Interestingly the comment by Liu that Chinese do not believe in religion got me looking some more with very intresting results
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiping_rebellion
The Taiping Rebellion was a large-scale revolt in China from 1850 to 1864 -- and the replacement of Confucianism, Buddhism and Chinese folk religion by a form of Christianity, holding that Hong Xiuquan was the younger brother of Jesus.
Early in the Taiping rebellion, the Taiping rebels targeted Buddhism. In the Battle of Nanjing (1853), the Taiping army butchered thousands of monks in Nanjing
Also
As mentioned earlier, persecution came during the reign of Emperor Wuzong in the Tang Dynasty. Wuzong was said to hate the sight of Buddhist monks, whom he thought were tax-evaders. In 845, he ordered the destruction of 4,600 Buddhist monasteries and 40,000 temples. About 250,000 Buddhist monks and nuns had to give up their monastery lives. Wuzong cited that Buddhism was an alien religion, which is the reason he also persecuted the Christians in China. Ancient Chinese Buddhism never fully recovered from the persecution.
So we see two clear examples of religious wars in China based on solid religious fanaticism. Also shows the hold of religion in China if not repressed by state. No wonder they are afraid of Falun Gong.
I also noted the following
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_of_Nanjing
The Nanking Massacre or Nanjing Massacre, also known as the Rape of Nanking, refers to a six-week period following the Japanese capture of Nanking, then capital of the Republic of China, on December 9, 1937
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tang_dynasty
In addition to natural calamities and jiedushi amassing autonomous control, the Huang Chao Rebellion (874-884) resulted in the sacking of both Chang'an and Luoyang, and took an entire decade to suppress.[160] Although the rebellion was defeated by the Tang, it never recovered from that crucial blow, weakening it for the future military powers to take over.
So not only did religious wars and prosecution of Buddhists happen, shortly after wards within 50 years there was a massive revolt or external invasion completely destroying China.
Also the scales of destruction in China is massive -- a cursory reading of the history shows up numbers like 20 Million dead in nearly any random revolt war. The major ones are even more bloody, up to 1/4 of the entire population perishing. A rather ruthless bunch of people if not civilized by Buddhism clearly.
Based on the above the next crucial cycle of Buddhist repression and the following destruction cycle of China is scheduled around 2008-2012 time frame (destruction of Tibet and war on India) -- lets wait and see.