In recent years, Confucianism has been making a steady comeback in China. After decades of effort to destroy the ideology and its institutions, even the Communist party-state has "endorsed" Confucian ideas and drawn on them in its political slogans. Chinese people also seem to have a growing interest in applying Confucius' teachings to resolve social problems.Not only have the political and social aspects of Confucianism been resurrected, some have also called for Confucianism to become an established religion that would rival non-Chinese religions, notably Christianity. Although a fully-fledged return of Confucianism as the state religion is unlikely, the state could adopt aspects of Confucian doctrine. This could slow the emergence of freedom of thought, conscience and belief in China.
For more on this phenomena, here is a series of brief reports from Forum 18.
