ABSTRACT
Religious freedom promotes diversity both of religious faith and communities of faith, and yet one problem arising from this is religious engagement in public and political arenas.1 With respect to the situation in China, I will mainly consider the problem of religious diversity itself in the public areas, especially in the hypothetical context of a democratic political culture characterized by religious freedom. I have examined religious diversity as a historical and cultural fact in Chinese society. It may be argued that in a democratic China, the more religious freedom and autonomy there is, the more religious pluralism there will be in the society, the latter manifesting itself as both multiplicity of religions and increasing variety within a particular religion.
