"Are China’s Rulers Getting Religion?"

Asks Ian Johnson:

...China is now in the grips of a moral crisis. In recent months, the Chinese Internet has been full of talk about the lack of morality in society....

... Beijing is giving new support to religion—even the country's own beleaguered traditional practice, Daoism....

This is a sharp change for a religion that that was persecuted under Mao and long regarded as suspect. What, exactly, is gong on here?

(NYRB needs some better editing, or is "gong" some kind of tweaking-the-Chinese joke?)

One reason authorities are now embracing Daoism as a source of moral guidance is that, in contrast to Christianity—which sometimes runs afoul of authorities—Daoism is widely seen as an unthreatening, indigenous religion.... Daoism can be seen as the original tune-in-turn-on-drop-out religion; many Daoist luminaries have preferred a life of contemplation to pursuit of earthly power....

But the more China's leaders try to use religion for their own purposes, the more difficult it may be to have an actual effect on perceived problems like society's moral decline....

Think about how governments use religion for their own ends, perhaps to shore up morality among the citizenry, perhaps to foster obedience and quiescence. What's the best religion for government's ends? And how much can we infer about a government from the religion it chooses? When a government selects Daoism, what does that mean?