Religious sites in China, including Buddhist and Taoist temples, are in short supply, which may lead to inadequate religious services, an expert said.
According to the official website of the State Administration for Religious Affairs, there are currently 33,652 Buddhist temples, about 35,000 mosques, 25,000 Protestant churches and 6,000 Catholic churches in the Chinese mainland, where there are approximately 1.4 billion residents.
Taiwan has more than 80,000 religious sites to serve a population of 23 million, Wei Dedong, vice-director of the School of Philosophy at the Renmin University of China, told the Global Times on Sunday.
"Legal religious sites are scarce in China, which may cause some people to resort to extremist religious groups, as people must also fulfill their religious needs, which are similar to physiological needs like nutrition," Wei said.
He pointed out that a great number of unregistered religious sites have emerged due to the insufficiency, citing family gatherings among Christians as an example.
"The government should lower standards for the registration of religious sites and should provide more chances for the public to understand legal religions so people can learn the difference between religion and extremist religious groups," Wei said.
Meanwhile, the insufficient number of sites leads to a "monopoly" by temples that may fail to provide qualified services, ultimately dampening the overall development of religion in China, Wei added.
The grave shortage of legal religious sites has also led to the prevalence of counterfeit and shoddy religious products, he noted.
He cited entrance fees charged by temples or local governments as an example, saying that it is natural for the temples not to provide quality religious services when they have steady income.
Wei added that the lack of sites is also linked to a moral crisis caused by inadequate religious support.
