China orders crackdown on large outdoor religious statues to ‘prevent commercialisation’
Directive from the United Front Work Department appears to target mostly followers of Buddhism and Taoism
China’s ruling Communist Party has ordered local governments to better regulate the construction of large outdoor religious statues amid increasing restrictions on religious expression of all kinds.
The directive from the United Front Work Department, seen on its website on Saturday, appears to target mainly followers of Buddhism and Taoism, two of China’s five officially recognised religions.
“The meeting required all localities to take up the regulation of large outdoor religious statues as their top priority in preventing the further commercialisation of Buddhism and Toaism,” it said.
Thousands of Buddhist and Taoist temples and shrines, along with mosques and churches, were damaged or destroyed under communism, especially during the Cultural Revolution.
Although many have since been restored and reopened, new regulations and a bureaucratic overhaul earlier this year have put the day-to-day running of religious affairs directly under the officially atheistic party.
