Hostname: page-component-669899f699-b58lm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-24T18:47:37.077Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Do political affiliation and economic wellbeing thwart religious identification in China?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 May 2024

Gary A. Hoover  and
Zhengang Xu Open the ORCID record for Zhengang Xu [Opens in a new window]
Gary A. Hoover
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, The Murphy Institute, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, USA
Zhengang Xu*
Affiliation:
UnitedHealthcare, Sherman, TX, USA
*
Corresponding author: Zhengang Xu; Email: zhengang.xu689@gmail.com
Get access

Abstract

While the Chinese government's stated position is to support religious freedom, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is officially atheist. Individuals who profess faith are typically unable to join and members who practice a religion face expulsion and a loss of benefits. This paper analyzes the extent to which the CCP's policies regarding religion may influence religious identification over the life cycle in China. To do so, we contrast changes in religious affiliation before and after retirement for CCP members and non-CCP members. We find a significant increase of religious activities and religious faith in CCP members after retirement – suggesting: (1) people's acknowledgment of religious belief is significantly influenced by CCP regulations and (2) the biggest influence from a material benefits perspective occurs for those CCP members employed in the Chinese government system.

Keywords

Chinese religious activitiesChinese Communist Partyretirementmaterial benefitsZ12P31J26I31
Type
Research Paper
Information
Journal of Demographic Economics , First View , pp. 1 - 21
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press in association with Université catholique de Louvain

