HOW CHINA IS COOPTING RELIGION

A few weeks ago, Foreign Affairs asked me to revisit a piece I did for them in 2017 on China’s amazing religious revival. 

In this new piece, I revisit the themes then and the changes made by the government since then. It’s been a very tumultuous two years that have seen the trends outlined in that earlier piece (which was actually excerpted from my book, The Souls of China) only accelerate, with persecution of Christians and Muslims increasing, along with support for the “traditional” faiths of Buddhism, Taoism and folk religion.