State goes after profit-seeking religious frauds

A nationwide campaign will be launched to curb a growing trend of religious fraud conducted for profit at fake temples and by sham monks, as well as of businesses operating temples, said the country's religious administration agency.

"We'll conduct a thorough investigation of all religious venues and will firmly address wrongful behavior that exploits and distorts religion to amass wealth," Wang Zuoan, director of the State Administration for Religious Affairs, said on Tuesday during the first national conference on the management of sites for religious activities.

The licenses of venues that do not rectify misconduct within the required time will be revoked, he added.

Since 1991, all religious venues open to the public have been required to register with the government.

There are nearly 140,000 approved religious venues in China open to followers of the five major religions - Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholicism and Protestantism - according to the religious affairs administration.

Liu Wei, head of the operations division of the administration, said they found a group pretending to be Taoist clerics in an unauthorized temple in the scenic Taishan Mountain area of Shandong province. They coerced and forcibly pulled tourists into the temple to ask them for money.

"Police also found groups disguising themselves as monks in villages in Luoyang, Henan province, and Shaoxing, Zhejiang province," Liu said.

He said that individuals and organizations that invest in and jointly speculate in some religious venues are motivated by economic interests, and the authority is against all these practices.

"Some people even want to turn religious sites into listed companies, something never seen overseas," Liu said. "Religion is not for profit."

Most temples with these practices are not registered with government agencies. "They were built as temples in appearance, but are unlawful in the country," said Zhang Xunmou, head of the research center of the administration.

Xue Cheng, vice-chairman of the Buddhist Association of China, said most of the lawbreakers exploit people's goodwill and people are often cheated because they lack the knowledge to distinguish real from fake monks.

"Those who sell amulets and tell fortunes in the streets are mostly frauds," he said.

The authority is taking measures to protect the public from fake monks and priests.

"A national searchable database of genuine religious personnel will be established this year, and the logos of registered religious venues will be displayed in noticeable places at each of the sites," Zhang said.

The authority will also implement strict audits to approve the construction of new monasteries, temples and large-scale outdoor religious statues to prohibit excessive building and profit-making by exploiting religion.

Contact the writer at zhouwenting@chinadaily.com.cn