Editing Iconoclasm (section)

=== China ===
{{further|Four Buddhist Persecutions in China|Anti-Western sentiment in China}}
There have been [[Four Buddhist Persecutions in China|a number of anti-Buddhist campaigns]] in [[Chinese history]] that led to the destruction of [[Buddhist temple]]s and images. One of the most notable of these campaigns was the [[Great Anti-Buddhist Persecution]] of the [[Tang dynasty]].

During and after the 1911 [[Xinhai revolution|Xinhai Revolution]], there was widespread destruction of religious and secular images in [[China]].

During the [[Northern Expedition]] in [[Guangxi]] in 1926, [[Kuomintang]] General [[Bai Chongxi]] led his troops in destroying Buddhist temples and smashing Buddhist images, turning the temples into schools and Kuomintang party headquarters.<ref>{{cite book|first=Diana|last=Lary|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tCA9AAAAIAAJ&q=muslim|title=Region and nation: the Kwangsi clique in Chinese politics, 1925–1937|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1974|isbn=978-0-521-20204-6|page=98|access-date=2010-06-28}}</ref> It was reported that almost all of the [[vihara]]s in Guangxi were destroyed and the [[bhikkhu|monks]] were removed.<ref>{{cite book|author=Don Alvin Pittman|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LxDUeWdMubkC&q=bai+chongxi+buddhist+temples&pg=PA146|title=Toward a modern Chinese Buddhism: Taixu's reforms|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|year=2001|isbn=978-0-8248-2231-6|page=146|access-date=2010-06-28}}</ref> Bai also led a wave of anti-foreignism in Guangxi, attacking Americans, Europeans, and other foreigners, and generally making the province unsafe for foreigners and [[missionaries]]. Westerners fled from the province and some [[Chinese Christians]] were also attacked as imperialist agents.<ref name="auto1">{{cite book|first=Diana|last=Lary|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tCA9AAAAIAAJ&q=muslim|title=Region and nation: the Kwangsi clique in Chinese politics, 1925–1937|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1974|isbn=978-0-521-20204-6|page=99|access-date=2010-06-28}}</ref> The three goals of the movement were anti-foreignism, [[anti-imperialism]] and [[anti-religion]]. Bai led the anti-religious movement against [[superstition]]. [[Huang Shaohong]], also a Kuomintang member of the [[New Guangxi clique]], supported Bai's campaign. The anti-religious campaign was agreed upon by all Guangxi Kuomintang members.<ref name="auto1"/>

There was extensive destruction of religious and secular imagery in [[Tibet]] after it was [[Chinese expedition to Tibet (1910)|invaded]] and [[occupation of Tibet|occupied]] by China.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Karan|first=P. P.|title=The Changing World Religion Map|date=2015|publisher=Springer, Dordrecht|isbn=978-9401793759|pages=461–476|language=en|chapter=Suppression of Tibetan Religious Heritage|doi=10.1007/978-94-017-9376-6_23}}</ref>

Many religious and secular images were destroyed during the [[Cultural Revolution]] of 1966–1976, ostensibly because they were a holdover from China's traditional past (which the Communist regime led by [[Mao Zedong]] reviled). The Cultural Revolution included widespread destruction of historic artworks in public places and private collections, whether religious or secular. Objects in state museums were mostly left intact.