ABSTRACT
This chapter explores recent developments in the relationship between two implausible partners, the Communist Party and China's largest religion, Buddhism. It describes the optimism of Buddhist leaders and intellectuals—that the Communist Party, in line with its transition from a Marxist to a nationalist party, is now gradually relaxing its programme of secularism. At the level of political ideology, the Chinese party-state continues to preach strict secularism and atheism. Buddhism becomes a brick in the construction of Chinese nationalism. Although Chinese Communist Party (CCP) nationalism and popular nationalism are not always aligned with each other, the party does what it can to steer the content of the nationalist narrative. China's leaders are highly concerned with both governmentality and legitimacy: how to rule effectively while safeguarding the party's monopoly on power. The relationship between the party-state and Buddhism is to a large extent a relationship of governmentality in the Foucauldian understanding of the term.
