Over at Global Voices, Andy Yee has a nice little round-up of stories and blog posts in the aftermath of the unveiling of the new Confucius statue near Tiananmen Square.  Some of the pieces are a bit old, but the overall effect is thought-provoking.  And, to my mind, the most important thought to emerge from this collection is this: Confucianism is taking hold as an alternative to Marxism-Leninism at the level of state ideology and legitimation.

But this goes too far.  While it is true that the regime has tolerated and even encouraged the revival of Confucian thinking and writing and education, it is not at all clear that people in power are really relying on that revival for political legitimacy or ideological justification.  Leaders like Wen Jiabao and Hu Jintao have not directly quoted or invoked Confucius all that often.  They have latched onto the notion of "harmonious society" but they do not offer a fully developed Confucian ideological justification for one party rule.  The State and Party constitutions make no mention of Confucius or Confucianism.  Now, it may well be true that nobody really believes in Marxism-Leninism anymore, but it is also true that Confucianism has not explicitly replaced this strand of thinking.  Bottom line: we still have a long way to go before Confucianism gains significant political traction.  One statue near Tiananman Square does not make a fully formed and effective political ideology…

So, I think this statement, quoted in Yee's piece, is exaggerated:

Globally China is holding the flag of Confucianism. 320 Confucius Institutes are opened in over 90 countries, but never a Marxism-Leninism-Mao-Deng school! The act of ‘Confucius stationing in Tiananmen’ will further reassure the US – today China officially switches from Marxism-Leninism to Confucianism. At most, China is a ‘Confucius socialist society’.

Confucius Institutes have very little to do with Confucius or Confucianism.  They are basically concerned with teaching Chinese language.  Indeed, when Hu Jintao visited a Confucius Institute in Chicago on his recent trip to the US, he made some remarks to the young students there (it is in a high school) but he did not mention Confucius!   

I think The Economist gets it about right:

Promoting Confucianism is not part of their [Confucius Institutes] remit. Party officials use Confucius as a Father-Christmas-like symbol of avuncular Chineseness rather than as the proponent of a philosophical outlook.

So, no, the PRC has not officially switched from Marxism to Confucianism.  Perhaps that will happen some day (though I doubt it) but, if it ever happens, that is still rather far off in the future…