 In 1949, China became a Communist state under the leadership of Mao Zedong's Communist Party of China.Prior to this takeover, China itself was previously a cradle of religious thought since ancient times, being the birthplace of Confucianism and Daoism, and Buddhists arrived in the first century AD.Under Mao, China became an officially atheist state, and though some religious practices were permitted to continue under State supervision, religious groups which are deemed a threat to law and order have been suppressed—such as Tibetan Buddhism from 1959 and Falun Gong in recent years.