I feel like religion is another one of those things where what Xi Jinping says versus what the CCP does is not the same. Xi Jinping claims that religion and the state are independent and as long as it follows the rules of the CCP it is fine to practice religion, but I don’t think this is really the case. It seems the CCP has been tightening the policies on religion once again. In the past, during the Cultural Revolution, the government tried to eliminate religion, When the Era  of reform took place in 1979, there was a relaxation of religious policies and the government got way more religious varieties then the bargained for. The new found emphasis on nationalism is what caused the tightening of religion. Because Christianity and Islam is not a part of the Chinese heritage they believe it  needs to be tightly controlled. The interesting aspect of this, is that Christianity is increasing in popularity. Richard Madsen uses the metaphor of an emperor to trying to guide a flood as a metaphor. With 70 million Christians in China today they might surpass how man Christians are in the U.S., but I feel like this could be attributed to the U.S. being a melting pot of ethnicity, more so then China is anyways. Besides that fact the confucianism is associated with the Chinese heritage and Christianity is not, I think the real problem is the fact that Christianity is globally recognized and makes you apart of a community that could dilute the feelings of allegiance to the CCP. The funny part is most christians want to help China and are not opposed to the Chinese government, however, they often get in trouble for doing anything that makes China better if  it goes against the CCP. Also, they are always being suspected of being up to no good that is why they do not like too many working in the government. Even though Xi Jinping is trying to get everyone on the same page and really unify the religious aspect o China many people  claim to be atheist that work in the party, but in reality they will have a religious preference it is just easier to say you do not have one. In the U.S. even though we claim we do not  have a national religion associated with the government I find this is only partially true. For starters if you are not Christian or Catholic you are pretty much a  “outlier”. In addition, I do not foresee like a Muslim being elected President of t he U.S. anytime soon, because people would not consider a Muslim a representation of the United States.

The podcast interviewing Justin Jacobs on the Modern Chinese State was interesting it was a little hard to follow at times, just because I am one of those people that is visual and needs like the names and stuff on paper in front of me. Anyhow, this podcast made a point that I am the starting to realize is very important, things in central China versus the outer provinces of China are very different. While the CCP might  be trying to unify China, they do not like to agcknoweldge the differences, they do not like to acknowledge past mistakes and they try and  avoid a lot of foreign conflicts and I think Jacobs makes a good point that, History is like a mirror it hints to present day actions. I feel like a lot of this comes from avoiding and not acknowledging past conflicts. A concept that was interesting was how when China worked with the Soviets even though they disagreed with them they has 5 years of autonomy that has never been replicated and that both China and the Soviets were very tolerant. He said you should work with this that publicly criticize you, because you can use that in the future. Although, I could see how this could be true it seems like it could also make  for a lot of tension. However, just thinking about it, if I had to work with someone that I did not really like, although it might be awkward I would probably be extremely polite and cooperative this just being because you wouldn’t to step on each other toes. I could also  see how this could be a very dangerous situation, because if someone said something that rubbed me the wrong way I would  feel more obligated to react because I already do not really like this person as is.