CPPCC chief Wang Huning calls for ‘safe and orderly’ religious activities: report

Call by Communist Party’s fourth most senior official for ‘law-based management’ of religious affairs follows similar message from the premier

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Top Chinese officials this week have called for stepped up restrictions on religious activities across the country. Photo: AFP

Published: 4:24pm, 7 Mar 2025Updated: 8:03pm, 7 Mar 2025

The fourth most senior official in China’s ruling Communist Party, who oversees the country’s national political advisory body, has called for efforts to “ensure law-based management of religious affairs” to make sure that religious activities are “legal, safe and orderly”.

Wang Huning, chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), made the remarks on Thursday during group discussions with the CPPCC’s religious leaders, according to state news agency Xinhua.

“[We must] ensure law-based management of religious affairs, and guide religious leaders and believers to enhance their national and civic consciousness, and awareness of the rule of law,” he was quoted as saying.

“[We must also] ensure that religious activities are legal, safe, and orderly.”

CPPCC chairman Wang Huning addresses this year’s session at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Tuesday. Photo: Reuters

In a government work report delivered on Wednesday, Premier Li Qiang also stressed the need to “strengthen the rule of law in the governance of religious affairs”, a theme that did not appear in last year’s report.

The emphasis showed that leaders wanted to be more “above board”, with clear rules on governance of religious affairs, according to a Beijing-based religious scholar, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.