VZCZCXRO3535
PP RUEHCN RUEHGH RUEHVC
DE RUEHBJ #1699/01 1230138
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 020138Z MAY 08
FM AMEMBASSY BEIJING
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7029
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUEHKU/AMEMBASSY KUWAIT 0621
RUEHRH/AMEMBASSY RIYADH 0629
RUEHEG/AMEMBASSY CAIRO 0326
RUEHIL/AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD 6702

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BEIJING 001699 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/02/2033 
TAGS: PHUM PREL PGOV PTER KIRF PK EG CH SA
SUBJECT: Ningxia Muslims, Part 3: The Sufi King of Tongxin County: 
Government Co-opts, Empowers Charismatic Local Leader of Hierarchical 
Sufi Order 
 
Ref: BEIJING 1691 
 
Classified by Deputy Political Section Chief Ben Moeling.  Reasons 
1.4 (b/d). 
 
Summary 
------- 
 
¶1. (C) Hong Yang, a Peking University-educated imam in Ningxia's 
Tongxin County, heads a Sufi order which he says has over 2,000 
imams, serving at 1,500 mosques with a total population of over one 
million Hui followers.  An entourage of imams surrounded Hong as he 
entertained PolOff on an April visit to Ningxia.  His younger brother 
chauffeured PolOff in Hong's black Lexus SUV to schools funded by 
Hong's order, where he was greeted like a munificent father-figure. 
Also funding advanced education for local imams at universities in 
Ningxia and abroad, Hong hopes to broaden the local imams' 
understanding of the "outside" world and better equip them to respond 
to local development challenges as well as to the spiritual needs of 
their followers in a modern society.  Hong holds that his 
relationship with the local Government has been the key to his 
order's success in taking on such active leadership in the community, 
and suggests that the rejection of political activism is a 
prerequisite for government support.  Hong attributed trouble met by 
Uighur Sufi Muslims in Xinjiang to "East Turkestan" forces and other 
"political" movements taking advantage of Sufis' "distance" from 
society.  Not everyone is a Hong fan: one Yinchuan-based professor 
decried the Sufi leader's willing acceptance of money from his 
impoverished followers to support a luxurious lifestyle for himself 
and his family.  End Summary. 
 
Charismatic Imam Leads 2,000-imam Strong Sufi Order 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
¶2. (C) Hong Yang, leader of the "Hongmen" Khufiyya Sufi order, hosted 
visiting PolOff in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region's Tongxin County in 
early April.  Hong, a Peking University- and Pakistan-educated ethnic 
Hui native of Tongxin, has one foot in the mosque and one foot in 
city hall, concurrently serving as the Vice Chairman of Wuzhong City 
People's Political Consultative Conference (PPCC) and as a member of 
the 38-person Standing Committee of the Ningxia People's Congress. 
He inherited the reins of the Islamic order through bloodlines. 
Hong's grandfather, Hong Shoulin (also known as Hong Hairu), was the 
founder and namesake of the Hongmen order, because he allegedly 
brought the Khufiyya Sufi "menhuan" teachings back from Xinjiang 
Uighur Autonomous Region's Aksu area in the early twentieth century. 
(NOTE: "Menhuan" is a term used for Chinese Sufi sects.)  According 
to Hong Yang, the Hongmen order has over 2,000 imams, serving at 
1,500 mosques with over one million Hui followers, most of whom 
reside in Ningxia or Xinjiang's Yili Prefecture. 
 
¶3. (C) Hong's high stature in the community was evident throughout 
PolOff' one-day tour of Tongxin.  Hong took PolOff to various project 
sites in his black Lexus SUV, which his youngest brother (out of 
seven siblings) drives for him.  As Hong entertained PolOff at a 
feast of local halal foods for lunch, three of his entourage of imams 
sat down to eat, while the other dozen or so lingered around the 
table in their long, black jackets and white caps smiling and nodding 
as they followed the conversation at the table.  Hong said he refuses 
to call ahead before making an appearance at one of his project 
sites, and at each school PolOff visited, Hong was greeted and 
received like a beloved father-figure.  Hong described the importance 
of hierarchy in Sufism, with the "Murshid" as a sort of a "great 
teacher" who communicates the teachings of Allah and Muhammad to his 
people.  Hong concedes that he is not technically a Murshid, but says 
with a grin that he "plays the role of one." 
 
