Report: China’s Communist Party denounces religious belief in its ranks

May 26, 2015

China’s ruling Communist Party warned its members that atheism is a non-negotiable aspect of party membership, according to a Radio Free Asia report.

The party has 86.7 million members, roughly 6% of the nation’s population.

“The fact that a small number of party members have forsaken the party's world view of dialectical materialism and have turned to religion is now attracting serious concern, to the extent that it now falls within the purview of disciplinary work,” stated of the newsletter of the party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

“Marx himself stated baldly that Communism, in essence, begins with atheism,” the newsletter added. “There can be no doubt about the fact that the founding ideological principle that Communist Party members cannot be religious believers has been upheld by our party from the outset.”

 

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Further information:

• Warning Over Religious Believers in Chinese Communist Party Ranks (Radio Free Asia)