Have the Chinese Communists co-opted the religion of Taoism to help promote their propaganda?
Chinese expatriate Shawn Lin and contributing writer Lynn Xu wrote a commentary piece for The Epoch Times, in which they argued that Taoist organizations tied to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) are weaponized by the CCP to propagandize, just as the Belt and Road Initiative and the Confucius Institutes have been.
Beijing initiated the World Federation of Taoism (WFT) in the name of international religious exchange, identifying itself as a proxy of China’s only indigenous religion. The move would be another united front tool of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to export communist ideology to the rest of the world, following the Confucius Institute.
Either WFT or China Taoist Association is supervised by the State Religious Affairs Bureau, which is directly under the Central Committee’s United Front Work Department (UFWD) … The U.S. government has defined the CCP’s UFWD as an espionage organization.
From Taiwan to the U.S., from Italy to Japan, from South Korea to Singapore to the UK and beyond, there are dozens of Taoist organizations affiliated with the WTF in some 40 countries, the authors stated. But while the influence is principally academic in America and Europe, southern Asian countries are reportedly significantly influenced by Taoism. “Communism has an anti-divine theory with the purpose of ‘eliminating religions,’” and religious individuals, texts, and buildings have been targeted by the CCP, per Epoch Times. But the CCP can still use a distortion of Taoism for its own purposes.
According to the CCP’s labor division, the Taoist Association would recruit college graduates to join each year, with the vacant position requiring “cultivating patriotic (CCP-loving) senior Taoist talents.”
Taoism originated back in the 6th century BC, and the CCP allows and uses ancient religions (including Christianity) only when it can co-opt some religious leaders and distort their teachings for a secular, political, Marxist end. The Taoist Association is therefore not a harmless or helpful religious entity, but actually a tool for the infamous CCP United Front propaganda campaign around the world. (The United Front mentioned above is the extensive CCP effort to suppress all negative reporting on Communist China and promote CCP goals throughout society.)
As noted above, the Taoist Association is suspicious just as the Confucius Institutes that misrepresent the Chinese philosopher’s teachings to promote CCP ideology. Li Guangfu, president of China’s Daoist Association, planned for Taoist organizations to follow up the work of Confucius Institutes, per Epoch Times.
Former CIA-trained intelligence officer and Donald Trump campaign national security advisor Anthony Shaffer warned last year that CCP spies operate around the country, sometimes even from something as innocuous as a Chinese restaurant. The problem is so serious, however, that even many government officials are compromised. Shaffer said that “institutions of the United States government, to include the White House, Hunter Biden, Joe Biden, were paid millions of dollars to essentially defer to China.”
It certainly makes one wonder when Chinese dissidents like Miles Guo are imprisoned and denied bail in America while literal CCP spies were quickly released on bail. How deep does the corruption go? Congressmen from both major political parties have received tainted Chinese money.
Exclusive: Why Chinese Dissident Miles Guo Was Denied Bail as CCP Police Plants Roam Free
Ultimately, the point is that the CCP, whether through money laundering to politicians, secret intelligence operations, or groups like the Taoist Association, is trying to undermine and destroy America from within.
