Supernatural Politics: Mao Zedong and the Drive to Eliminate Religion in China, 1949–79. S. A. Smith. (Cambridge University Press, 2026).

In recent years, Chinese political studies in Western academia have broken away from old Western theoretical frameworks and have returned to the party-centric analytical paradigm.By employing quantitative empirical methods and textual analysis, scholars have pushed the discipline into a new stage.Under this paradigm shift, Steve Smith, Emeritus Professor at All Souls College, Oxford, returns to the discourse arena of Chinese political studies with his new work, Supernatural Politics.Different from previous studies of Chinese politics that prioritized macrolevel state-building or high politics, this book examines the evolution of Chinese political power through the specific lens of religion.Centering his focus on the era of Mao Zedong, the firstgeneration political leader of the New China, Smith primarily analyzes the policy evolution of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) under Mao's leadership to regulate and attempt to eliminate religion over the 30 years following the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC), as well as its implementation and reception at the grassroots.In doing so, he profoundly reveals the complex mechanisms mobilized by a modern political party in an attempt to reform traditional folk beliefs.The author first introduces the theme in the Introduction by proposing the core concept of 'supernatural politics', pointing out that the relationship between an atheist party and the folk realm of gods and ghosts is not a one-way dynamic, but rather a two-way dialectical interaction of simultaneously striking and borrowing, resisting and co-opting.Subsequently, the author elaborates on the operational mechanisms of this 'supernatural politics' across 12 chapters.In the reviewer's eyes, these 12 chapters appear miscellaneous at first glance, but actually conceal three logically progressive threads.The first thread (Chapters 1-5) focuses on theoretical categorization and institutional suppression: the author first analyzes the ideological roots of the CCP's religious policy (Chapters 1-2) and then demonstrates how the new regime launched crackdowns on and transformations of various sects (Chapters 3-5).The second thread shifts toward grassroots governance (Chapters 6-9), first exploring the dissemination logic of supernatural rumors (Chapter 6) and the confrontations and compromises between local cadres and the populace during governance (Chapter 7), before analyzing propaganda mechanisms and anti-superstition campaigns (Chapters 8-9), thereby revealing the interactive game and boundaries between the state apparatus and popular spiritual life.The third thread ascends to a deep game between cultural matrices and political power (Chapters 10-12), discussing the cultural entanglements between the CCP and Confucian thought (Chapter 10) and the covert resistance of subaltern supernatural beliefs (Chapter 11).In the last chapter, Smith clarifies how pre-modern supernatural metaphors penetrated the political culture of the young regime, forming a marvelous