Commentary On Dec. 4, 2021, Chinese leader Xi Jinping gave his first public speech on religion in five years, blandly reemphasizing his “Sinicization” policy of “actively guiding religions to adapt to the socialist society.” In practice, Xi’s policies toward religious groups are far more wrathful. Documents leaked to The New York Times include Xi’s private speeches in which he called for Chinese Communist Party (CCP) cadres to “balance” the demographics in Xinjiang and show “no mercy” toward its minority communities of Uyghur and other ethnic Muslims—a directive realized in the ongoing Uyghur genocide that features brutal birth prevention measures, mass internment, forced labor, and cultural destruction. With the other “legal” religions of Catholics, Protestants, and Buddhists, Sinicization is enforced through a strangling web of administrative restrictions aimed to quietly turn their institutions into mere instruments of CCP indoctrination, surveillance, and control. Beijing goes to great lengths to hide this religious …