How China woke up to a religious resurgence

Via NOR

How China woke up to a religious resurgence

By Richard Spencer in Beijing
Last Updated: 1:34am GMT 08/02/2007

The dramatic religious revival in China has been acknowledged by Beijing for the first time with a survey suggesting the number of adherents is three times the official figure.

Beijing also accepts by implication that there are tens of millions of Christians who do not worship in state-registered churches, a significant admission as negotiations with the Vatican over a resumption of diplomatic relations appear to have stalled.

International groups have also been active in trying to draw attention to the persecution of the growing number of underground Christian churches in the country.
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The survey, published in the China Daily newspaper, the international mouthpiece of the Communist Party, said that 31 per cent of the adult population – defined as over 16 – described themselves as religious, which works out at around 300 million people.

Official figures say there are 100 million religious adherents, a number which the paper noted without comment "has remained largely unchanged for years". It described the new number as "startling".

Beijing has changed tack on religion dramatically in recent years, despite remaining officially atheist and demanding that party members do not belong to a religion, an instruction widely ignored.

Partly in recognition of the churches, mosques and temples springing up in villages and suburbs all over the country, leaders now say religion can play a part in building a "harmonious society".

Most of the adherents found by the survey, around 200 million, followed Buddhism, Taoism, or local deities such as the Dragon King.

It said that 40 million were Protestants, more than double the official figure for the state church of 16 million. It gave no figure for Catholicism, but there are six million members of the state catholic church, which does not recognise the authority of the Pope, and at least the same number again, if not more, underground Roman Catholics who do.

"------- Commies." Of course "religion can play a part in building a 'harmonious society,' so long as they cooperate with the Party and accept its leadership. If things get worse in China, the people will need more religion, not less, and the Communists, with their militant atheism, will have nothing to offer except the use of force to respond to discontent.