Agree. In China people request help and protection from "Heaven", "God", or "Buddha", but something I noticed is that the behavior is very similar. The protection and good fortune is asked from forces of nature rather than human institutions.

Many other religions concentrate power in an institution via priests. (Historically even Buddhism and Taoism had power centralized in monks) "Modern" Chinese religion post cultural-revolution seems alnost suspicious in human intervention in beliefs. Nowadays the power is mostly non-secular (assuaging guilt, providing happiness, contentness)

So many people in China actually use religion purely for dealing with uncertainty. Other aspects are handled by culture, like morality and a sense of justice. And they DO have a very long and old culture they are proud of and would most likely resent being described as being sheep that have their sense of value controlled by the government.

Events like the cultural revolution and great leap forward created a lot of cynicism towards "soft" values and many families in China revolve around money more than anything else. I think this is inportant to note as religion, though increasing in activity, isn't some sort of desire to be free from opression but a side effect of more and more families and individuals becoming well off and seeking meaning from other areas. Money becomes a false god for them. (Usually children who grew up in wealthy conditions. Personal gods are difficult to switch once you "grow up")

And this is how religion everywhere works internally IMO. Being able to survive is the most important and religion comes after. In areas where religion is literally a matter of life and death, then it supercedes economics. The government in China isn't some God handing down meaning for your life, it's a begrudingky accepted part of life like Trump and Congress, or Comcast.

People aren't wallowing about with holes in their souls suddenly realizing that Christianity perfectly fits that hole and deciding to topple the existing government. Because religions may displace other religions as sources of belief and happiness but governments are now just sources of money and stability.

The interesting things about religion in China to me. (Which almost all western interpretations miss due to an obsession with folding in politics and promoting own worldviews)

1) How the Chinese react to rediscovering the value of soft values as latter generations become less "selfish" due to abundance. Older generations may have fought over bread, but latter generations are ashamed as being perceived as rude people who spit everywhere.

2) How diverse the coming landscape will be. Will more traditional religions grow in size or if more foreign ones will

3) Whether or not different religions will create soft or hard boundaries. I think the idea of being Chinese due to its long tradition will cause boundaries to be primarily soft. I will say that the non-existence of such boundaries currently cause a lot of irrational mob-like behavior like obsession with LV bags or buying all a supermakets salt due to some news story. Different seeds can cluster different crystals which may increase the life outlook diversity of people in China.

4) How much of life's agency will be ceded to them. Religion used to control everything down to money. In the middle east it controls life and death. In strong conservative areas it controls morality. In more liberal areas it allocates happiness and assuages guilt. As the Chinese realize they no longer have to work themselves to the bone while beating their kids to get a good education to get a good job, soft values are being rediscovered. How much will be indluenced by culture, religion, and individual desire for discovery. China is probably the largest body of people rediscovering soft values in the Internet era with all its connectivity.

5) some other stuff... most of my thinking around religion revolves around me just wishing my parents could be happy. They started off very poor and now own many houses but don't seem to be able to derive happiness from anything else. It's more than enough for both themselves and their kids, but as their kids have more gods than just Money, they are coming to tbe realization that the max value they can provide is limited. Becoming a god of money did not make them gods of life and this increasingly becomes apparent as their children accept new gods and problems emerge that Money cannot solve. (Health related, relationship related, emotion related, etc...)

So I think there is room in China for a few more Gods.