That has not always been true. At the end of the 19th century, there were 1 million temples in China and religion flavored every aspect of public and private life. Mao destroyed half of the country’s temples. Religion—what was left—went underground. [...]
A 2005 survey conducted by a Chinese university found that 31 percent of the population—about 300 million people—are religious. Two-thirds of those are Buddhists, Daoists or members of other folk religions, while 40 million people said they are Christian. [...]
But the boom has its limits. The Chinese government recognizes only five faiths—Buddhism, Daoism, Islam, Catholicism and Protestantism. And it still bans Falun Gong, the suppression of which Johnson reported on for The Wall Street Journal, coverage that earned him a Pulitzer. There are state-run churches led by clergy in the government’s employ who give government-sanctioned sermons. Other houses of worship are monitored—one of the most chilling segments of Johnson’s book describes a Christmas Eve service with government agents watching from the back.
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