The Committee on Ethnic and Religious Affairs of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) held a consultation meeting on July 25 to discuss strengthening the development of key personnel for advancing religious work. 

The meeting brought together CPPCC members, experts and scholars, and officials from relevant government departments to exchange views on building the "three teams" for religious work -- teams of Party and government cadres, religious figures, and religious researchers. CPPCC National Committee Vice-Chairman Bater addressed the meeting. 

Participants emphasized that developing the three teams for religious work is a major strategic task outlined by the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee. Local authorities have issued policies and plans, upheld the Party's leadership over religious affairs, strengthened the training of officials for religious work, nurtured talent within religious communities, and intensified research on major theoretical and practical issues, achieving notable progress, they said. 

They called for deeper field research and forward-looking, actionable policy recommendations, as well as giving better play to the role of the CPPCC as a specialized consultative body, to help improve the governance of religious affairs, uphold the principle that religions in China must be Chinese in orientation, and ensure better adaptation of religions to the socialist society. 

Xu Lejiang and Xu Xiaohong, deputy heads of the Committee on Ethnic and Religious Affairs of the CPPCC National Committee, along with four CPPCC National Committee members and one scholar shared their views. They offered specific recommendations on fostering teams of Party and government cadres and representative religious figures, the development of disciplines for Marxist view of religion and cultivation of research teams. 

Officials from the CPC Central Committee's United Front Work Department and the Ministry of Education provided updates on related efforts and engaged in in-depth discussions with CPPCC members.