중국의 종교정책과 법치화수준의 제고 ― 수정「종교사무조례」를 중심으로

Abstract

On 26th of August in 2017, the Religious affairs Ordinance(2017) has been proclaimed through the Cabinet order. In this article, the reinforced parts of the rule by law have been examined focusing on the new provisions under the assumption that the Religious affairs Ordinance(2017) reflects the religious policy of the government of the president Xi Jinping. Further, their implications have been analyzed. If we have a look at the new provision, there are three main features. The first feature is the assurance through the rule by law. The Religious affairs Ordinance(2017) specifies the legal person registration of religious service facility, religious college and social security of the religious personnel. This can be seen as the result from the fact that the Chinese government has observed, studied the problems of the religious world and has accepted the recommendations from this field in an active manner. Secondly, the control through rule by law has been reinforced. The Religious affairs Ordinance(2017) controls commercial activities of religion through the new provisions, blocks the extremism of the religion and emphasizes the ‘Sinicization’ of religion. This can be seen as a countermeasure, which reflects the problems and features of each religion of China. The provisions for prohibition of the commercialization of religion aims Buddhism and Daoism while the provisions for prohibition of the extremism of religion aims Islam and Tibetan Buddhism. Further, the Sinicization of religion is relevant to all religions but would be executed focusing more on the rapid growth of Christianity. The third one is expansion of the area of rule by law. The Religious affairs Ordinance(2017) has established new provisions for the religious personnel and what they upload as well as has reinforced the level of restriction. This is not in the online area or extraterritoriality but to give the message that the government is monitoring their activities. The improvement of the level of rule by law of the Religious affairs Ordinance(2017) is mainly related to ‘legal protection’ and ‘illegal blocking’. The Chinese government is willing to protect the rights and interests of religious organizations, which follow their guidelines but to control the personnel, who are out of the legal lines set by the government, very strictly. In specific, the Religious affairs Ordinance(2017) consists more of regulation than benefits for the religious world. However, the reason why we must pay attention to this ordinance is that it implies the switch of the paradigm of religious policy for management of the policies to comply with the religious theory of religious theory of socialism with Chinese characteristics but not for the passive management any longer.