Description

In 2013, Chinese leader Xi Jinping called for the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation” and announced the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). This coincided with the accelerated promotion of Chinese Buddhism as the center of all Buddhisms, including the Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana traditions. This promotion had begun in the early 2000s, with the construction and renovation of Chinese temples in other countries, and efforts to strengthen the role of Chinese Buddhism in global Buddhist networks. In 2018, control of religion shifted from China’s State Administration of Religious Affairs to the Communist Party. Since then, there has been a rapid expansion of global networks of Chinese Buddhist activities, organizations and other state-supported Buddhist projects.
 
Hitotsubashi University, in partnership with Sophia University, proposes a study of how the Chinese state is using Chinese Buddhism as soft power, to present a benign image of China and Chinese culture to the world (emphasizing practices such as meditation, tea ceremonies, vegetarianism and ethics), and as sharp power, encouraging members of overseas Chinese communities to further Chinese state interests, such as supporting the BRI. The project will examine China’s strategies in eight countries, focusing on the activities of Chinese clerics and overseas Chinese communities. In each country the research will also analyze local responses, and the reasons for success or failure of those strategies. Key sites will include Buddhist temples, tourism projects and the activities of joint China-host country Buddhist associations.
 
The project will be led by two scholars of Chinese Buddhism, Yoshiko Ashiwa and David Wank, respectively at Hitotsubashi and Sophia Universities, both in Tokyo. Ashiwa and Wank have collaborated and published extensively for several decades, and will engage a team of country researchers, each of whom will host in-country workshops and participate in the research.
 
The case studies include countries that vary in their history of Buddhism and strategic interest to China. In addition to research in China, the cases include Buddhist countries in Asia. Sri Lanka and Vietnam are both strategically important for the BRI. Taiwan and Japan are not part of the BRI, but Taiwan is a site of competition for the representation of
 
In 2013, Chinese leader Xi Jinping called for the “great Buddhism, and Japan is the site of China’s efforts to “recover” lost teachings and aesthetic traditions such as Shingon Buddhism or Tang Dynasty temple architecture. Western countries include Italy, the only European Union country partnering with the BRI; Canada, an important trading partner; and the U.S., where the focus will be on the interaction of Chinese Buddhist temples and new, state-promoted Buddhist activities. India, with many Buddhist sites and relics, will be included as well, as India and China are now competing to be acknowledged as the historical homeland of Buddhist education.
 
The proposal provides examples of the diverse strategies China is deploying. The Nanhai Buddhist Academy, opened in 2017 as the first “Buddhist international university” in China, cultivates a global network by inviting young elite clerics from other countries to study for free. In other countries, local Buddhist associations partner with the state-approved Buddhist Association of China (BAC) so that the latter can donate large amounts of money to social welfare projects, in cooperation with Chinese embassies. The Sri Lanka-Chinese Buddhist Friendship Association (2015), for example, funds temple reconstruction and water purification projects, holds Theravada-Mahayana rituals, and builds monuments commemorating historical ties between Sri Lanka and China going back to the 5 th century. These activities, Ashiwa and Wank contend, may influence Buddhist clerics to elect pro- China politicians and dampen opposition to Chinese building projects on lands with sacred Buddhist sites. Elsewhere, Chinese Buddhist temples are constructed with BAC funding: the Four Great Sacred Mountains in Canada, for example, will be among the largest Buddhist complexes in the world.