¶4. (C) PolOff toured the "Hong Gang Zi" Mausoleum where Hong's 
great-grandfather, grandfather and father have been laid to rest. 
According to Hong, 300,000 Hongmen followers visit each year over the 
course of several days marking the lunar calendar anniversary of 
Hong's great-grandfather's death to pray and pay their respects.  The 
massive complex has repeatedly been forced to expand its capacity to 
offer space for prayer, washing and dining for the huge number of 
pilgrims.  The local Public Security Bureau even has an office at the 
Mausoleum from which they assist in "maintaining public order" during 
the annual event.  The site, which looks somewhat like a run down 
Disneyland with a combination of Chinese and Middle Eastern 
architecture, is an eye-catcher from miles away, as there is nothing 
but pebbly, barren desert in the surrounding landscape. 
 
Imam Plays Prominent Role in Education, Social Development 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
¶5. (C) Enjoying the apparent confidence and support of the local 
Government, Hong has followed his father's lead in spearheading a 
range of social development projects.  According to contacts in 
 
BEIJING 00001699  002 OF 003 
 
 
Ningxia, few imams in the province have been able to play such a 
prominent social role (reftel).  Hong took PolOff to a "Muslim" 
kindergarten built by his order with the goal of offering three years 
of high-quality, affordable pre-school education for Tongxin 
children.  When the Muslim Kindergarten opened its doors several 
years ago, the RMB 720 (USD 100) annual tuition was just over half 
the cost of local public kindergartens.  Administrators at the school 
brag that because of the opening of the Muslim Kindergarten, all the 
government-run schools had to lower tuition fees in order to compete. 
 Hong worked out an arrangement with the local Government stipulating 
that if he funded construction of the school, the Government would 
supply teachers.  Now the Government assigns and pays the salaries of 
about half the school's 70 teachers---90 percent of which claim to 
have graduated from college---while the school recruits and 
compensates the other half.  In line with government policy, the 
school does not teach religion.  However, children learn how to read, 
write and speak basic Arabic and English.  Sayings in both foreign 
languages adorn the walls in "language" classrooms, and students are 
trained to greet visitors in unison in Chinese, Arabic and English. 
 
¶6. (C) PolOff also toured the Hairu Girls School, a boarding junior 
high school (seventh to ninth grades) originally founded by Hong's 
father in the late 1980s for girls from rural areas of central and 
southern Ningxia.  (NOTE: Several years ago the school agreed to take 
male students in order to relieve the burden of an over-populated 
public junior high school elsewhere in Tongxin.  Almost half the 
students are male today.)  The school was apparently set up using a 
model similar to that of the Muslim Kindergarten: the Government pays 
the teachers' salaries while Hong is responsible for providing the 
facilities.  Tuition is free.  Though the school is privately-run, 
teachers follow the same curriculum as the public schools including 
the ban on religious education in the classroom.  Administrators at 
the school proudly stated to PolOff that 75 percent of the Tongxin 
County students who successfully test into senior high schools in the 
provincial capital, Yinchuan---where they will presumably have 
greater educational resources and opportunities---come from the Hairu 
Girls School.  The school principal told PolOff that the school is 
now receiving 900 applications per year to fill the roughly 400 
places in an incoming class. 
 
Mystical to Modern: Bringing Sufis in Step with the Times 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
¶7. (C) Hong's Aiyinke Great Mosque houses an imam-training school for 
seventy young men, who study for three years before being assigned to 
area mosques.  Each year, Hong will pay for twenty graduates who have 
served at mosques for several years to go to university for a 
four-year degree.  Degrees are typically done in the fields of 
literature, history or philosophy, but not religion, said Hong.  Of 
these twenty, Hong will send four or five abroad to Pakistan, Egypt 
or other Muslim countries for further studies.  According to Hong, 
his investment in the advanced education of his young imams has two 
purposes.  First, Hong hopes that broadening the imams' understanding 
of the "outside" world and fields of study will enable them to better 
understand development problems faced in Ningxia and how best to take 
on these challenges.  Second, in receiving a modern education, 
learning how to use computers and the Internet and increasing their 
awareness of popular culture and contemporary society, imams will be 
better equipped to respond to the spiritual of needs their followers 
and the problems their followers face in a modern, globalized 
society. 
 
¶8. (C) Zhou Yushan, a subordinate imam and cousin of Hong Yang, 
expounded upon Hong's ideas for the development of Chinese Sufism as 
he gave PolOff a tour of the mausoleum at Hong Gang Zi.  Zhou 
explained that Sufis have a reputation for being "mysterious," partly 
because Sufis have a history of "withdrawing" from society when faced 
with a social or political landscape whose ideals and practices 
(corruption, for example) they do not support.  Hong's goal is to 
"narrow the gap" between the Sufis and society through increased 
interaction with the "outside" world.  He seeks to bring the Hongmen 
Sufis "in step with modern society." 
 
