What do democracy, terrorism, and cults have in common? Well, according Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece called “Seeking Truth,” they’re all part of America’s insidious plot to undermine China.
Seeking Truth—which is a totally normal and not at all creepy name for a political journal published by the Central Committee of the Communist Party and circulated to all high-level Party officials—recently featured an article on its website from an independent blogger, “Why the Democratic Movement Is Also a Type of Cult.”
After all, nothing says “loss of free will” like voting for your elected representatives. Think about that the next time you go to the polls.
Here’s one of the many penetrating insights from the article: “America is behind the evil religion, behind the terrorist organizations, and behind the democracy movement. … Under America’s unified coaching, the cult members, terrorists, and democracy activists find their common goal and interests, and together serve the U.S. to fight against China.”
Damn! They figured us out! Just like when state media ran that story claiming the United States is run by a shadow government of Nazi space aliens. I really wish I were making that up, but that actually happened.
Well, if democracy is an evil cult, then that means it’s a job for China’s Gestapo, the 610 Office, otherwise known as “the Central Leading Group on Dealing with Heretical Religions.” It was originally created by former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin as a tool in his persecution of the Falun Gong spiritual practice, but gradually it began targeting broader segments of Chinese society, like Buddhist and Christian groups. Maybe now it can start targeting democracy activists.
So why is the Chinese regime suddenly so fascinated with cults? At the end of May, a woman was beaten to death by a group of men in a McDonald’s restaurant in Shandong Province, while witnesses looked on. State-run CCTV said the murderers were members of a Christian sect called the Church of Almighty God, and that it was somehow a faith-based killing.
The Church of Almighty God is the “evil religion” that the Seeking Truth article claims is backed by the United States. By the way, that article also claimed that activist Wang Dan, who is one of the 1989 Tiananmen student leaders living in exile in Taiwan, has “colluded with the leader of the Church of Almighty God.” The mention of Wang Dan probably had nothing to do with the large-scale commemoration of the Tiananmen massacre that was held in Taiwan just a week before the article was published.
Not long after the McDonald’s attack, CCTV and the Political and Legal Commission put out a document called “six characteristics of evil cults,” which includes things like, “Cults are highly exclusive, and propagandize how great they are,” “Cults are coercive, and use mind control techniques on others,” and cults thrive on “an embedded network of personal relationships to protect their interests.”
Hmm, sounds familiar. Can’t quite put my finger on it, though. Let’s see what the Chinese netizens are saying, maybe they can help:
“I already knew the CCP is a cult. But I still thank CCTV for confirming my thoughts.”
“We’re stuck under the rule of a cult!”
“The definition of a cult is exactly the same as the Party.”
So after the characteristics of a cult were put out, Chinese netizens began commenting that a lot of the criteria sounded an awful lot like the Communist Party.
As for the personality cult thing—well, there was Mao. This delightful image from a blogger is a photoshopped version of a picture of a classroom during the Cultural Revolution, where people were made to sing the praises of Mao. A blogger doctored the photo so the sign in the back says, “Mao Zedong is the Almighty God in our Hearts,” using the same characters as the name of the group that state media said killed that poor woman. That blogger was arrested.
Murong Xuecun, a Chinese novelist and blogger wrote, “I realized that the name of the biggest cult is hidden in plain view: the Communist Party.”
Clearly, all of these people are puppets of the United States.
For more China Uncensored, please visit youtube.com/ntdchinauncensored.
