The “Sinicization” of Religion: Culture as Political Rhetoric

Abstract The “Sinicization of religion” policy launched in 2015 marked a turn in the Communist Party’s approach to religious governance, opening a new era of strict control over religion in post-reform China. This article first analyzes this policy in the context of the evolution of the CCP ’s attitudes to religion over the past century. It then explores the elaboration process and its implications for related official discourse and follows with an examination of the promotion and implementation of this policy. The authors argue that the new conceptual design of “Sinicization” was aimed initially at exogenous religions but later became a general policy applied to all religions, as the central power of the Party realized its utility for subtly achieving absolute authority. Such a “Sinicization” is a projection of Xi Jinping’s “Chinese Dream” in the field of religious affairs, a dream of the Party’s permanent domination under the mantle of nationalism.