Oct. 1 – According to sources closely tied to the government, Chinese President Xi Jinping is concerned with his countries moral decline and obsession with money, and has been further promoting China’s three traditional faiths – Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism – in the hope that they can counter societal corruption.
The sources have told Reuters that “Xi understands that the anti-corruption drive can only cure symptoms and that reform of the political system and the faiths are needed to cure the disease of corruption.”
It is likely that Government policies towards Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism would be relaxed and that these would help the disaffected.
“The influence of these religions will expand, albeit subtly. Traditional cultures will not be comprehensively popularized but attacks on them will be reigned in,” said the source.
Zhang Lebin, Deputy Director of the Bureau of Religious Affairs, stated in the People’s Daily last July that “treating religions well should become a common consensus… and the right to practice religion should be protected.”
Xi himself called in August for the building of a society that was a “material and spiritual civilization.”
Chris Devonshire-Ellis of Dezan Shira & Associates further comments that “China has developed a massive amoral society where some people simply cannot make the distinction between right and wrong. This impacts hugely on business attitudes and those towards the fellow man, which is why we are seeing schoolchildren dying due to milk contamination caused by profiteering, and the systematic development of fraud in many business investments. The onus is on the individual first and not that of anyone else or society as a whole. This causes huge problems within society and affects the ability for China to develop as an international power. A lack of trust towards average Chinese nationals is globally rampant, which is extremely damaging to China’s international image – and their amorality is a major reason why.”
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