In their beloved spiritually superior Communist China athletes, students coming to the US to study and entertainment stars all have to profess admiration for the Commie leaders. Even the permission to worship as Christians includes venerating the government leaders alongside Christ.
US wokesters learned from the Chinese.
Such as:
It has been a key element of President Xi Jinping’s government since April 2016, when he delivered a speech at the National Religious Work Conference calling for the CCP to “actively guide the adaptation of religions to socialist society.”
At the 19th Party Congress in 2017, Xi emphasized that the CCP would “provide active guidance for religion and socialism to coexist.”
The issuance of the decree coincides with a push by the government-controlled national religious associations of Protestantism, Catholicism, Taoism, Buddhism and Islam to require all believers to study topics such as the histories of the CCP, the People’s Republic of China and socialism to mark the 100th anniversary of the CCP in July.
VOA, China News, April 24, 2021.
Baseball contracts are guaranteed. He’s retirement age. Maybe he wanted to go out early or with a bang.