A People's Daily (August 12) article authored by a researcher at the China Tibetology Research
Centre and captioned 'Always Adhere to the Adaptation of Chinese Religion and Socialist
Society' said "Politically speaking, religion in our country is no longer a tool used by
imperialism and feudal forces, but has become a self-run business by religious believers.
Patriots in religious circles and the majority of religious believers support the leadership of the
party and the socialist system, and have become an important part of the patriotic united front.
Socialist society has created favourable conditions for bringing into play the positive factors of
religion and restraining negative factors, and laid the foundation for religion to adapt to socialist
society. Chinese religion has embarked on the correct path to adapt to socialist society".
Recalling Xi Jinping's speech at the National Conference on Religious Work, it said "Religion is a historical phenomenon that will exist for a long time in a socialist society. In the process
of actively guiding religion to adapt to the socialist society, China has always adhered to its
own national conditions and religious reality, implemented a policy of freedom of religious
belief, and guaranteed the right to freedom of religious belief. The adaptation of religion to
socialist society does not require religious believers to give up their theistic ideology and
religious beliefs, but requires them to love the motherland politically, support the socialist
system, and support the leadership of the Communist Party." The article disclosed that China
presently has "nearly 200 million religious citizens and more than 380,000 religious personnel.
There are many Buddhist and Taoist believers, and it is difficult to accurately count the number.
There are about 222,000 Buddhist teaching staff and more than 40,000 Taoist teaching staff.
The 10 ethnic minorities whose majority believe in Islam have a total population of more than
20 million and more than 57,000 Islamic clerical staff. There are about 6 million Catholics and
about 8,000 religious personnel. There are more than 38 million Christian believers and about
57,000 religious clerics. At present, there are 144,000 places of religious activity registered
according to law. There are about 33,500 Buddhist monasteries, including more than 28,000 of
Chinese Buddhism, more than 3,800 of Tibetan Buddhism, and more than 1,700 of Southern
Buddhism. There are more than 9,000 Taoist temples. There are more than 35,000 Islamic
mosques. There are 98 Catholic dioceses and more than 6,000 churches and activity halls.
There are about 60,000 Christian churches and meeting places".
|
