Re: People's Republic of China, Dec. 27 2011
Posted: 30 Sep 2013 22:09
Xi Jinping hopes traditional faiths can fill moral void in China: sources
(Reuters) - President Xi Jinping believes China is losing its moral compass and he wants the ruling Communist Party to be more tolerant of traditional faiths in the hope these will help fill a vacuum created by the country's breakneck growth and rush to get rich, sources said.
Xi, who grew up in Mao's puritan China, is troubled by what he sees as the country's moral decline and obsession with money, said three independent sources with ties to the leadership.
He hopes China's "traditional cultures" or faiths - Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism - will help fill a void that has allowed corruption to flourish, the sources said.
Skeptics see it as a cynical move to try to curb rising social unrest and perpetuate one-party rule.
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Government agencies would moderate policies towards Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism in the hope these faiths would also help placate the disaffected who cannot afford homes, education and medical treatment, the sources said.
"The influence of religions will expand, albeit subtly," a second source said, also speaking on condition of anonymity.
"Traditional cultures will not be comprehensively popularized, but attacks on them will be avoided."
Skeptics described such tactics as a ploy to divert blame away from the party for the many problems that anger ordinary Chinese, from corruption to land grabs.
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China estimates it has 50 million practitioners of Buddhism and Taoism, 23 million Protestants, 21 million Muslims and 5.5 million Catholics,
Independent experts put the number of practitioners of Buddhism, Taoism and folk religions at between 100-300 million.