Chinese Communist Party Hails the Dissolution of the Unification Church in Japan

A statement by the Party-controlled China Anti-Cult Association celebrates a verdict against the “anti-communist” church and hopes it will inspire similar moves abroad.

By Massimo Introvigne April 24, 2025

A Chinese policewoman indoctrinating children about the “evil of cults.” These activities are usually carried out with the China Anti-Xie Jiao Association. From Weibo.

The China Anti-Xie Jiao Association legitimately claims to be the largest anti-cult association in the world. It has branches in all large cities and most small towns and villages. It translates its name into English as “China Anti-Cult Association,” although “xie jiao” is an expression used in Chinese since the Middle Ages to designate “organizations spreading heterodox teachings.” The large Association is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) through the United Front Central Work Department.

On April 18, the Association released a statement celebrating the verdict by the Tokyo District Court of March 25, 2025, dissolving the Unification Church (now called Family Federation for World Peace and Unification). It notes it is a first-degree verdict and finds it deplorable that the Unification Church appealed.

The CCP-controlled association is happy that the Unification Church has been dissolved as it is “a tool of the anti-communist ideology.” It particularly praises the work of the anti-cult National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales in “agitating the public opinion,” which played a key role in the dissolution. It credits the Network for having “successfully promoted” the new law on donations to religious entities (in fact, dangerous for all religions). What particularly satisfies the Chinese entity is that “for the first time the law includes the notion of mind control,” which is also a cornerstone of the Chinese repression of groups stigmatized as “xie jiao” or “cults.”

From a March 2025 China Anti-Xie-Jiao association documentary against the Unification Church.

The statement calls the verdict “a milestone” and “a breakthrough,” which would “start a process of ‘de-cultization’ of Japanese society.” The process, it predicts, would move “from the individual case” of the Unification Church to “an institutional system” of regulating religion differently.

The CCP-controlled association sees three “breakthroughs” that would eventually revolutionize how the Japanese legal system looks at religion. “First, it was the first time a ‘religious corporation’ was dissolved for civil violations. Previously, Japan only dissolved ‘religious corporations’ for criminal offenses.” This is important, the statement says, as a way of “breaking through the ‘immunity’ of religious activities.” 

“Secondly, dissolution will destroy the Unification Church’s economic lifeline. The dissolution order will deprive the Unification Church of its legal person status, and the court will liquidate its assets.” The statement hopes this would impact the Unification Church globally, particularly “in the United States.” 

Third, the statement believes that the verdict hitting the Unification Church is only the first step in a broader crackdown on minority religions, which would be “a great progress for Japanese society.” “The Japanese government plans to revise the Religious Corporations Act, strengthen financial supervision of religious groups, and establish a victim compensation fund. It also plans special anti-cult measures… The court’s dissolution order may curb the activities of other minority sects in Japan, which also rely on donations to survive.”

The statement concludes that the verdict does not solve all problems. It laments that the Universal Peace Federation (UPF) is still active internationally. 

However, the Communist Party-related association is confident that the Tokyo District Court verdict will “become an example for other countries to deal with cult issues,” teaching others that if anti-cult propaganda is carried out effectively, “evil forces in the guise of religion will have nowhere to hide.”

Summing up, the CCP, through its loyal anti-cult agency, tells us that the Tokyo verdict applies the same categories used against religion in China, benefits Chinese interests, destroys an anti-communist organization, prepares a broader crackdown on religions in Japan, and may inspire other countries to do the same. We knew it all along.

Source: bitterwinter.org