Talk - Is China a fundamentalist state?

Contemporary China is commonly understood as an atheist state; media coverage of Chinese religion focuses solely on its repression. So why have party ideologues promoted the creation of a national faith and how have 'traditional' Chinese values become unquestioned doctrine?

This talk argues that a key strategy to achieve Xi Jinping’s aim to “make China great again” has been to restore the unity of political and spiritual authority as was the case in imperial China. Partly under the guise of combating religious fundamentalism, the Chinese state itself has taken a fundamentalist turn. Furthermore, this fundamentalist turn is the result of a conscious, strategic value reorientation that we now see replicated in other parts of the world. Based on textual analysis and visual data, this talk proposes a new way of conceptualising Chinese state power at a moment of shifting international power balance.

Join us for a discussion with Gerda Wielander, Professor of Chinese Studies, University of Westminster chaired by Dr Olivia Cheung, Lecturer in the Department of European and International Studies and Affiliate of the Lau China Institute, King’s College London on Wednesday 4 March, 5-6pm, Room 4.04, Bush House South, KCL Strand.

This is an in-person event. Registration is required. Those without tickets will not be admitted.

Gerda Wielander is Professor of Chinese studies at the University of Westminster, where she also held positions as Head of Modern Languages and Associate Head of College. Her main research interest lies in the link of the personal and spiritual to wider social and political developments in modern and contemporary China. She is the author of Christian Values in Communist China (2013), co-editor of Chinese Discourse on Happiness (2018) as well as several book chapters and articles in leading peer-reviewed journals. She has been editor of the British Journal of Chinese Studies and is the current president of the British Association for Chinese Studies. In November 2025 she was awarded a two-year Major Research Fellowship by the Leverhulme Trust for her project entitled “Analogue Expression in a Digital Society: China’s Open-Air Galleries”.

Dr Olivia Cheung is Lecturer in Politics at the Department of European & International Studies and Affiliate of the Lau China Institute at King’s College London. She is also China Fellow at the Centre for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy at the Brussels School of Governance, Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Previously, she was Research Fellow at the China Institute of SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies), University of London, and Teaching Fellow at the University of Warwick. She obtained the MPhil and DPhil in Politics from the University of Oxford as a Swire Scholar and Rhodes Scholar.

Please contact [email protected] if you have any questions or specific participatory requirements.

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Host or Publisher Lau China Institute, King's College London