"Xie Jiao"

China defines groups as Xie Jiao if they:

a. establishes an illegal organization in the name of religion, Qigong, etc.

b. deifies their leaders

c. initiates and spreads superstitions and heterodox beliefs

d. utilizes various means to fabricate and spread superstitions and heterodox [or cultic] beliefs to excite doubts and deceive the people, recruit and control its members by means.

e. engages in disturbing social order in an organized manner that brings injury to the lives and properties of the citizens.

Groups listed in the Xie Jiao list of banned religions include:

The Shouters - The Lingling Sect - Dami Mission - The Unification Church - Bloody Holy Spirit - and others.

The current list consists of 23 groups.

The Church of the Almighty God is a Christian organization that sprouted up from another Xie Jiao group called the Shouters. They believe that God has returned, this time in China. Their holy book is titled "The Word Appears in the Flesh."

The group began rapidly spreading in China in the late 20th century. Many other Christian organizations joined with the CCP to help arrest members of the church. They were categorized as Xie Jiao in 1995. The church reports that ~400,000 members have been arrested many being tortured and sent to prison.

Falun Gong are a group that derived from old Bhuddist thinking. Created by Li Hongzhi, they believed in the karma system and adhered to many Bhuddist teachings.

Unlike other traditional religions, there are no structures like churches and priests within the system.

Falun Gong is not considered a cult by many. After a large protest of ~10,000 people, the CCP began to crackdown on the group arresting many and putting them into labor camps.

Accusations that the government has been harvesting organs from the Falun Gong people within these camps have been thrown around.

Since then, the number of practitioners of Falun Gong has drastically decreased.

As China continues to crack down on Xie Jiao groups, other religious groups are being pressured.

Religion is strongly discouraged in China. They believe that religion will eventually fade away from the world. Politically, this allows the government to have greater control over its people.

This image shows a statue of Jesus Christ being taken down because it was "too high." Though China "supports" freedom of religion, they are able to work around it by making up alternate excuses to take religious symbols down.

An example of this is found within the Uighur crisis going on in Western China. Although Islam is not banned in China, many Islamic practices and beliefs are being banned and are considered dangerous to the CCP.

The Uighurs are being persecuted and sent to labor camps publicized as reeducation camps with bad living conditions.

Turkey has recently denounced China for mistreating their Islamic community and called for an end to the persecution of the Uighurs.