理查德·马德森：中国的宗教增长，所以应该予以监控
美国加州大学圣地亚哥分校教授（中文名：赵文词）解释中共宗教政策。三十年来，没有任何改变。习近平的新指示和邓小平如出一辙，但带有新的民族主义色彩。基督信仰和伊斯兰被视为“外来”宗教、受到怀疑
圣地亚哥（亚洲新闻）—长期以来，中国人的宗教生活和宗教信徒增加了。推动人们发现信仰的还有中国人目前所处的焦虑不安的状态，甚至中共领导人也是这样。三十年来，中共的宗教政策基本没有改变。这是美国加利福尼亚州大学圣地亚哥分校宗教社会学教授理查德·马德森（中文名：赵文词）的分析。他还与上海复旦大学、圣地亚哥“二十一世纪中国研究”中心合作。
去年七月，马德森参加了在美国圣地亚哥举行的中国宗教状况、自由前景以及宗教在国内作用问题研讨会。
亚洲新闻通讯社决定分段发表他与中心副主任 Samuel Tsoi的一篇长篇对话。
期间，涉及到了过去一年里所发生的各种事件，充分展示了政府对宗教，特别是基督教的控制加强。早在二O一五年，习近平就在接见统战部工作人员时明确指示：中国的宗教应该是“中国的”、摆脱各种“外籍势力的影响”；应该融入到中国社会主义社会中、在党的领导下“为国家发展服务”。二O一六年，他重申了国家控制宗教事务的重要性，事关“国家安全和民族统一”。最后，去年九月，公布了新的宗教活动管理法规。马德森教授认为，中国对宗教的控制与中国在社会其它领域所实施的方式雷同；预计很难铲除这种方式。
以下为长篇对话第一部分：
Prof. Madsen is currently working on his latest book on happiness in China which he describes as the exploration and the search for a good life in China in a time of anxiety. Perhaps the great increase in religion in the country can be explained precisely by this question on contemporary China’s search for a better life in times of anxiety. This new project to "Sinicize” religion, does it mean more or less freedom? How can believers live their faith in the context of state control?
Prof. Madsen, thank you very much for being with us today to answer these questions. You have dedicated most of your career to studying religion in China. Does this new policy mark a change in the attitude of the Chinese government towards religion? How do you interpret the Xi Jinping Directive in practicing religions within the framework of Chinese socialism?
Well, it is a great pleasure to be here. I think that the new directives are not radically different from the polices of control [toward religion] that have been in existence for the last 30 years at least. After 1949, the beginning of the communist regime in China, steps were taken to suppress any form of religious activity. This suppression took on different forms, with distrust for religion, but in essence the aim was to eliminate religion from Chinese society. This later reached its peak with the so-called Cultural Revolution, from 1966 to 1976, when the Red Guards destroyed the famous churches, temples and religious symbols etc. ... They harshly persecuted believers who openly practiced their faith. When the so-called "reform era" began in 1979, there was a relaxing of these policies and a "recognition" that the attempt to wipe out religion, what they call "ultraleftist", was counter-productive and was actually pushing people to practice their religions even more, sparking a negative reaction. Thus, the latest policy is to recognize that religions still exist but should be kept strictly under control with the belief that sooner or later faiths will become extinct as the modernization in China moves forward.
At the same time they should be kept in check forcing them to operate within narrow margins. This was the policy that led to document no. 9 of the CCP Central Committee (Chinese Communist Party) in 1982, and that outlined this general framework. Now, what happened is that there were many more religions than those which they thought to check. In short, over the past 20 years millions of temples have been reconstructed; Religious communities such as Christian, Buddhist and even the cult of the dollar have grown enormously. Accordingly, politics is full of religious policies. Their original policy was that religion would die out sooner or later, as in the Marxist-Leninist mentality, but it has not worked. So, there are several religions that they have to try to control. And that's why they changed their policies. At the same time, over the last 5-10 years something new has changed in the Chinese government ideology, the new emphasis on "nationalism". Before Mao's government was legitimized on the basis of Marxism and Leninism. Now the Marxist-Leninist language still exists, is still practiced and officially in use, but this recognition is not enough. The Party now has new functions: it is a revolutionary party, but President Xi Jinping calls it a "ruling party", and so it needs a base to legitimize it. Thus, the new base of support is nationalism, the great glorious history of Chinese civilization and its people, which also includes part of its religious heritage. Because of this, some aspects of heritage - Confucian teachings, aspects of popular religion - are now redefined as "intangible cultural heritage." Before these were called "feudal superstitions." Now, being cultural heritage, they are part of the wisdom of the Chinese people. There is therefore a new tolerance for these aspects and in fact there is also a new appeal to Confucianism as a major base and a moral foundation for China.
At the same time, other types of religions are not seen as part of the glorious historical heritage or Chinese culture such as Christianity and Islam. So they are viewed with suspicion and closely monitored. At present there is this kind of mixed policy. The latest idea that came out of the conference a few months ago was to discuss how to handle all of this and understand the overall direction of the government, which is in line with the direction taken by other aspects of Chinese society: tighten controls, submit to central control, monitoring, suppressing all forms considered a possible threat to the Chinese state. And this results in a growing control of the religious sphere.
