A quarterly international newsletter on sexuality, sexual health, and sexuality education.
Volume 2, Issue 1 - Winter 2001/2002
China: “A Strange Love Affair”: Chinese Authorities Embrace Unification Church's Teaching on Sexuality
Wan Yanhai is a grassroots gay rights and HIV/AIDS education activist from China who frequently travels between the Los Angeles area and Beijing.
Wan has made a name for himself as China’s most visible activist on these issues. His work involves getting comprehensive information on sexuality directly to people with AIDS, the gay community, and educators in China.
His Chinese-language Web site called Aizhi Action, educates readers about various sexual orientations and contains translated versions of research reports from the Henry J. Kaiser Foundation and SIECUS.
His recently published article called “A Strange Love Affair” uncovered the conservative, family-values ideology of the Unification Church, which had previously received the support of various Chinese bureaucracies, including the Ministries of Health and Education, to spread its gospel in China.
According to the United Nations’ AIDS epidemic update, released in December 2001, the number of HIV infected people has risen above one million in China, more than double the 1999 figure. Reported HIV infections rose by 67 percent in the first six months of 2001, and many authorities believe the actual numbers may be two to three times as high.
The Unification Church has a history of teaching abstinence-only sexuality education in the United States.
Pure Love Alliance (PLA), a project of the Unification Church, had sponsored chastity rallies across the country through the year 2000. Sixty-one public schools in Chicago were using their abstinence-only curriculum called CLUE (Creating Love and Uplifting Esteem) 2000. The curriculum contains almost no information about sexuality, reproduction, puberty, or STDs.The information that is included is often inaccurate and rarely supported by scientific research.
Through advocacy efforts by the Reverend Jesse Jackson of the United States and the Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health, Chicago public school officials urged all principals to use only system-approved curricula, which CLUE 2000 is not.
Their advocacy efforts were essential in successfully removing the fear-based, abstinence-only-until-marriage curriculum from the public school system.
The following is an excerpt adapted from an article by Wan Yanhai from “A Strange Love Affair” in the Journal of Human Rights in China. It is another example of the importance of advocacy for comprehensive sexuality education.
“...In February 1998, I returned from a stint in Beijing as a visiting scholar at the University of Southern California. I went to my old work unit, the China Health Education Institute on a number of occasions, as I was trying to appeal the Institute’s 1994 decision to expel me from my post because of my advocacy work for gay men and sex workers relating to HIV/AIDS and safe sex.
A colleague of mine from my days there asked me whether during my time in the United States I had heard of a Korean pastor called Wen Xianming, who he said had a growing influence there in recent years, particularly since he had been promoting a movement for young people to return to chastity. I discovered that this former colleague no longer evinced such hatred of Western people and Westernization because he and others who shared his views had found in the West not only allies but also teachers and students. I had not heard of this Wen Xianming, but I soon found out that the moral conservatives in China had hooked up with the American Religious Right.
In January 1999, when I submitted a work proposal for the studies on human health to the Beijing Institute of Modern Management where I was then employed, one of the research projects I included was on the impact of religious movements on people’s attitudes toward sexuality.
From such study, I had come to understand that the work of the International Education Foundation (IEF), which was started by the ardently anti-communist Reverend Sun Myung Moon (Wen Xianming) and also the founder of the Unification Church in China, had been given the support of many public bodies (including party and state organs).These include the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Propaganda Department, the Ministries of Education and Health, the All-China Women’s Federation (ACWF), various universities and middle schools, research institutions, and officially established social organizations. The ACWF distributed a circular encouraging people to contribute to the IEF’s Chastity Foundation.
The IEF’s public campaign opposing safe sex education and the promotion of condoms perplexed experts on HIV/AIDS.
When such experts from the EU and Save the Children went to Tibet to carry out training on HIV/AIDS education, the people at the training said to the experts that the IEF had told them that condoms were useless in protecting against STDs and HIV.
The China office of UNAIDS wrote to the Ministry of Health expressing concern about the trend towards promoting chastity education (also known as abstinence-only education) in China at the prompting of the IEF. The Ministry never replied to the letter. In May 1999, I wrote twice to the Ministry myself. I argued that the separation of church and state was a fundamental principle of modern civilization and that the government should not become a protagonist for any narrowly-focused interest group.
In its terms, the Unification Church has achieved much in its work in China. For a while, it seemed as if the IEF was involved in every program of thought or moral education for Chinese people.
In June 1999, official organizations in China began an investigation of the IEF. Sources say that some departments circulated documents requesting that all agencies be cautious about having cooperative relations with the IEF. But, at the same time, IEF’s activities appeared to be expanding in scope.
In the middle of August 2000, the Ministry of Health ordered the China Health Education Institute to end its cooperation with the IEF. The cited reason was that the founder of IEF had an anti-communist background.
There are, however, a number of possible reasons why IEF lost its official support. First, its critics said that the idea of chastity or abstinence education that it was preaching in China was not based on scientific principles but on narrow religious teaching and that the Chinese government should adapt educational projects based on science, not religion. They also said that IEF’s abstinence education was hampering efforts to prevent HIV/AIDS. Second, I and several other people published a research report in July 2000 entitled,“The Fallen Shepard,” which demonstrated clearly that IEF’s programs were entirely based on the teachings of the Unification Church and argued that there should be a separation between church and state.Third, the church’s anti-communist past gave those inside the government who opposed the approach of the IEF a convenient reason to argue for a ban on the group.
The IEF had the strong support of certain party and government agencies, and now, due to the objections of some scholars, that has come to an end. At least, official bodies will no longer openly support the IEF, but the organization’s shadow is still seen behind many activities conducted on a broad scale...”
China Rights Forum
The Journal of Human Rights in China
Winter 2000/1
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