Religion is CCP’s Anti-Thesis

The persistence of religious disposition and practice in China, despite the Chinese Communist Party’s all-out efforts to eradicate religion during the Cultural Revolution, gives us a clue on what may become a source of internal dissent that may bring about CPP’s collapse. According to Richard Madsen, in his Templeton Lecture, “Back to the Future: Pre-Modern Religious Policy in Post-Secular China,” surveying the role of religion in China, religious activity of all sorts is on the rise in Chinese society, with official statistics indicating about 100 million religious believers, although, a recent survey accepted for publication in an officially approved Chinese journal, puts it at 300 million. Whether such an increase in religious activity springs from a natural desire to go back to the religious traditions of the Imperial age or due to influence of universalizing religious movements, the Chinese are looking for religious self-expressions.

Freedom movements everywhere should take note: in these religious practices taking place in China today lie the seeds of liberty that can flourish into legitimate dissent against the communist regime. Where free-market seems to fail (as it has benefitted the Party mostly, since wealth, along with economic liberties that come with it, hasn't really trickled down to the bottom), religious liberty is China's self-contradiction.