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Dr. Ngeow Chow Bing
Deputy Director, Institute of China Studies, University of Malaya
Abstract:
China has promoted the so-called “five connectivities” (policy coordination, infrastructure connection, trade facilitation, financial integration, and people-to-people exchange) under the Belt and Road Initiative towards the relevant countries. Together, the five connectivities constitute a comprehensive agenda in forming a long-term and sustainable cooperative relationship between China and these countries. China has rightly put people-to-people exchange as one of the five, but has not been very clear what concrete areas are to be promoted, and so far religion has received very scant attention from the official side.
This paper makes the argument that China, although officially atheistic, and having had a very secular culture for a long time, ironically has many indigenous religious resources that it can enlist and mobilize to promote stronger people-to-people exchanges with many Belt and Road countries. While China is atheistic or secular, the people in many countries along the Belt and Road remain strongly religious, or at least more spiritual or religious compared to the average Chinese person. To enhance people-to-people exchange the spiritual dimension should not be overlooked.
This paper will examine in particular Buddhism and Islam, and how these two religions are very much part of the Chinese heritage and how and why China should not overlook them in the conduct of public diplomacy towards the Belt and Road countries. It will review some of the past examples in light of the current push for people-to-people exchanges, and make some recommendations.
Bio-sketch:
Dr. Ngeow Chow Bing is Deputy Director of the Institute of China Studies at the University of Malaya. He received his PhD in Public and International Affairs from Northeastern University (Boston, USA). His scholarly articles on China have appeared in journals such as China Review, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Journal of Contemporary China, Contemporary Southeast Asia, East Asia: An International Quarterly, China: An International Journal, Problems of Post-Communism, Issues and Studies, and International Journal of China Studies. He has recently published two coedited books: Zhenghe Forum: Connecting China with the Muslim World (coedited with Dr. Haiyun Ma of Frostburg State University and Dr. Chai Shaojin of the Ministry of Culture, UAE, published by the Institute of China Studies, University of Malaya) and Southeast Asia and China: Exercises in Mutual Socialization (coedited with Professor Lowell Dittmer of the University of California-Berkeley, published by World Scientific Press).
Dr. Ngeow’s research interests include China’s political reforms, organization and management of the Chinese Communist Party, China’s minorities, and China-Southeast Asia relations.
