In recent years, according to the unified deployment of the Provincial People’s Religious Affairs Commission and Jinhua People’s Religious Affairs Bureau, Yiwu City has been self-stressing, proactive and fully committed to promoting the management of folk belief affairs, and has achieved initial results, mainly including the following work:
First, carry out in-depth mobilization work. In March of this year, the Civil and Religious Affairs Bureau issued the Notice on Printing and Distributing the Work Plan for the Management of Folk Faith Affairs to 11 departments including towns (streets), land, construction and public security in the city, clarifying the objectives, tasks, work steps and requirements for the management of folk belief affairs. In March, April and June, the town (street) united front committee meeting or folk belief affairs management promotion meeting was held three times. The leaders in charge of the city mobilized the meeting, and the Civil and Religious Affairs Bureau made specific arrangements. Since July, Shangxi Town, Fotang Town, Suxi Town, Beiyuan Street, etc. have successively held a meeting of village (community) leaders and people in charge of folk belief activities under their jurisdiction to convey and study the relevant working spirit at the provincial and municipal levels, and deploy the registration number work.
Second, vigorously carry out rectification work. Since 2014, efforts have been made to carry out the work of “three changes and one demolition” of illegal buildings involving religion, and all efforts have been made to do a good job in the rectification of illegal buildings with great impact, such as Yimu Temple, Xiangu Temple, Pufu Temple, etc. in Houzhai Street. This year, we have continued to urge the towns (streets) to dismantle the religious buildings included in the demolition category in 2014 and the illegal religious buildings that comply with the “nine must be demolished and eight must not be demolished” of Jinhua Civil and Religious Affairs Bureau and the “ten must be demolished and eight must not be demolished” of our city. Over the past two years, more than 95000 square meters of illegal buildings in Buddhist and Taoist activity sites and folk belief activity sites have been demolished, and five open-air religious buildings have been rectified. At the same time, strengthen the inspection of the rectified and demolished illegal religious buildings, and ensure that the consolidation rate of the “three changes and one demolition” work achievement reaches 100%. We will further strengthen the investigation and punishment of profiteering through religion and fake religious staff. As of the end of June, we have ordered to stop illegal contracting of one place for folk belief activities, investigate and punish one fake religious staff, dissuade four permanent religious staff and guide them to practice in legal monasteries.
Third, actively do a good job of standardization. Through repeated communication with relevant departments such as land, law enforcement, construction and finance, and in combination with the actual situation of Yiwu, the Civil and Religious Affairs Bureau drafted the Administrative Measures for Folk Belief Affairs in Yiwu (for Trial Implementation), which clarified the scope of folk belief affairs, department responsibilities, registration number details, etc., and distributed them to all towns (streets) and municipal government departments in the name of the municipal government office on February 17, laying a foundation for the standardized management of folk belief affairs. The internal system of the management team, financial management system, fire safety system, belief activity system, health and epidemic prevention system, etc. have been formulated and distributed to all towns (streets) for reference. In the name of the supervision and production of the Civil and Religious Affairs Bureau, 1400 volumes of donation bills were uniformly printed and distributed, which were uniformly kept, distributed and supervised by the towns (streets), initially forming a “revenue and expenditure two lines” supervision pattern.
Fourth, regularly promote the supervision work. Since June, the whole staff of the Civil and Religious Affairs Bureau has been divided into three groups to supervise the management of folk belief affairs in 14 towns (streets) in the city, conduct spot checks on the management of folk belief activities in the area under its jurisdiction, and focus on checking whether there is a resurgence after the “three changes and one demolition” in 2014 and 2015, whether there are new illegal buildings, whether there are feudal superstitious activities, whether there are profiteering through teaching, and so on, and timely feed back to the towns (streets) under its jurisdiction. At the same time, since June, the Detailed Rules for the Evaluation of the Grid Management of Religious Work in Yiwu City in 2015 have been issued. The management of folk belief affairs has been included in the city’s “town and street grid index evaluation”. The scores of five towns (streets) that are not in place have been deducted. The scores and rankings are the main basis for the year-end assessment of ethnic and religious work in towns (streets).
Fifth, do a good job of guidance. The leaders and staff in charge of the bureau went to the grass-roots level and conscientiously carried out the registration and filing of places of folk belief activities. We guided the early pilot work of the Xiehe Ancient Temple and the Beitang Ancient Temple in Choujiang Street, helped the two places to establish the site management organization, straighten out the financial situation over the years, improve the management system, and persuade the teaching staff to leave, and the whole face took on a new look. At the same time, Yiwu Folk Faith Affairs Management Data Collection, which includes 10 items, including policies and regulations, operation manuals, pilot models, and work plans, has been uniformly prepared and distributed for grass-roots cadres to learn. In addition, according to the requirements of the town (street), I went to Fotang Town, Shangxi Town, Beiyuan Street and other places to explain the relevant policies, laws and regulations of folk belief affairs to more than 260 people, including the United Front Officer, the village (community) leader, and the person in charge of folk belief activities, and went to some key places for on-site guidance.