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Adsera, A. (2006). Religion and changes in family-size norms in developed countries. Review of Religious Research 47(3), 271–286.Google Scholar
Appleton, S., Knight, J., Song, L., & Xia, Q. (2009). The economics of Communist Party membership: The curious case of rising numbers and wage premium during China's transition. The Journal of Development Studies, 45(2), 256–275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bian, Y., & Li, L. (2015). The Chinese General Social Survey (2003–2015) sample designs and data evaluation. Chinese Sociological Review, 45(1), 70–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowe, A. (2018). China's overseas United Front work: Background and implications for the United States. Washington, DC: US–China Economic and Security Review Commission.Google Scholar
Brenner, P. S. (2016). Cross-national trends in religious service attendance. Public Opinion Quarterly, 80(2), 563–583.Google ScholarPubMed
Bruce, S. (1999). Choice and religion: A critique of rational choice theory. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Bruce, S. (2011). Secularization: In defence of an unfashionable theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Casanova, J. (2007). Rethinking secularization: A global comparative perspective. In Beyer, P., & Beaman, L. (eds.), Religion, globalization, and culture (pp. 101–120). Boston: Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chinalawtranslate. (2020, January 9). 2018年中国共产党纪律处分条例. China Law Translate. https://www.chinalawtranslate.com/en/2018-chinese-communist-party-disciplinary-regulations/Google Scholar
Congressional – Executive Commission on China. (2004, February 18). Regulations on Disciplinary Actions by the Communist Party of the People’s Republic of China (Chinese text). Congressional – Executive Commission on China. https://www.cecc.gov/resources/legal-provisions/regulations-on-disciplinaryactions-by-the-communist-party-of-the-peoplesGoogle Scholar
Congressional-Executive Commission on China (1979, February 24), State Council Circular on Issuing “State Council Temporary Measures on Providing for Old, Weak, Sick, and Handicapped Cadres” and “State Council Temporary Measures on Workers' Retirement, Resignation” (Chinese Text). Congressional-Executive Commission on China (cecc.gov). https://www.cecc.gov/resources/legal-provisions/state-council-circular-on-issuing-state-council-temporary-measures-onGoogle Scholar
De la Beaumelle, M. A. (2017). The united front work department: “Magic weapon” at home and abroad. China Brief, 17(9).Google Scholar
Finke, R., & Iannaccone, L. R. (1993). Supply-side explanations for religious change. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 527(1), 27–39.Google Scholar
Finke, R., & Stark, R. (2005). The Churching of America, 1776–2005: Winners and losers in our religious economy. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
FitzGerald, C. P. (1967). Religion and China's cultural revolution. Pacific Affairs 40(1/2), 124–129.Google Scholar
Froese, P., & Pfaff, S. (2005). Explaining a religious anomaly: A historical analysis of secularization in eastern Germany. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 44(4), 397–422.Google Scholar
Gao, J., Kong, D., & Kong, G. (2019). Who secures job opportunities in the Chinese government? Evidence based on the first jobs of graduates from a Chinese college. Pacific Economic Review, 24(3), 447–463.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gorski, P. S. (2000). Historicizing the secularization debate: Church, state, and society in late medieval and early modern Europe, ca. 1300 to 1700. American Sociological Review, 65(1), 138–167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hardy, M., Skirbekk, V., & Stonawski, M. (2020). The religiously unaffiliated in Germany, 1949–2013: Contrasting patterns of social change in east and west. The Sociological Quarterly, 61(2), 254–286.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
He, H., & Sun, L. (2021). Why do Chinese crave stable government jobs over “inferior” private and foreign firms. South China Morning Post, 1.Google Scholar
Henne, P. S. (2020). Government interference in religious institutions and terrorism. In Fox, J. (ed.), The correlates of religion and state (pp. 66–85). Thames, Oxfordshire: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hewlett, S. A. H., & Rashid, R. R. (2011, September 7). The lure of China's public sector. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2011/09/the-lure-of-chinas-public-sectGoogle Scholar
Iannaccone, L. R. (1991). The consequences of religious market structure: Adam Smith and the economics of religion. Rationality and Society, 3(2), 156–177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iannaccone, L. R., Finke, R., & Stark, R. (1997). Deregulating religion: The economics of church and state. Economic Inquiry, 35(2), 350–364.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iyer, S. (2016). The new economics of religion. Journal of Economic Literature, 54(2), 395–441.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ji, J. S. (2021, July 30). China's job scarcity sees fresh grads shun private sector for stable civil service jobs, as “government is too big to fail.” China Macro Economy. https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3143030/chinas-job-scarcity-sees-fresh-grads-shun-private-sectorGoogle Scholar
Kaup, K. P. (2000). Creating the Zhuang: Ethnic politics in China. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers.Google Scholar
Konrad, F. M. (2015). Common traditions, split paths: Early childhood education and care in the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic (1949–1990). in Willekens, H., Scheiwe, K., & Nawrotzki, K. (eds.), The development of early childhood education in Europe and North America: Historical and comparative perspectives (pp. 132–149). London: Palgrave Macmillan UK.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lai, H. H. (2003). The religious revival in China. The Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies, 18, 40–64.Google Scholar
Lawrence, S. V., & Martin, M. F. (2013). Understanding China's political system. Washington, DC: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service.Google Scholar
Li, J. L. (2021, November 29). More Chinese youth are chasing government jobs. Quartz. https://qz.com/2095491/more-chinese-youth-are-chasing-government-jobs/Google Scholar
Liang, Y., & Dong, Z. (2019). Has education led to secularization? Based on the study of compulsory education law in China. China Economic Review, 54, 324–336.Google Scholar
Lopez, D. S. (1996). Religions of China in practice. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Madsen, R. P. (2015). Beyond orthodoxy: Catholicism as Chinese Folk Religion. In Uhalley, S., & Wu, X. (eds.), China and Christianity (pp. 233–249). New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Marshall, P. A. (Ed.). (2008). Religious freedom in the world. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
McCauley, J. F., & Posner, D. N. (2019). The political sources of religious identification: evidence from the Burkina Faso–Côte d'Ivoire border. British Journal of Political Science, 49(2), 421–441.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCleary, R. M., & Barro, R. J. (2006). Religion and political economy in an international panel. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 45(2), 149–175.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, A. S. (2000). Going to hell in Asia: The relationship between risk and religion in a cross cultural setting. Review of Religious Research 42(1), 5–18.Google Scholar
Neff, J. A. (2006). Exploring the dimensionality of “religiosity” and “spirituality” in the Fetzer multidimensional measure. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 45(3), 449–459.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nikolov, P., Wang, H., & Acker, K. (2020). Wage premium of communist party membership: Evidence from China. Pacific Economic Review, 25(3), 309–338.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ning, J. (2021). Main data of the seventh national population census. Beijing, China: National Bureau of Statistics of China.Google Scholar
Nord, W. A. (2014). Religion and American education: Rethinking a national dilemma. Chapel Hill, NC: UNC Press Books.Google Scholar
Office of International Religious Freedom. (2020, June 10). 2019 Report on International Religious Freedom. U.S. Department of State. https://www.state.gov/reports/2019-report-on-international-religious-freedom/#:~:text=The%20Office%20of%20International%20Religious,nongovernmental%20organizations%2C%20multilateral%20and%20otherGoogle Scholar
Piccone, T. (2018). China's long game on human rights at the United Nations. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Schwadel, P. (2011). Age, period, and cohort effects on religious activities and beliefs. Social Science Research, 40(1), 181–192.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stepan, A. (2000). Religion, democracy, and the “twin tolerations”. Journal of Democracy, 11, 37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
The National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China. (2019, November 20). http://www.npc.gov.cn/englishnpc/constitution2019/201911/1f65146fb6104dd3a2793875d19b5b29.shtmlGoogle Scholar
The State Council The People’s Republic of China. (2017, September 15). Constitution of the Communist Party of China. English. Gov. CN The State Council The People’s Republic of China. http://english.www.gov.cn/news/top_news/2017/09/27/content_281475888488000.htm#:~:text=Members%20of%20the%20Communist%20Party,members%20of%20the%20working%20people.Google Scholar
The World Values Survey. (2007). China 2007. https://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/WVSContents.jspGoogle Scholar
Trzebiatowska, M., & Bruce, S. (2012). Why are women more religious than men? New York City, USA: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turkel, N., Cooper, A., Curry, D., Davie, F. A., Kleinbaum, S., Magid, M., Schneck, S., et al. (2023). 2023 Annual Report of the United States commission on international religious freedom. Washington, DC: The United States commission on international religious freedom.Google Scholar
Unger, J. (1996). Bridges: Private business, the Chinese government and the rise of new associations. The China Quarterly, 147, 795–819.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
World Population Review. (2023). Religion by Country 2023. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/religion-by-countryGoogle Scholar
Xu, X., Li, Y., Liu, X., & Gan, W. (2017). Does religion matter to corruption? Evidence from China. China Economic Review, 42, 34–49.Google Scholar
Yang, F. (2011). Religion in China: Survival and revival under communist rule. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yang, J., Ma, J., Zhang, Y., & Hong, J. (2018). With whom should you have dinner? A multidimensional framework for understanding political ties in China. Business Horizons, 61(6), 891–898.Google Scholar
Yuen, L. Y. (2013, May 29). Communist Party Membership is still the ultimate resume booster. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/05/communist-party-membership-is-still-the-ultimate-resume-booster/276347/Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Hoover and Xu supplementary material

Hoover and Xu supplementary material
Download Hoover and Xu supplementary material(File)
File 382.4 KB