In my experience, most Chinese atheists aren't actually atheists. Or atheists who are only atheists because they don't believe in a personal god but are really into numerology, plan their interior design based on fengshui, believe in the spiritual aspects of acupuncture and Chinese traditional medicine realigning your qi, go to fortune tellers so that their kids can have a lucky name, consult these almanacs to plan major events like weddings based on what days are auspicious, and just act very superstitious in general. They also burn incense in temples just like their religious counterparts but mostly out of respect rather than sincere belief. They definitely don't resemble Reddit atheists at all, and I seriously doubt Reddit atheists would consider them atheists.
I actually looked into the CFPS because I was curious; looks like there was some recent work on the subject looking into the question of measuring religious affiliation in China. The questionnaire doesn't ask about atheism (only religiously unaffiliated), and they noticed a drop in the total when the question was rephrased to be more broadly inclusive of traditional Chinese religions. Even with that modification, the majority of respondents (~70%) said they were unaffiliated, and I would consider that evidence of secularism; they most likely aren't religious/Christian per your original phrasing. If we assume that number is accurate it represents almost a billion people, definitely not "very few." The only number I could find on atheism that's recent was a Gallup poll, which suggested around 60% of people in China are "convinced atheists" but that appears to contradict actual scholarly research on the subject.
deleted by creator
Why are you trying to handwave away all the Chinese atheists as "very few people"?
In my experience, most Chinese atheists aren't actually atheists. Or atheists who are only atheists because they don't believe in a personal god but are really into numerology, plan their interior design based on fengshui, believe in the spiritual aspects of acupuncture and Chinese traditional medicine realigning your qi, go to fortune tellers so that their kids can have a lucky name, consult these almanacs to plan major events like weddings based on what days are auspicious, and just act very superstitious in general. They also burn incense in temples just like their religious counterparts but mostly out of respect rather than sincere belief. They definitely don't resemble Reddit atheists at all, and I seriously doubt Reddit atheists would consider them atheists.
deleted by creator
I actually looked into the CFPS because I was curious; looks like there was some recent work on the subject looking into the question of measuring religious affiliation in China. The questionnaire doesn't ask about atheism (only religiously unaffiliated), and they noticed a drop in the total when the question was rephrased to be more broadly inclusive of traditional Chinese religions. Even with that modification, the majority of respondents (~70%) said they were unaffiliated, and I would consider that evidence of secularism; they most likely aren't religious/Christian per your original phrasing. If we assume that number is accurate it represents almost a billion people, definitely not "very few." The only number I could find on atheism that's recent was a Gallup poll, which suggested around 60% of people in China are "convinced atheists" but that appears to contradict actual scholarly research on the subject.