Chinese Leaders Tolerance of "Superstition"

The ruling elites in China had always been rather ambivalent towards traditional forms of superstition.

According to John Gittings, former paramount leader Deng Xiaoping (邓小平) once invited a qigong practitioner to perform for him and other top Chinese leaders.

The qigong practitioner succeeded in moving a pair of jade exercise balls out of the hands of former general Wang Zhen (王震) into another room.

Wang is supposed to have remarked enthusiastically that "maybe in future he can steal some nuclear secrets from the Russians and Americans for us!"

According to this unofficial account, Deng was also said to have chipped in to say that he hoped the practitioner would perform only good and not bad deeds.

But of course outwardly Chinese leaders were not supposed to be condoning superstition.

So much so that rumours about how an ailing Deng was supposedly being treated by qigong in 1994 had to be officially denied.