As I recall most (certainly not all) Chinese elites around and since the May Fourth movement (1919) stressed (usually with pride) that China has been a civilization least plagued by religious bigotry and persecution. (Of course such idea was formed with the radical Enlightenment belief that the Church did nothing but burn scientists.)
Such notion has persisted, and many Chinese elites still think this way, and quite some questionnaires (whose "accuracy" I'm not quite confident about) on the religiosty of various nations show modern China as one of the "most atheist". While I do know it is a seriously doubted notion, I haven't seen any systematic refutation so far.
To limit the scope of the discussion, Can anyone provided newer discussion on:
(1) Did Ming/Qing Chinese elites and the "official ideology (if such term were legitimate)" lean towards atheism?
(2) Is there new methodological reflection on "what is atheism", "how to compare the attitudes towards religions between Abrahamic religions and the Chineses" etc.?
Many thanks!
Not meaningfully, I wouldn't say. The Qing balanced a number of religious worldviews in the construction of their empire, precisely because each of their constituent populations' elites had a particular cosmological outlook. I discuss it in some detail in this answer but feel free to ask any follow-ups.