https://unherd.com/2021/02/why-china-is-terrified-of-christianity/

Without justifying the particular policies of Xi's PRC, this article is afflicted w/ typical western hysteria & ignorance, particularly of its own history. The main point, totally obscured here, is that Xi is in a geopolitical conflict w/ Atlanticists

Given it's an English e-mag: this procedure is not unlike what the Tudors did in England. They hung royal insignia in churches (replacing/destroying images), made loyalty pledges important, pressured foreign-linked churchmen (Rome) to abjure threats & published official texts

Now this may seem to validate a certain RC history of English Reformation, it's doesn't. Rome wasn't just a "religion", but a geopolitical bloc & a powerful temporal interest. Before the church was "nationalized", Rome owned a wide swathe of the land & undermined the crown

The Tudors weren't even particularly hostile to RCs if they played ball, they didn't want the English crown to collapse or be invaded by Spain & reapportioned into a Habsburg dominion. In contrast, the Tudors were confessing Christians, in contrast to neo-Confucian Xi, however...

The policies result in a similar concern to defend one's realm against foreign invaders. It was this pressure that turned the royal monopoly of the Tudors into the Elizabethan republic, the need for the citizenry to participate. Who knows what will happen in Xi's China (or after)

It's a liberal sentiment to treat "religion" as a special/separate category of interiority & feeling, divorced from politics. Sorry, but Chinese Christians need to be wary of ignorant support for HK & the Anglosphere, anymore than English Jesuits supported Spain/Habsburgs

Admit there's a geopolitical struggle & there's no problem. But framing it as "persecution" is a powerful rhetorical tool (which is what Jesuits did in England). Such is simply the game of geopolitics. Better to understand it then to mystify it which is dishonest about the stakes

Again, one can argue the merits of each case (Atlanticist vs. Xi's CCP vs. some other order) but it's not just "religion". Christians need to have a deeper understanding of eschatology in relation to temporal orders, to neither be craven slaves of a political or nor quietistic