The Fallacies of Circular Argument

Fundamentally Flawed

The Chinese version of totalitarianism flowered under Mao Zedong.  But, then, the poisonous consequences of totalitarianism started to bud and flower.  After his death, China appeared to want to "modernise" and move toward more liberal doctrines of the State and government.

Now, a Second Mao has emerged.  Xi Jinping has begun a purge and a crackdown upon Chinese churches and Christians. 

The Communist Party will retain absolute control over religious activities in China, wrote Beijing’s religion czar in a Communist Party journal this week, in the midst of talks with the Vatican to reestablish diplomatic relations.

“There is no affiliate relationship between our country’s religions and foreign religions,” wrote Wang Zuoan, director of the State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA), in the latest issue of the bi-monthly journal Qiushi.  “Our country’s religious groups and religious matters do not accept domination by foreign forces,” he said.  [Breitbart News]

For the Chinese State there is no higher power or authority than the State.   This notion of course is profoundly circular.  Who says that there is no higher power or authority than the State?  Why, the Chinese State says it, of course.  And pray tell, on what authority can such a claim rest?  On the authority of the Chinese State, naturally.  By relying upon, and appealing to circular arguments, the Chinese government defames and disgraces itself.  It is an embarrassment.

The official communist party has pronounced that no party member must be a Christian--or a believer in any other religion, apart from a believer in the religion of Chinese Statism, or Chinese Marxism.

Mr. Wang, a hardcore atheist, has insisted on the need to keep the party completely free of religious influence given the incompatibility of Chinese Marxism with religious belief.  “Party members should not have religious beliefs, which is a red line for all members,” Wang wrote in the same journal last year.  “Party members should be firm Marxist atheists, obey Party rules and stick to the Party’s faith,” he said, adding, “they are not allowed to seek value and belief in religion.”

Wang said that Party officials who are religious believers should be persuaded to give it up, and anyone who resists will be punished by the Party organization.

These official attitudes and pronouncements and rules  betray the fundamental insecurity of the Chinese State.  The secularists fear debate and discussion.  They well know that they cannot sustain rational arguments for the totalitarian pretensions of, and claims for, the State.  Chinese totalitarianism can only continue to exist if it crushes all opposition.  Its recent actions betray the fundamental insecurity and gnawing doubt of the Chinese State. 

When the ideological athletes line up at the hundred metre start line, the Chinese State insists that all other sprinters, apart from its own, must wear heavy iron shoes, manacled together.  As they say in cricket, queering the pitch is the only way weak teams can compete.

One final irony: the Chinese State wants us to believe it is self-autonomous.   Wang Zuoan, director of the State Administration for Religious Affairs puts it this way: “Party members should be firm Marxist atheists, obey Party rules and stick to the Party’s faith,”  Did you get that?  Party members should be firm Marxist atheists . . .  Oh dear.  Last time we checked Karl Marx was a German, and spent most of his adult life working in the UK.  Fancy that--China doing homage and apparently submitting to Western political ideology.  So much for autonomous self-realization.  Maybe Wang Zuoan does not believe his own ideology.