This year marks the centenary of China’s ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the religious groups in the country held various activities to observe the upcoming occasion. During the Qingming Festival (Tomb-Sweeping Festival or China’s Memorial Day) on April 4, Buddhist and Taoist temples in many provinces sent their monks to visit the tombstones and gravesites of communist martyrs and to pledge allegiance to the Party. The Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association held a lecture on the CCP’s history. According to the Chinese-language website Modern Buddhist, on April 5, about 100 teachers and monks from Hanshan College of Jiangsu Buddhist University went to the Suzhou Martyrs Cemetery to pay homage to the CCP’s martyrs—those who sacrificed their lives in the early years of the revolution led by the CCP. They performed religious rituals such as chanting Buddhist scriptures, offering flower baskets and incenses, and sang the CCP’s national anthem. Hanshan College pledged to guide the …