“Outside of Buddhism and Taoism, Christianity is the largest religious bloc, having grown exponentially from a few believers in the 1970s to perhaps 100 million today”

Barack Obama arrived in Japan today, Nov 13, on the first leg of his first trip to Asia as president, a delicate week-long diplomatic swing which will confront him with an array of pressing issues, from North Korea and nukes to climate change and the global economy.

But few topics have as much potential to complicate his mission abroad — or polish his image with Americans back home, from conservative Christians to supporters of Tibetan Buddhism — as religious freedom in China.

The stakes are enormous as religious belief is exploding in China. A government-sponsored survey in 2007 showed the number of believers at 300 million out of a population of 1.3 billion — three times the previous official estimate of 100 million believers.

Outside of Buddhism and Taoism, Christianity is the largest religious bloc, having grown exponentially from a few believers in the 1970s to perhaps 100 million today — almost certainly higher than the estimate of 40 million found in the 2007 survey. Many of them are evangelicals and other Protestants, and there is a large Chinese Catholic population. Muslims are also a growing minority, and smaller faiths like Mormonism are attracting followers.

But despite some advances — many of them trumpeted ahead of last summer’s Beijing Olympics — Chinese authorities remain deeply suspicious of the potential of religious believers to challenge state control. Even as capitalism is gradually encouraged, religious practice remains under strict state supervision, and worship often takes place in unregistered house churches or underground churches. Political or civic leaders associated with such churches can face arrest, along with regular worshipers, and religious leaders themselves often face lengthy prison terms under harsh conditions.

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