• 6000 monastaries burnt, lamaism banned in tabet, the dalai lama forced to flee tibet, cr saw manty monastaries defaced, banned or closed, reunification campaign meant forced migration of han chinese to dilute local culyure
• intro:
• christianity = very successful - missionaries fled in the 0s and 50s under the threat of persecution as their assocviation with the west meangt that they could be considered kmt/nationlist symapthisers and imprisoned for espianage - out of 3000 protestant missionaries, only 100 (3%) remained by 51, and only 12% of catholic missionaries (3200 vs 360) from 51-53. the ccp forcibly exciled religious leaders like the vatican representitive in nanjing, and cvhristianity was later classified as one of the 4 olds. christiqanity was pushed underground, and the main form of christianity in china was a state controlled 3 selfs protestant church where the cpp controlled the clergy, the doctrine taught, and required them to open support maos regime - the pope threatened to exocommunicate whoever joined. in this way, mao successful destroyed christianity as a religuion in china and relplaced it with his own branch that he could easily exert control over - it could no longer hold any threat against his regime.
• Islam = not very successful - although the government did infact try to get their asses, siezing mosques for struggle meetings against muslin leaders and closing down muslim schools, this led to many, MANY uprisings against them that werent easily quelled - in 1 battle over 1000 killed in gansu. this, combined with the fact that most of the muslim regions were in the northwest, on the very outskirts of china (distant from ccp = weakened control), bordering both islamic countries and the ussr (mortal enemy since 1960) meant that the ccp had to be careful unless they wanted the uprising to end all uprisings. although an attempt was made to dilute local identity with the forced migration of han chinese during the reunification campaign, not only did this NOT work at all, but the muslim population were eventually free to both practice their religion and hold outwardly religious festivals. the regime even set up the The Islamic Association of China to promote “reconcilliation” and “cooperation”.
• bhuddism = partially successful - on the surafce it seemed extreemely successful, with the reunification campaigns leadingh to the banning of tibetan language, the banning of public practice of lamaisim, the systemic destruction of tibetan culture including the forced erasure of laimaism in schools, 1959 tibetan uprising met with force against religion (nuns + priests targeted and sent to labour camps, monastaries forced under state control), cr led to closure of 6000 monastaries. this meant that bhuddism - the most dominant religion for at least 1000 years - was heavily on the decline. however, despite the ccps success in destroying bhuddism as an organised practice, the fact remains that many citisens still whole heartedly believed in it. 20000 went to the white horse temple in 1953 after an outbreak of disease and famine to be gtouched by the nuns, and bhuddism is china’s most popular religion even today - going to show that mao was unable to eradicate the religion within the hearts of the people.
• confucianism = only very slightly successful - all ceremonies ended in 1949, so festivals banned, confucianism frequently attacked as one of the markers of the previous regime and a sign of the ‘4 olds’ impeding progress during the cr - shrines, statues and books (scrolls) therefore dessecrated, burned and destroyed. jiang qing even managed to use it against political opponents, calling lin biao a pragmatic confucianist disguised as a maoist and reigniting the confucian persecution; peasant shrines in houses for ancestor worship replaced with shrines of mao by red guard and new yers ancestor festivals supressed. However, the confucian traditions remained regardless - family values were too engrained within chinese culture to be changed, cadres frequently held traditional spiritual items to ward off ghosts, and the tianamen incident of 76 was a direct result of the government trying to crack down on day of the dead festivals for zhou enlai, despite those being banned all the way in 1949. even a party cadre and director of commune health clinic secretly kept a god of wealth shrine in his home to make offerings to!

conclusion: mixed - although persecution of Christianity extremely successful, and though the ruinification campaigns + cultural revolution saw the destruction of a large amout of confucian, islamic and tibetian symbols, by and large the regime failed to completely eradicate the religious identities of the chinese people or get rid of old confucian traditrions, which were too entrenched as values of chinese societies to be completely destroyed. although he did ban and destroy the public practices of most of these religions, this only served to bury them deeper underground, and both during his rule and after his death there were many examples of events that proved these religions endured within the heart of the people.