{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.02142857142857143, 'fraction_numerical': 0.007142857142857143, 'mean_word_length': 5.343396226415094, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
National identity and ethno-religious identity: A critical inquiry into Chinese religious policy, with reference to the Uighurs in Xinjiang

Like that in any other former and existing communist states, religious policy in China is fundamentally dependent upon the political climate. Sabrina Ramet identifies four phases in the revolutionary development of communist states in order to analyse the adaptation and transformation of religious policy: system destruction, system building, system stabilisation and system decay (Ramet, 1992). Unlike former communist states in Eastern Europe, China has not experienced system decay, but this does not mean that the Chinese authorities have no experience of crises challenging their rule, such as the Tiananmen event in 1989 (Ding, 1994). System decay is not inevitable in communist states, but it may well occur if the Chinese authorities fail to handle internal conflicts wisely. The purpose of this paper is to investigate to what extent the Chinese authorities successfully handle the tension generated by the clash between national identity and ethno-religious identity, with a focus on the Uighurs in Xinjiang, through an analysis of religious policy. In this paper I argue that a religious policy characterised by control, a ‘united front’ (tongyi zhanxian) and patriotism is not able to solve the tension between these two identities. A religious policy that reflects the implementation of regional autonomy for ethnic minorities is a possible alternative: such a policy, however, would need to be implemented in the context of a belief in coexistence, and this is not central to the current policies of the Chinese authorities.