Current Event #3

http://www.economist.com/node/21547287

China, like other communist countries of the past, has upheld its belief that religion and the Communist Party should not and cannot exist simultaneously.  They have been more loose about allowing the presence of religion in the country, but only under strict control of the government, and only to the faiths that China has excepted - Buddhism, Daoism, Islam, and Protestant and Catholic Christianity.  This has become a real issue for some followers of religions who wish to engage in party action.  Over the last decade, the policy has pretty much been "don't ask, don't tell" regarding faith of party workers, because its against the law for them to be religious believer and party members.  If any employees were to discover the faith of one of their coworkers, that person could be fired for their beliefs.  Despite the stringent measure surrounding relgion in China, a lot of people still partake in it.  It's estimated that 200 to 300 million people practice religion in China.  Of those, the majority of them are Daoist or Buddhist.  Number of Christians varies from about 50 million to 100 million.  However, recently, a suspicion of higher regulation and a less accepting attitude towards religion has been expected to arise due to an article that deputy minister of the party's United Front Work Department, Zhu Weiqun, wrote in a party article.  He warned against relgious belief in the face of potentially losing the Marxist values that the country holds now.  The Chinese government fears the separatism that could result from concentrated religious beliefs within the country.  The idea that people cannot practice the religion they want freely is a very alien idea to me, living in the U.S.  It's clear that many people in the country like the idea of religion and want to see it preserved as an institution in the country.  If religion continues to persist and perhaps grow in China, we could be seeing some real issue begin to result in the country, especially if the party takes a more hostile view towards religion and stirs resentment in the practicing folk.  It will be interesting to see how communism and religion continue to intermix and mingle within Chinese society in the next few years.