Jessica Batke

Jessica Batke

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Planting the Flag in Mosques and Monasteries

By Jessica Batke

This article originally appeared on ChinaFile.

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Over the last few years, the Chinese Communist Party has physically remade places of religious worship in western China to its liking. This includes not only the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, but also other areas with mosques or Tibetan Buddhist temples and monasteries. Eight Chinese government procurement notices, issued between 2018 and 2021, show local officials seeking to sinify religious sites in Gansu, Qinghai, and Sichuan provinces, as well as in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

In most cases, the notices cite the “four entrances” policy, which seeks to bring “the national flag, the constitution as well as laws and regulations, core socialist values, and China’s excellent traditional culture” into religious sites. Accordingly, several of the local government purchasers sought flags and 12-meter-high flagpoles for mosques or temples. One notice from a county in Ningxia listed the books authorities hoped to “enter” into “religious activity sites,” including Xi Jinping Talks about Governing the Country and An Explanation of Religious Affairs Regulations, among others.

In one instance, a town government in Sichuan province wanted to architecturally alter the local mosque. The procurement notice calls for purging “sanhua” (三化), or “the three -izations,” referring to “Saudi-ization,” “Arab-ization,” and “halal-ization.” Given government-imposed architectural changes elsewhere in the country, this likely means that the town wished to remove domes, minarets, or any other such features deemed insufficiently “Chinese.”

Below are the details of the relevant procurement notices, as translated by ChinaFile:


Launching the “Four Entrances in Religious Activity Sites” Activity to Procure and Install Promotional Window Display Boards (开展“四进宗教活动场所”活动宣传橱窗展板采购及安装)

  • Location: Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Wuzhong City, Tongxin County
  • Purchaser: Tongxin County Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau
  • Year: 2018
  • Final Purchase Amount: 1,072,184 renminbi


“Four Entrances Activity” Procurement (“四进活动”采购)

  • Location: Gansu Province, Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture, Linxia City
  • Purchaser: Linxia City Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau
  • Year: 2018
  • Final Purchase Amount: 1,103,500 renminbi
  • The tender included 70 12-meter-high flagpoles, 10 9-meter-high flagpoles, 80 flagpole platforms, and 80 flags.


The Second “Four Entrances Activity” Procurement (第二批“四进活动”采购)

  • Location: Gansu Province, Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture, Linxia City
  • Purchaser: Linxia City Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau
  • Year: 2019
  • Final Purchase Amount: 1,108,000 renminbi
  • The tender included 80 12-meter-high flagpoles, 80 flagpole platforms, and 80 flags.


Maqu County Religious Sites “Four Entrances” Activity, Constructing Flagpole Platforms in 11 Monasteries (玛曲县宗教场所“四进”活动，11座寺院修建国旗台)

  • Location: Gansu Province, Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Maqu County
  • Purchaser: Maqu County United Front Work Department
  • Year: 2019
  • Final Purchase Amount: 434,115 renminbi
  • The tender included 11 9-to-12-meter-high flagpoles and flagpole platforms.


Guinan County Tibetan Buddhist Monastery “The National Flag Enters the Temple” Construction (贵南县藏传佛教寺院“国旗进寺院”建设)

  • Location: Qinghai Province, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Guinan County
  • Purchaser: Guinan County Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau
  • Year: 2019
  • Final Purchase Amount: 620,362 renminbi


Pengyang County “Four Entrances” Religious Activity Sites Book Procurement (彭阳县“四进”宗教活动场所图书采购)

  • Location: Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Guyuan City, Pengyang County
  • Purchaser: Pengyang County Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau
  • Year: 2019
  • Final Purchase Amount: 625,552 renminbi
  • The tender included 130 different books, purchased in quantities of 126 each. The full list of books comes from a previous iteration of this procurement notice, which was tendered and canceled twice for technical reasons before finally being awarded out in 2019.


National Flag Entering Religious Activity Sites Activity National Flag Flagpole and Installation Procurement (国旗进宗教场所活动国旗旗杆及安装采购)

  • Location: Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Wuzhong City, Tongxin County
  • Purchaser: Tongxin County United Front Work Department
  • Year: 2020
  • Final Purchase Amount: 4,698,759 renminbi
  • The tender included a list of 225 religious sites, many of them explicitly mosques, where flagpoles were to be installed. The tender was ultimately canceled in mid-2021 because the bidding process hadn’t been conducted according to standard procedures, thereby “affecting the fairness of the bidding process.”


Project to Remove Sanhua Style from the Qingchuan County, Qingxi Township Mosque (青川县青溪镇清真寺去三化风貌工程)

  • Location: Sichuan Province, Qingchuan County, Qingxi Township
  • Purchaser: Qingchuan County, Qingxi Township People’s Government
  • Year: 2021
  • Initial Tender Amount: 423,416 renminbi
  • Though local authorities posted an initial announcement and modification announcement for this tender, ChinaFile has been unable to locate a final announcement verifying the purchase was actually completed.