CAN YOU BE RELIGIOUS IN CHINA?

My choice today is to overview the role that religion plays in China today.  But first, a quick look at the country:

• Has 1.45 billion people, more than any country, although India has 1.42 billion.  The United Nations projects that India will surpass China next year.   Incidentally, the world population is expected to reach 8 billion by November 15 of this year.  However, the global growth rate fell below 1% in 2020, the slowest growth pace since 1950.  Further, this same UN report said that life expectancy was 72.8 in 2020, but, because of the pandemic, dropped to 71 in 2021
• There are 5% more males than females.  Why?  Males are more desired and there is sex-selective abortion.
• 
  Is the third largest country in land mass.  #1 is Russia, #2 is Canada and #4 is the USA, with Brazil #5, Australia #6 and India #7.  I did not know that these countries were that large:  Argentina #8, Kazakhstan #9 and Algeria #10.   Note that Antarctica is really #2, but is not a country.

• 
  The pandemic has curtailed travel to China.  When you next go, chances are that Google, Facebook, Twitter and many other sites will not be available.  Solution, download a Virtual Private Network.  Also be aware of the top ten ten tourist scams.

• 
  The six great Chinese inventions are printing, gunpowder, the compass, tea and paper-making, and some say, because of that, #6 is toilet paper.  You can also add:  clock, porcelain, pasta, umbrella, toothbrush and kite.
• Red symbolizes happiness, and is banned at funerals.

• 
  The fortune cookie was invented by Makoto Hagiwara in 1914 as an immigrant from Japan living in San Francisco.  That's him in 1924.
• There is only one time zone in the entire country, UTC+08:00.
• The national sport is ping pong.
• Oh, one more discovery, chopsticks, about 5000 years ago.

Before I get spiritual, some questions about China today:

• Why haven't they more closely assisted Russia in the Ukraine War?  I don't know, but read Fortune for one point of view.

• 
  Is Xi Jinping truly dictator for life?  
• The laws in China only allow for two 5-year terms.
• However, last year China effectively named him dictator for life.
• Xi will gain a third term later this year.
• He has ruthlessly eliminated any competitor.

• 
  All could change, however, if there is a sudden and significant discombobulation:
• Youth joblessness just rose to a record 20%.  This is the danger group that can cause problems.
• There is a housing crisis.
• Extremely hot temperatures are causing havoc with electricity.
• 
  Zero tolerance to COVID has hurt the economy, expected to grow by only 3% this year.

• 
  In the beginning China had the most COVID cases.  Can this be repeated?  If Japan/South Korea/Australia, etc, that is, countries that resisted infections in the first two years, until the advent of super contagious Omicron BA.5, and now BA.2.5 from India, too significantly cripples China, all bets are off about Xi's future.
• Murky relations with the USA can help or hurt, and probably the latter.

I had a brief encounter with religious freedom on a trip I made to China a quarter century ago.  I provided a lecture on renewable energy to students at Zhejiang University of Technology, and for a reason I can't remember, asked how many of them believed in God and the Afterlife.  A very few hands went up.  I later learned that you shouldn't ask these questions because there are spies everywhere, and anyone who showed any religious belief could be reported.

In China:

• The Chinese Communist Party is officially atheist, but the Chinese Constitution says that citizens enjoy freedom of religious belief.
• Five religions are recognized:  Buddhism, Catholicism, Daoism, Islam and Protestantism.

• 
  There seems to be an emergence of religious interest, with supposedly 350 million practicing some faith.  While the U.S. has around 150 million Protestants, China has 70 million.
• A growing number of religious beliefs are banned.
• While spiritual rights are tolerated, there are also heightened rules and monitoring.
• Has one of the largest populations of religious prisoners, especially Uyghur Muslims.

• 
  Not long after I made that faux pas in China, persecution and eradication of Falun Gong began.  This is a modern qigong discipline combining slow-moving exercises and meditation with a moral philosophy founded by Li Hongzhi only in 1992.  Perhaps millions of practitioners went through "re-education  through labor" camps.    Evidence has been found that organs of 41,500 of them were killed to gain access to organs.  As of 12 years ago, 2,000 followers were tortured to death.  Courts in Europe and South American indicted senior Chinese officials for genocide.  Read Wikipedia to learn why the Falun Gong is so despised.

The bottom line is that China is the world's least religious country, where 9% are considered religious, with 67% atheists, nearly four times more than #2, Sweden, at 18%.  

• Only 1% of people in Thailand are atheists, with India at 2%.
• 100% of those in Indonesia, Ghana, Nigeria, Kosovo and Azerbaijan said they believe in God.
• China's belief in God is 16%, 22% in Sweden and 29% in Japan.
• USA's belief in God dropped to an all-time low of 81% this year.  This rate was at 98% or so in the 50's and 60's.

So, of course, you can be religious in China.  Amen.

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