My experience in China as a student point me to believe that most Chinese kowtow and go to temples for tradition and spirituality rather than institutionalized religion.
The entire article sounds like a westerner applying their cultural values and their sense of righteousness to China. For example:
>"But I do think that it does create values that are higher than any government's values - ideas of righteousness and justice that people are inspired by and that will inspire them to action if they feel that they are unjustly treated by the government."
(I'm an american born chinese but was brought to China for about 6 years by my mother)
Edit: My grandmother is extremely Buddhist, and both my mother and I are nonreligious. Even so, my mother brought me to the Confucius temple to kowtow and light incense, not because it actually did anything, but because it was a move of ancestral respect and tradition.
The entire article sounds like a westerner applying their cultural values and their sense of righteousness to China. For example:
>"But I do think that it does create values that are higher than any government's values - ideas of righteousness and justice that people are inspired by and that will inspire them to action if they feel that they are unjustly treated by the government."
(I'm an american born chinese but was brought to China for about 6 years by my mother)
Edit: My grandmother is extremely Buddhist, and both my mother and I are nonreligious. Even so, my mother brought me to the Confucius temple to kowtow and light incense, not because it actually did anything, but because it was a move of ancestral respect and tradition.