Why is religious activity limited in China?

1 Answer
May 20, 2016

Falun Gong, Uighur Muslims and the Dalai Lama are active threats to the Communist party establishment.

Explanation:

I lived in China for a year and a half and was surprised at the prosperity and the growth of a Chinese middle class that would have been unthinkable 30 years ago. I saw more enterprise in China than I've seen for a while in America, and most Chinese are as hard-working and in pursuit of personal freedom as anyone anywhere else. There are two specific areas where the Chinese do not enjoy the kind of freedom most of the rest of the world enjoys: religion and travel.

Religious expression in China tends to be of the low-key variety. In their public lives, few Chinese wear their religion on their sleeves. The ones who do--followers of the Dalai Lama, members of Falun Gong, and Muslim extremists in the Western provinces--don't make a distinction between religious and political activism. And the object of that religious and political activism is the Communist Party.

China's politburo has come a long way since the tanks rolled in Tienanmen Square in the late 80s, and they're pretty tolerant of the Christian, Buddhist and Muslim mainstream that minds its own business and doesn't criticize the Party. They are less tolerant of their critics, especially the ones that glamorize martyrdom.