Limits and Hopes: Catholics and Religious Freedom in the People's Republic of China

1989 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-209
Author(s):  
Geoffrey King
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
People's Republic Of China ◽  
Chinese Tradition ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Marxist Ideology ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
The Catholic Church

Despite the more liberal policies of the present Chinese government, the Catholic Church in China remains very limited in its activities. It can have no voice on matters of public policy; Catholics can give no external expression to their belief in the primacy of the Pope. This state of affairs is determined as much by Chinese tradition and the economy as by Marxist ideology. But a mission of “presence” remains possible, and there seem to be no insuperable obstacles to a model of church communion which respects both papal primacy and the Chinese desire for “autonomy”.

scholarly journals The Catholic Church in Modern China: How Does State Regulation Influence the Church?

Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 446
Author(s):  
Magdaléna Masláková ◽  
Anežka Satorová
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Field Research ◽  
State Regulation ◽  
Modern China ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Catholic Church

The Chinese government has regulated all religious activity in the public domain for many years. The state has generally considered religious groups as representing a potential challenge to the authority of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which sees one of its basic roles as making sure religion neither interferes with the state’s exercise of power nor harms its citizens. A revised Regulation on Religious Affairs (Zongjiao shiwu tiaoli 宗教事务条例) took effect in 2018, updating the regulation of 2005. This paper aims to introduce and explore the content of the regulation, especially how it differs from its predecessor, how any changes are likely to affect religious groups in China, and whether the implications will be greater for some groups than for others. For example, the Catholic church in China has historical links to the worldwide Catholic church, so articles in the new regulation which seek to curb foreign influence on Chinese religious groups may have more of an effect on Chinese Catholics than on other groups. The research is based on textual analysis of the relevant legal documents and on field research conducted in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The fieldwork consisted of open interviews with several church members and official representatives of the church conducted in Zhejiang Province between March and May 2018, and in May and June 2019. The paper thus aims to analyze contemporary Chinese religious legislation in light of anthropological research in order to fully comprehend the lived experience of Catholics in China, and to address two main questions: How is the new regulation affecting the Catholic church? What are the possible outcomes of the new regulation for the Catholic church in China?

The Current Status of the Catholic Church in the People's Republic of China

1995 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 281-293
Author(s):  
Jean-Paul Wiest
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Current Status ◽  
People’S Republic Of China ◽  
People's Republic Of China ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Christian Churches ◽  
Official Policy ◽  
The Catholic Church

Opposing news items about Christian churches in the People's Republic of China (PRC) are almost a daily fare. One article might speak of renewed religious fervor and the growth of churches, while the next one might tell of persecutions and arrests. The Catholic Church in China is symptomatic of this seemingly puzzling and precarious situation. This presentation briefly considers changes in the official policy of the central government toward religion and the variations in application at the local level. Then, it focuses on the divided Chinese Catholic Church and its relationship with the Holy See and the other local churches. Lingering obstacles as well as signs of healing are discussed.

Violence in Chinese Religious Traditions

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meir Shahar
Keyword(s):  
Religious Identity ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Mystical Experience ◽  
Human Sacrifice ◽  
People's Republic Of China ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Martial Art ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Catholic Church

This chapter argues that the category of religion eludes traditional Chinese thinking. It outlines the periods of harmony between official Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism, commenting on the historical reverence for martial gods and practices of religiously sanctioned human sacrifice and self-mortification. The amorphous religious identity characteristic of China offers a convenient starting point for the analysis. Chinese clerics have been conscious of their religious distinction to the extent of competing with others. The policy has been a major source of friction between the People's Republic of China and the Catholic Church. The Chinese martial art is a multifaceted system of physical and mental self-cultivation that combines military, therapeutic, and religious goals within the same training routine. The imagination of Daoist immortality, the cosmology of the Supreme Ultimate, and the vocabulary of Buddhist enlightenment has been equally tackled to discuss the practitioner's mystical experience.

Gender, Catholicism, and Communism in 1950s Shanghai (1950年代上海的性别、天主教与共产主义)

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-214
Author(s):  
Paul P. Mariani
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Chinese Communist Party ◽  
Religious Faith ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Catholic Women ◽  
Communist Revolution ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Formed Part

In the 1950s, Shanghai witnessed a conflict between the Chinese Communist Party (ccp) and the Shanghai Catholic community. The ccp wanted this community to break ties with the pope and form an “independent” Catholic Church that would fall under the authority of the Chinese government. Many Catholics in Shanghai soon resisted what they perceived to be the unjust religious policies of the ccp. One of the “backbone elements” of Catholic resistance in Shanghai was young women. This study investigates how three young Catholic women dealt with the ccp’s encroaching religious policies. All three came from similar backgrounds and they all initially formed part of the Catholic resistance to ccp religious policies during the early 1950s. Afterward their trajectories differed dramatically due to the particular way in which the Communist revolution intervened in the life of each woman. This study thus illuminates the contested area of religious faith, state power, and gender in the early years of the People’s Republic of China. 上世纪五十年代，上海见证了中共与上海天主教会之间的冲突。中共命令上海天主教会断绝与教宗的联系，成为一个听命于中国政府的“独立”教会。上海的许多天主教徒很快就起来抵制这些他们视为不公正的宗教政策。反抗运动中的许多“骨干分子”是年轻女信徒。本文探究了三位年轻的女天主教信徒如何应对当时中共侵权的宗教政策。她们有相似的生活背景，并都在50年代初期参与了抵制中共宗教政策的运动。但是因为中共革命介入她们生命的不同方式，她们之后的人生轨迹大相径庭。这项研究因此阐述了在中华人民共和国初期，宗教信仰、国家政权与性别之间充满张力的互动。

scholarly journals Legal policy of the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China in the area of digitalization of national currency