Good Government Relations, Noninvolvement in Politics the Key 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
¶9. (C) Though he credits himself for bold ideas and clever programs, 
Hong believes that his relationship with the local Government has 
been the key to his Hongmen order's success in taking on such active 
leadership in the community.  He admits that "in the past" the 
Government had expressed some "opposition" to his activism, but that 
the success and obvious benefits of the development programs have 
quieted such resistance.  Hong emphasized repeatedly that he and his 
followers have no interest in and do not participate in political 
movements, suggesting that rejection of political activism is also a 
requisite for government support.  Hong acknowledged that Uighur 
Sufis in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region tend to "run into 
 
BEIJING 00001699  003 OF 003 
 
 
trouble."  Both he and Zhou in separate conversations with PolOff 
asserted that the involvement of Uighur Sufis in political movements 
in Xinjiang is a major factor in their poor treatment.  According to 
Zhou, political movements such as those of the "East Turkestan" 
groups have taken advantage of the Sufis' "distance" from society 
described above to use them for the movements' political aims.  "Such 
movements have no relation to Islam or Sufism, just as the Dalai Lama 
has nothing to do with Buddhism," Zhou stated. 
 
¶10. (C) One contact's comments on Sufis in Xinjiang could suggest 
that Hong's intention to bring his Sufis "in step with society" is 
for the good of the order's survival.  Ahmadjan Hasan (strictly 
protect), a Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences scholar of Islam and 
member of the Xinjiang PPCC, told PolOff that the local Government 
views Sufism as a problem in Aksu, a southern Xinjiang city northeast 
of Kashgar.  According to Hasan, the Sufis' emphasis on living a 
basic, impoverished lifestyle and their lack of a "willingness to 
work or make money" pose obstacles to social and economic 
development, which many view as the cornerstone of the Government's 
effort to tame and develop the predominantly Uighur southern 
Xinjiang.  Hasan noted to PolOff in February 2008 that he heard 
Sufism was recently banned in Hotan ("Hetian" in Mandarin), but said 
he did not know the reason.  Hasan observed that authorities probably 
wanted to extend the prohibition to his own hometown, nearby Yarkand 
("Shache" in Mandarin), but that they likely feared such a move might 
upset stability because of the strength of Sufism in the oasis city. 
 
Ties to CCP's Long March Do Not Hurt 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶11. (C) The rosy relations between Hong and the Ningxia CCP can be 
traced to 1936 when the Communist leadership passed through Tongxin 
during the fabled "Long March."  Apparently, upon the Red Army's 
arrival, Hong Shoulin welcomed them with open arms, offering food, 
water and shelter and declaring them to be the protectors of the 
people of Tongxin.  A Chinese-language online account of Tongxin's 
importance to China's revolutionary history also describes Hong 
Shoulin's courageous risking of his own life to save the life from 
two Communist soldiers by hiding them at Hong Gang Zi, the current 
site of his mausoleum.  Hong Yang told PolOff that the CCP offered 
his grandfather, Hong Shoulin's son, the position of Vice Chairman of 
the Ningxia PPCC out of gratitude for the elder Hong's early support 
of the Communist cause.  Despite the nostalgic relationship between 
the Hong family and the Party, Hong Shoulin's descendants were not 
spared from the wrath of the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 
1970s.  During that time Hong's grandfather was sent to work on a 
farm in northern Ningxia, while his father was sent to work "picking 
up trash" in a village outside Tongxin.  When Reform and Opening 
returned a degree of freedom to Ningxia's Muslims in the early 1980s, 
Hong's father led the movement to rebuild area mosques which had been 
destroyed during the decade of upheaval. 
 
Skeptic 
------- 
 
¶12. (C) Professor Zhou Chuanbin (strictly protect), an ethnic Hui 
professor of law and religion at Ningxia University in Yinchuan, was 
the one sour note in this symphony of hosannas for the Hongs.  Zhou 
told PolOff that he "does not really like" Hong Yang.  Zhou looks 
down on Hong and his order for accepting large donations from the 
impoverished but devout followers, which enable Hong to enjoy a 
wealthy, luxurious lifestyle as evidenced by his large, 
well-furnished house and fancy vehicle. 
PICCUTA