In Yiwu, Zhejiang, participants in a sports event are indoctrinated against the “xie jiao” while cycling up the hills. by Qi Junzao The Yivu race: anti-xie-jiao propaganda is not far away. On December 14, the city of Yiwu in Zhejiang province hosted what might have been a perfectly ordinary sporting event: a cycling hill‑climb invitational. One thousand riders gathered at the scenic Shili Taohua Wu area to test their stamina on the winding Yan’kou Lake track. But in China, no public gathering is too innocent to escape the heavy hand of propaganda. Suddenly, the event was transformed into a “sports + anti-xie‑jiao extravaganza.” For readers unfamiliar with the term, “xie jiao” is often translated as “cults” or “evil cults,” but this is not accurate. It designates in China since the Middle Ages “organizations spreading heterodox teachings,” and the powers that be decide which teachings are “heterodox.” Today, it is a deliberately broad and elastic label wielded by the Chinese …