Parishioners sing at a church in Haidian district of Beijing. Photo: CFP

Wu, a government employee in Jilin Province who asked to be identified by his surname only, grew up in a religious family. His family were converted to Christianity when he was little. So he attended churches and read the scriptures at an early age, without fully understanding what he was reading.

When he was in junior year in college, he joined the Communist Party of China (CPC) and became a probationary member. "I wasn't firm in my faith at that time, for one. But mostly, it was necessary for my future for me to be a Party member," said Wu, 28.

But Wu was becoming more and more devoted to religion. He said reading the Bible helped him through some difficult times, and in the end, he believed what was written in the Bible and believed in the existence of God. In his senior year, a few weeks before graduation, he was baptized.

Despite the authorities' insistence that CPC members should not believe in any religion, there are many like Wu who are religious but also a Party member. Some find religion after joining the Party; some join the Party despite being religious.

With three of the five Communist countries - Cuba, Vietnam and Laos, not including China and North Korea - allowing their Party members to have religious beliefs, some scholars have suggested that maybe it's time for China to rethink the issue. 

Interest in religion

Chen Fei started pursuing religion when he was in graduate school in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province. "At that time I was quite interested in religion and faith. I felt that it was good to have faith and I was trying to find my own," said Chen, 27, who majored in micro electronics.

One of his classmates was a Christian. Chen started going to their gatherings and Sunday services in June 2012. It was a house church - a church not registered or recognized by the authorities. Those were small gatherings, with a dozen people or so, in a residential apartment. "We sang hymns, read the Bible and shared our experiences, then we cooked dinner. It was very relaxing, very homey, we all became good friends," Chen recalled.

Chen's encounter with religion wasn't without "rewards." "I prayed for practical things, like help with a project or things like that, and at first I felt like it worked," he said. "Of course I also prayed that I could be closer to God and for a while it did feel like I was closer to Him."

But slowly he drifted away from the church. Chen read the Bible. He continued to go to those gatherings for the next couple of years, though not frequently. He said he was busy with school and laboratory projects and watching soccer games late into the night. His Christian friends would ask how he was doing when they met on campus.

Eventually Chen stopped going altogether. "I don't know why. I guess in the end, I'm just not convinced. I couldn't believe with all my heart everything written in the Bible," said Chen.

Chen said that despite not having faith, he believes it is a good thing, and said that being a Party member did not bring him fortune or fulfillment either.

Joining the Party 

While exploring his spirituality, Chen was also well on his way to becoming a CPC member. He had applied to join the Party back in 2010 and attended lectures on the Party's history and doctrines that were mandatory for those who intend to join. In December 2012 he became a probationary Party member.

He admits that his reasons for joining the Party were pragmatic, which is not unusual in China. "It doesn't hurt to be a Party member; it would only help you in your future, and that's why I applied. It doesn't mean I fully understood what it meant," he said.

Not much effort was required of him. "In fact you could even skip the mandatory lectures," he said.

Wu joined the Party for similar reasons. His family didn't try to stop him either because they all agreed it was probably best for Wu's future.

"If I was older and more mature, I probably wouldn't have joined the Party in a rush," Wu said. All of his coworkers are Party members. Being a Party member, instead of bringing any benefit, is a prerequisite for his line of work.

He lied in the application form to join the Party. In the column that asks about "religious faith" he hesitated and wrote "none." At the time he was worried that if he told the truth, he might be rejected. "But now I probably wouldn't have lied because I'm firm in my belief," he said.

Even though regulations say a member can apply to leave the Party, it could be a politically dangerous move and people rarely do so in practice. "You don't quit the Party. You get expelled [for doing something wrong]," he said.

Things were more complicated for people in previous generations. One woman in her 60s who gave her Christian name Teresa said she grew up in a Catholic family but chose to join the Party in the 1970s and turned her back on religion for decades. The ideological education and political atmosphere back then made it almost impossible for the two philosophies - religion and Communism - to coexist. For people in her generation it was often a struggle.

She later returned to her faith. She tried to leave the Party, but was stopped by the Party secretary who said it might look bad. "My brother, who is also a Catholic, saw this as betrayal to my faith," she said.

Reconciling beliefs

By the end of 2012, there were over 85 million CPC members according to the official figures. It's not clear how many of them are also religious. Those who are religious might not reveal their faith for fear of being punished or having their chance of career advancement hindered.

According to a report by two scholars from the Wuhan University of Technology in 2007, which surveyed about 100 Christians in Wuhan, Hubei Province, 4.3 percent of the respondents were Party members and 31. 2 percent were members of the Communist Youth League.

A report on religion by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) in 2010 put the numbers of Christians in China at over 23 million. Another report in the same year by scholars in Purdue University of the US showed there were about 185 million people who believed in Buddhism in China, of whom less than 2 percent had gone through the complete rituals to become a converted Buddhist. 

Scholars have pointed out that most Chinese people take a pragmatic view towards religion. Even if one is not in fact religious, he or she might visit temples on special occasions, or pray to the Buddha to ask for blessings.

The same report from Purdue, which was based on surveys of over 7,000 people, showed only 15 percent were atheists who don't believe in any religion or supernatural beings, nor participate in any religious or folk activities.

The authorities on the other hand have been consistent with regard to religion and Party members over the years. They stress the importance of Party members having firm belief in Communism.

A document from 1982, when the country was in the middle of a campaign to rid itself of Western "spiritual pollution," says religious freedom applies to Chinese citizens but not Party members, because Party members are not ordinary citizens and should be atheists.

If Party members were allowed to be religious, it would mean that some members could have split loyalties between the Party and religion, Zhu Weiqun, deputy chief of the United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee, wrote in an article on the Party's magazine Qiu Shi (Seeking Truth) in 2011. 

Zhu also wrote in the article that some local Party leaders use religion for economic benefit and are keen to build temples and participate in religious activities, disregarding the government's religious policies.

Last September Xinhua reported that a Party member in a village in Zhejiang Province was expelled from the Party for being superstitious. The Party member, surnamed Xue, had been running a fortune-telling business for a long time.

Liu Peng, a researcher from the CASS, said that religion is about people's spiritual world and doesn't interfere with one's political views. He suggested in an interview with the Phoenix Weekly that it makes no difference to the Party's ultimate goals if a member is religious or not as long as they are faithful to the Party's policies and decisions.

In groups of religious people, there are also heated debates over whether a good believer should join the Party. While some are more tolerant towards those who join out of necessity or social pressure, some are adamant that one is not a true believer if he or she joins the Party.

Yang Xiaobin, a Catholic priest, said strictly speaking it's not appropriate for a believer to join a political party that requires atheism but the church would not close its doors to anyone.

"But I believe the two are similar in it that, being a Party member is about serving the people, while being a Christian is about loving your neighbor," said Yang. 

Both Wu and Chen say they don't think there is any conflict between being a Party member and being religious.

"Certainly as a Party member you shouldn't have religious faith, but I think we are not disrupting social order or harming society, so I don't see why there should be a conflict," said Wu.