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Buddhist leader Master Hsing’s death shows religion still plays a role in Xi Jinping’s China

Beijing wants more interactions with Taipei’s main opposition ahead of the 2024 presidential elections, which can shape the region’s geopolitics—including US-China relations.

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It may surprise many that the ‘atheist’ Chinese Communist Party sparred with Taiwanese authorities over sending a delegation to a Buddhist leader’s funeral in Taiwan. The death of Hsing Yun on 5 February has revived the memory of the Chinese Civil War and the fractured relationship between Beijing and Taipei.

Lǐ Guóshēn, who later adopted the name Hsing Yun, was the founder of the Fo Guang Shan movement in Taiwan in 1967. He was born in modern-day Jiangsu province in China. ‘Hsing Yun’ translates to ‘nebula’ in English and captures the monk’s Buddhist dharma philosophy.

In 1938, Hsing assumed a monastic life under the tutelage of Zhi Kai at Qixia Temple in China’s Nanjing, after losing his father to the China-Japan war. Hsing escaped to Taiwan in 1949 toward the end of the Chinese Civil War. It was when the CCP managed to push military leader Chiang Kai Shek’s forces out of the Chinese mainland to Taiwan.

After arriving in Taiwan, Hsing began teaching a humanistic version of Buddhism, which has since become the most adopted religious fellowship in the Chinese cultural sphere, combining Buddhist practices with everyday life. After buying land in Khaoshuing in Taiwan, he started preaching to Taiwanese and Chinese communities. 


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CCP and Hsing’s teachings

Hsing’s teachings spread across the Chinese world. The CCP found a way to marry economic growth with religion through his modernist take on Buddhist teachings.

In 2014, the red carpet was rolled out for Hsing during his visit to Beijing. He met President Xi Jinping at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. “I have read all the books the master gave me,” said Xi.

Over the years, Hsing established new monasteries on the Chinese mainland despite the CCP’s crackdown on religious freedom in Tibet and Xinjiang.

“Promote human-centered Buddhism, actively bring the dharma from the temple to society, from the monks to the faithful, and learn all kinds of worldly teachings for the convenience of propagating the dharma, to achieve the humanisation,” says the Baidu encyclopedia entry on the Fo Guang Shan movement.

Upon Hsing’s death, Beijing captured the leader’s significance in an official statement. “Master Hsing Yun was revered by compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait for always safeguarding the overall interests of the Chinese nation, firmly supporting China’s national reunification and opposing “Taiwan independence,” as well as helping advance cross-Strait exchanges,” said Zhu Fenglian, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council.

Not always in Beijing’s good books

Hsing wasn’t always in Beijing’s good books. In 1989, he spoke in favour of the Tiananmen Square activists and even housed an official fleeing the massacre at his monastery in Los Angeles.

But in the following years, the CCP adjusted its ideological posture to court Hsing–he was gaining followers across the Chinese world. The CCP has a long history of courting religious leaders who serve their interests.

“To be compatible with the Constitution, the CCP realised that people need religious belief to offset the increasingly widening gap between the rich and the poor. As a result, religion begins to exert its increasing influence in contemporary Chinese society,” writes Xingqiang Du in his 2021 book On Informal Institutions and Accounting Behavior.

By addressing the disconnect between CCP’s ideology under Mao Zedong and China’s cultural history, Mao vilified Chinese history and religious practices, Xi embraced China’s religious traditions and philosophies.

“Building on the work of his predecessors, especially Hu Jintao and his call for a Daoist-sounding “harmonious society”, Xi’s ideological program includes a much more explicit embrace of traditional ethical and religious imagery,” writes Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom in the 2016 book The Oxford Illustrated History of Modern China. 


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Beijing’s delegation to Taiwan

Following Hsing’s death, Beijing planned to send a delegation to his funeral in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. But the Tsai Ing-wen-led government denied the request. That upset Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO).

“The delegation had planned to travel to Taiwan to mourn Master Hsing Yun on Saturday, but the trip could not take place due to the obstruction of the Democratic Progressive Party authorities,” said Xinhua News Agency.

Taiwanese authorities have said that the 38-member official delegation didn’t “comply with application procedures”.

“CCP officials did not follow and respect the long-existing mechanism to apply for the visit. Because they did not apply, this condolence group was unable to attend the ceremony,” said Taiwan’s premier Chen Chien-Jen.

The delegation would have been led by Chinese State Administration for Religious Affairs director Ye Xiaowen and TAO deputy director Long Mingbiao. It would also have included four officials from the United Front Work Department (UFWD), Beijing’s lead political and cultural influence entity. Meanwhile, Taiwanese authorities maintain that they have allowed 120 individuals from Chinese mainland, including relatives and family friends of Hsing, to attend the funeral.

“The Democratic Progressive Party disregarded basic humanitarian principles and rudely rejected the mainland’s delegation to Taiwan. As a result, the funeral of Hsing Yun cannot be held properly, a serious offence to the believers at Fo Guang Shan Monastery,” said Zhu Fenglian.

Ye Xiaowen, too, lashed out hard at Taiwanese authorities. “I hope that the master’s spirit in heaven can awaken those unscrupulous descendants who are still making ‘flesh and blood non-returning relatives,’ disregarding the basic humanitarianism, and even participating in ‘political manipulation’ to participate in condolences in Taiwan,” he said.


Also read: Taiwan learnt to deal with China’s cyberattacks. India can take tips


Eye on 2024

Despite tensions across the Taiwan Strait, Beijing is taking a different approach ever since Xi Jinping secured a third term in October 2022. Beijing wants more interactions with Taipei’s main opposition to influence the outcome of the 2024 Taiwanese presidential elections. The polls can shape the strategic calculus of the region’s geopolitics – including US-China relations.

Recently, Wang Huning, Xi Jinping’s ideological Tsar, held a rare meeting with Andrew Hsia, vice chairperson of the Kuomintang, Taiwan’s main opposition party.

“Wang pledged to put into action the important instructions from Xi Jinping on promoting peaceful development of cross-Strait relations and facilitating exchanges and cooperation,” said a read-out of the meeting between Wang and Andrew.

Hsing Yun’s death has brought back focus on the Fo Guang Shan movement’s relationship with CCP. The religious group has found a way to avoid politics by not commenting on issues of religious freedom and promoting a version of Buddhism that isn’t at odds with the CCP’s ethnocultural ideology.

“Unlike in Taiwan, where it held special services during national crises and encouraged members to participate in public affairs, Fo Guang Shan avoids politics in China. There is no mention of civic activism, and it never criticises the party,” wrote Ian Johnson, expert on Chinese cultural politics, in The New York Times.

The grand strategic calculus rarely examines the cultural aspect of Beijing-Taipei relations. But Hsing’s death reveals a more complicated picture of the CCP’s ideological courting of religious figures. Unlike what many may believe, religion still plays a role in Xi Jinping’s China.

The author is a columnist and a freelance journalist. He was previously a China media journalist at the BBC World Service. He is currently a MOFA Taiwan Fellow based in Taipei and tweets @aadilbrar. Views are personal.

(Edited by Ratan Priya)

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