http://www.atimes.com/?p=86293&preview=true&preview_id=86293

The Pope’s soft power vs. Putin’s war of religions in China

By Francesco Sisci October 22, 2016

Asia Times is not responsible for the opinions, facts or any media content presented by contributors. In case of abuse, click here to report.

For the past few years, Russia under President Vladimir Putin has been worried about Chinese demographic and economic pressure pushing into poor and under-populated but resource-rich Siberia. Thus Russia allegedly supported a balancing action to extend Russian influence in China. The Chinese northeast had far more people and was developing much better than Siberia, but it had a weak spot: it was “spiritually poor,” with no religious belief to hang on to, and some people were harking back to their old pre-communist faith in Russian Orthodoxy.
Maoism had erased traditional beliefs and since the fall of Maoism, which had become a semi-religious creed, with the ultra-materialistic approach to economic growth and development, China has been a spiritual semi-desert. Most people held semi-superstitious ideas drawn from Buddhism and Taoism, some were drawn for a while to new religions like the Falun Gong, and there was an explosion of half-forgotten faiths, like Christianity in its different stripes and shapes and Islam.
In this atmosphere, Russia trained Chinese and Russian missionaries in seminaries and sent them to northwest China to help the revival of Russian Orthodoxy. Moreover Putin pressed the Chinese government to get a distinct official recognition for the Russian Orthodox Church in China. At the moment, the Orthodox Church is under the umbrella of the Christian Patriotic Association, which covers mostly Protestants. In China, these associations were established after the Communist Party took over the country to organize and keep an eye on the main religions in China. The officially recognized religions are Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholicism, and “other Christians” all listed under the Office of Religious Affairs. That is, all of the associations actually cover different schools and separate religions. For instance, Lamaist and Zen Buddhists are bundled together in one group (Buddhism); Sufi and Wahhabi Islam, too; Evangelicals and Mormons are under one umbrella (Christians). Only the Catholics have a coherent association of their own. In the late 1990s, the Falun Gong, initially registered as a sport association, insisted on being listed under the Office of Religious Affairs, separate from the Buddhist or Taoist umbrella, but their request was denied before the eventual official crackdown in 1999. http://www.atimes.com/popes-soft-power-vs-putins-war-religions-china/?preview_id=86293