How a web of anti-cult organizations across China, South Korea, and Japan may serve China's war on faith.
Note: This commentary is based on publicly available sources. It does not assert organizational ties or illegality as established fact.
Why the International Community Should Pay Attention
In March 2025, the Tokyo District Court ordered the dissolution of the Unification Church β a faith community with a global presence and a decades-long track record of opposing communism across East Asia.
Within weeks, a Chinese government-linked organization publicly celebrated the ruling.
That organization β the China Anti-Cult Association (CACA) β operates under the direct control of the Chinese Communist Party. And it didn't just celebrate the court ruling. It specifically praised the Japanese lawyers' group that made it happen.
The question isn't whether these groups coordinate in secret. The question is simpler and more uncomfortable: Are the legal systems of democratic nations being exploited to achieve outcomes that align with Beijing's agenda β the suppression of religious organizations it views as threats? If so, this is not just a Japanese issue or a Korean issue. It is a global threat to religious freedom.
The Three Organizations
To understand the picture, meet three groups operating in three countries β all working under the banner of "anti-cult" activism.
These three groups share a common target: the Unification Church (now known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification). They also increasingly share platforms, partnerships, and praise.
What Happened: A Timeline
1986 β Japan Attorney Hiroshi Yamaguchi calls for the formation of Zenkoku Benren. In his own words at the time, a key motivation was to "urgently launch" the group to block Japan's proposed National Secrets Act β an anti-espionage law. Critics, including Japan's International Federation for Victory Over Communism, have long argued the group's true founding purpose was political, not consumer protection.
2007 β South Korea Pastor Yong-sik Jin, chairman of the World Christian Heresy Countermeasures Association, is convicted by South Korea's Supreme Court for violent deprogramming β the practice of kidnapping and psychologically coercing members of religious groups into renouncing their faith. He received a suspended prison sentence. Reports indicate he earned over $750,000 from deprogramming activities.
2024 β Italy A Rome court ruling identifies Pastor Myung-ok Oh β a close associate of Pastor Jin in the same Korean organization β as a "special agent" of China, according to Bitter Winter, an international magazine on religious freedom cited by the U.S. State Department as a credible source.
January 2025 β Tokyo Zenkoku Benren and the Korean Heresy Countermeasures Association sign a formal cooperation agreement at attorney Masaki Kito's law office in Tokyo. The signing features a handshake between Pastor Jin and Zenkoku Benren's representative, attorney Yamaguchi.
March 2025 β Tokyo A Tokyo court orders the dissolution of the Unification Church.
April 2025 β Beijing The China Anti-Cult Association publishes commentary praising Zenkoku Benren's role in the dissolution, specifically applauding its "public opinion mobilization" efforts. Italian sociologist of religion Massimo Introvigne reports this in Bitter Winter, noting that CACA welcomed the ruling because the Unification Church has long been an "instrument of anti-communist ideology."
August 2025 β South Korea An anti-cult seminar is held at Mokwon University in Daejeon. Experts from China, Japan, South Korea, and Germany gather to discuss groups including the Unification Church and the Church of Almighty God. A representative of the Hubei Provincial Anti-Cult Association β a CCP-affiliated body β presents alongside Korean and Japanese academics.
The CCP's Playbook Against Faith
None of this is happening in a vacuum. The Chinese Communist Party has waged war on religious belief since its founding, rooted in Marxist-Leninist ideology that views faith as fundamentally incompatible with the communist project.
As Lenin declared: "We must fight religion. This is the ABC of materialism, and therefore of Marxism."
Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, speaking at a 2022 conference in Seoul, put it plainly:
The Chinese Communist Party hates and fears people of faith more than anyone.
Pompeo also noted the strategic significance of the Unification Church: the Family Federation has long supported strong alliances between the U.S., Japan, and South Korea β the very partnerships Beijing seeks to weaken. In Pompeo's assessment, "the only entity that benefits from weakening the Family Federation is communism."
"Anti-Cult" β A Neutral Term or a Weapon?
Introvigne, one of the world's foremost scholars of new religious movements, offers a critical observation about the language at play:
The word "cult" is never a neutral term. It is a weapon. When used by authoritarian regimes and their collaborators, it becomes a tool for exclusion, imprisonment, and elimination.
This is not a theoretical concern. In China, the "anti-cult" label has been applied to Falun Gong practitioners (subjected to mass detention and credible allegations of organ harvesting), underground Christians, Tibetan Buddhists, and Uyghur Muslims. The same vocabulary β "cult," "heresy," "harmful religion" β is now being deployed across democratic East Asian nations through organizations that share platforms and, in at least one documented case, personnel with direct ties to Beijing.
What We Know β and What We Don't
What is documented:
What is not documented:
The absence of a direct link does not eliminate the concern. Influence operations rarely require formal agreements. Shared goals, shared language, shared targets, and overlapping networks can produce aligned outcomes without a single signed document.
The Bigger Picture
Democratic societies rightly protect citizens from fraud and abuse. But when the legal tools of free nations produce results that a totalitarian regime celebrates β and when the organizations involved share stages, sign agreements, and target the same religious communities β Citizens in Japan, South Korea, the United States, Germany, and every free nation should ask harder questions.
Religious freedom is not the value of any single nation. It is the foundation of every free society. And the forces working to erode it are patient, networked, and increasingly global. The final verdict on the dissolution order for the Unification Church is set for March 4th, just one week away.