2021 ◽  
pp. 16-26
Author(s):  
Anna Sergeevna Konopiy ◽  
Boris Andreevich Borisov
Keyword(s):  
Russian Federation ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Banking Sector ◽  
National Currency ◽  
People’S Republic Of China ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
People's Republic Of China ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Digital Currency ◽  
The Russian Federation

The subject of this research is digital national currencies of the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation. The advent of the new digital era entails inevitable, objectively dictated digital transformations of all spheres of social life. The financial and banking sector in Russia, China, and other countries, is in need for legislative-digital regulation by implementing digital fiat currency. One of the most promising vectors of development is the creation and introduction of new forms of currencies into circulation, which would be recognized by public authority as a legal means of payment, as well as subject to effective oversight by government bodies. The novelty of this research lies in the comparative legal analysis of the experience, as well as the stages of implementation of digital national currency in the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China. The article raised a pressing issue on feasibility of introducing digital ruble into the Russian reality, and thus, discusses successful experience of the Chinese government that a millennium ago was first to invent paper currency, and now is one of the world leaders to introduce digital currency alongside cash money. The concept of “digital currency” is often identified with cryptocurrencies and payment systems, which prompted the authors to conduct a comparative analysis of these terms. The analysis of Russian and Chinese legislation in the area of digital currency, as well as the established practice of implementing a new monetary form into the country’s economy, allowed outlining the pros and cons of such innovation.

scholarly journals Social Credit System in the People's Republic of China: normative legal framework and principles of functionality

2020 ◽  
pp. 18-53
Author(s):  
Roman Z. Rouvinsky ◽  
Tatiana Komarova
Keyword(s):  
Legal Framework ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
People’S Republic Of China ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
People's Republic Of China ◽  
Credit System ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Social Credit ◽  
Legal Provisions ◽  
The Social

This article examines the normative legal framework and principles of functionality of the Social Credit System that is currently being implemented in the People's Republic of China. For the first time in legal science, the Social Credit System is viewed not as an organizational and regulatory technique that in one or another way is related to law, but rather as an independent legal institution relevant to the branch of administrative law. The application of formal-legal and comparative-legal methods allows describing the hierarchy of sources of the Chinese law pertaining to social credit mechanisms and procedures, as well as giving characteristics to major provisions of the corresponding normative acts. The peculiarities of legal regulation of the mechanisms and procedures that comprise the Social Credit System in PRC include the following aspects: sublegislative nature of such regulation, prevalence of joint lawmaking, focal role of normative legal acts of the Chinese government, declarative character and ambiguity of multiple legal provisions with regards to the Social Credit System. The author underline the specificity of interpretation of the normative legal acts of the People's Republic of China, usage by the lawmaking branches of moral categories in formulation of provisions for regulation of elaboration and implementation of the social credit mechanisms. The provisions of governmental and departmental normative legal acts pertaining to the Social Credit System are correlated with the provisions of the current Constitution of the People's Republic of China.

Paths of Duty: Religion, Marriage, and the Press in a Transatlantic Scandal, 1835–1858

2018 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 636-662
Author(s):  
SUZANNA KRIVULSKAYA
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
English Court ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
The Press ◽  
Church State Relations ◽  
State Relations ◽  
The Catholic Church

When the Rev. Pierce Connelly denounced Protestantism and converted to Catholicism in 1835, he inadvertently started a small newspaper war among the burgeoning religious press in America. While Catholic periodicals celebrated their newest addition in print, Protestant newspapermen were scandalized. They worried about how the clerical husband's conversion might affect his marital life should he pursue ordination in the Catholic Church. Soon, the Connellys dissolved their marriage in Rome and moved to England, where Pierce became a priest, and his wife Cornelia entered a convent. When, thirteen years later, Pierce reconverted and sued Cornelia “for the restoration of conjugal rights” in an English court, the case became an international sensation – with both British and American newspapers covering the developments and using the saga to comment on larger religious and political issues of their time. The two scandals demonstrate how the transatlantic press debated contested global concerns about the limits of religious freedom, the changing nature of marriage, church–state relations, and international law.

Politics as Usual or Bringing Religion Back In?

2008 ◽  
Vol 41 (12) ◽  
pp. 1631-1656 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Fink
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Quantitative Analysis ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Cultural Factors ◽  
Quantitative Approach ◽  
Embryo Research ◽  
Western World ◽  
Comparative Public Policy ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
The Catholic Church

This article explains the variation of embryo research laws in the Western world. A quantitative analysis shows that theories of partisan influence, institutions, and economic interests are ill suited to explain this variation. Only when cultural factors are considered can the variation be explained. Catholic societies legislate more strictly, and the Catholic Church is an influential actor. This is surprising, as economic interests are very important in the field. But even in a field where the economic stakes are high, the Catholic Church can be successful. The lessons are twofold. First, the discussion about the determinants of embryo research policies is enriched, as the article shows that despite particular discourses, religion is still a major factor and that the field can be fruitfully analyzed using a quantitative approach. Second, the article claims that theories of comparative public policy can benefit from the inclusion of cultural factors.

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