Tue, Jun 03, 2025 page2

• ‘Pilgrimage’ visits to be rejected: source

  ‘BIZZARE’ ACTIVITY: China is a country without religious freedom, so it is odd for temple representatives to go there for religious exchanges, the source said

  • By Chen Yu-fu and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writer
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  Chinese representing temples they claim to be ancestral temples of those in Taiwan who apply to visit Taiwan for “religious exchanges” would have their applications rejected, a source said on Sunday.

  Religion in China is managed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which often uses so-called “religious exchanges” to conduct “united front” work against Taiwan, the source said.

  Attempts to use ancestral temples as a pretext to conduct pilgrimages in Taiwan treat the nation as if it were under Chinese jurisdiction — and that would be rejected, they said.

  

  A Matsu Temple is pictured in Meizhou in China’s Fujian Province.

  Photo: Taipei Times

  Since last month, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) and related agencies have hosted religious ceremonies honoring the mythical figure the Yan Emperor (炎帝), who is regarded as one of the earliest ancestors of Chinese and is worshiped as the god of agriculture.

  The TAO invited former Straits Exchange Foundation chairman Lin Join-sane (林中森), who is a member of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), to attend ceremonies worshiping the Yan Emperor at two locations: Suizhou City in Hubei Province, which is considered to be Yan’s hometown; and Zhuzhou City in Hunan Province, where Yan’s mausoleum is located. Representatives of temples in Taiwan also attended, and participants of the ceremonies planted trees in a forest the CCP called the “cross-strait shared roots forest.”

  It was a symbolic event promoting the unification of Taiwan and China, they said.

  Separately, the CCP last month invited representatives of Taiwanese temples to visit Fujian Province and attend celebrations for the birthday of the sea goddess Matsu (媽祖) at the Meizhou Matsu Temple. The CCP has also named Chinese actress Liu Tao (劉濤) and Sun Yat-sen School president Chang Ya-chung (張亞中) as “Matsu ambassadors” to promote ancestral temple culture to younger audiences.

  Late last month, the CCP held the “Chongqing-Taiwan Folk Culture Exchange” in Chongqing City, inviting more than a dozen Taiwanese folk culture representatives, including researchers, artisans and performers, to visit various temples in China. Later that month, the TAO also organized visits for Taiwanese relatives of Chinese citizens to a martyrs’ cemetery in China, saying the aim was to make the visitors “feel deeply connected with the motherland.”

  Additionally, 10 Chinese nationals last month were found to have bypassed the government’s oversight on religious exchanges by applying for an “agricultural technology-related visit,” but attempted to take part in the Baishatun Matsu pilgrimage, the source said.

  Fumei Temple, which the 10 Chinese nationals belong to, does not even hold pilgrimages in China, yet sought to conduct an “ancestral temple pilgrimage” in Taiwan, the source said.

  “There was no actual deity involved. It was simply a ‘united front’ operation intended to deceive devout Taiwanese believers,” the source said.

  China is a country without religious freedom, and it is “bizarre” for Taiwanese temple representatives to engage in religious exchanges there, they said.

  “The CCP manages religion from a political standpoint — its religious affairs bureau is under the United Front Work Department,” they said. “Taiwanese adherents of the Yiguandao religious movement have been detained in China and remain imprisoned.”

  Since January of last year, more than 100 cases of Taiwanese citizens being questioned or detained due to their religious practices have been recorded, the source said.

  The public should approach travel to China with a degree of caution and avoid cooperating with the CCP’s “united front” operations, they added.
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