
Any reference parallelling Taiwan with the PRC. For example, the phrase "Taiwan and China" would have to be rendered "Taiwan and the mainland" or some other wording that suggests unity. That's not a big deal really seeing that the UN (and the US by the way) recognize Taiwan as a part of China anyway, so that is in fact a legitimate change in the direction fo accuracy.
We had to avoid any topic dealing with ethnic issues. I can understand that because when I'd visited Xinjiang, I can tell you that inter-ethnic relations there were not always warm and fuzzy.
We had to avoid religious issues, especially concerning Islam (that was explicitly mentionned), although it seemd little quips about Christmas and Easter were fine.
Strangely enough, though, it would seem that in the cities at least, the Chinese celebrate Christmas more than we do! In Canada, neither I nor most of my friends celebrated Christmas unless invited to do so by some Christian friends (but then most of my friends weren't Christian). In in China, everyone and his dog celebrates Christmas, no religious significance though.
Going back to religion, I would say that China is definitely moving, albeit slowly, towards more, not less, freedom of religoin. Just give it time. I had some Philipino Catholic friends who'd invited me to church recently, and lo and behold, an ordained American priest had been invited as a guest to give one mass in English. This was at a government approved church of course. And on Christmas, the police were sitting in one room 'for protection'. Hmmmm.... This is months before the American prist came. But anyway, this past Christmas, I'd decided to go have a chat with the cops (hey, I'm the curious type), but the local Chinese priest, who can speak some English, advised me otherwise, saying that if the cops ask questions (since I can speak Chinese), just keep my answers simple. Hm, not that I possessed any incriminating info anyway. Anyway, I'd also found out that this priest, though a member of the patriotic church, is also secretly ordained by the vatican and does stay in touch with it via the net. Praise the internet! I'd found that out from my Catholic friends.
As for Islam, I'd one Pakistani friend who'd mentionned that on 'Id al Fitr a few years ago, the police arrived at a local mosque with cameras to film the participants. One cop entered with his boots on! Ouch! So my Pakistani friend stared the cop down and gave him the dirtiest look. The cop got the hint, looked apologetic, walked out, took his dirty boots off, and came back in to film.
Curious george that I am, I've visited churches, mosques and Buddhist temples. In Muslim restaurants, the 99 names of Allah are often postered on the wall with prayer rugs depicing the Qa-aba in Makka. Some local Muslims can speak some Arabic too. On the other hand, I have heard from some locals with friends from Xinjiang that apparently the teaching and learning of the Arabic language is very tightly controlled in Xinjiang. Then again, from my experiences, it would seem that foreign language acquisition policy is politically motivated overall anyway.
If I go to a Buddhist restaurant for vegetarian food, I'll find an altar with a statue in some prominent location with people prostrating before it.
So as I'd said at the beginning of this post, it really is a mixed bag. But certainly not persecution. And moving in the right direction I must say. More freedom now than before.
And as for the great chairman, don't diss him; for all his faults, he's still respected in China, and while he may have made many mistakes, he'd done many great things for China too.
yes, yes, and this from a Canadian.
