Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-24hb2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-27T19:59:35.131Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

China's Religious Freedom Policy: The Art of Managing Religious Activity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2005

Abstract

This article examines how the policy of “religious freedom” has been used to enable the CCP to retain institutional and ideological control over the religious sector of Chinese society. In particular, it looks at how the clash between religious and communist ideologies has evolved, first in the Maoist period and then in the context of reform and openness with the attendant growth of materialism and social change since 1978. A softening in the control of religion to encourage national reconstruction and foreign investment led to a proliferation of religious activity that alarmed Party leaders and triggered a tightening of ideological control and important changes in religious policy. The new policy of “accommodation” and emphasis on “legality” became the watchwords of the Jiang Zemin era. With further development they remain important in the new regime of Hu Jintao.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© The China Quarterly, 2005

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

The author wishes to thank Leo F. Goodstadt, the adjunct professor, Trinity College, University of Dublin, Honorary Fellow of the University of Hong Kong, for giving his valuable comments on each stage of her writing, and Dr Barbara Valdez for proofreading the draft.