Likely the largest scene of religious oppression and human rights debacle on the planet today, communist China, known as the Peoples Republic of China or PRC, has been actively attempting to quell the spread of Christianity for many years.  As a Christian I am drawn to the subject of the spread of Christianity throughout our nation and world.  As the brother of missionaries in Beijing, my focus is brought to China.   China allows approved churches in Beijing and throughout China, but those who attempt to go beyond that which is approved by the state are usually imprisoned, sent to labor camps, beaten, tortured, or killed (Marshall np).  The news for Christians is not as grim as it would seem, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is losing their battle against the spread of Christianity.  The PRC is afraid that Christians, who they see as instrumental in the collapse of the Soviet Union, will cause the fall of their government.  Though they are persecuted, the underground Chinese Christians have a feeling of joy. They do not express any feeling of oppression.  But what are we to do about this oppression?  Do we sit back and watch or should we be active?

Imagine going to church on a Sunday morning, you arrive at the door and are asked for your passport to check your nationality (Missionary).  Is this an attempt at discrimination by the ‘religious right’ to make sure only desirable people are allowed in?  No, this is Beijing, China, and the church is a non-government controlled church for foreigners.  Other churches for foreigners only announce that the service is for foreign passport holders but are also subject to police raids to demand proof of citizenship.  There are churches in China that Chinese citizens are allowed to attend but these churches are ‘Patriotic Churches’ that serve a watered down version of Christianity that is approved by the CCP which are controlled by the Religious Affairs Bureau that is headed by atheist and Communist hard-liner, Ye Xiaowen (Marshall np).  Although the CCP allows citizens to attend these government controlled churches, only Chinese adults are allowed to attend.  Anyone under 18 is strictly prohibited from attending any church (Yu np).

Communist China is no stranger to violent oppression.  On the night of June 3^-4, 1989, Chinese tanks and troops massacred students protesting against corruption and demanding freedom of the press and an end to the rule of the PRC by the Communist Party of China and the de facto paramount Chinese leader, Deng Xiaoping, in Tiananmen Square and in surrounding streets.  2,600 were killed and between 7,000 and 10,000 were wounded according to the Chinese Red Cross; although the Communist Party of China only reports 23 dead (Wikipedia np).  Communist China’s violent nature does not exclude Christianity.  Christians are often arrested and beaten, thrown into prison or labor camps and tortured, or killed. 

The news is not all bad for Christians. Despite the CCP’s attempts to quell the spread of Christianity in China, they are failing.  The official number of Christians in the government controlled churches is around 25 million people.  Estimates by church groups in Hong Kong and the United States of total number of Christians both in official and underground churches run up to 150 million (USA Today np).  The CCP is also failing in striking fear in the hearts of Christians.  Underground churches have been thriving in China and their members and leaders are not worried at the punishment they would receive if caught.  Li Dexian, a Protestant pastor, said before one of his arrests in 1990 “I will preach until I die” (Carnes np).  China is attempting to make Li’s statement a reality.  In one beating, the Chinese police broke Li’s ribs, making him vomit blood (Carnes np).

Li is one of many Christians in China who have been beaten and thrown in prison.  Underground Roman Catholic Bishop Su Zhimin was beaten and tortured throughout his first 15 years in prison before being released in 1993 only to be arrested again four years later.  During one beating that Paul Marshall describes, “the board being used by the security police was reduced to splinters.  Unrelenting, the police ripped apart a wooden door frame and used it to continue the beating until it, too, disintegrated into splinters (np).”  He was lucky, he survived.  The stories of beatings, torture, mutilation, and executions of Christians in China are innumerable.  Peter Xu Yongze, a Christian in China and founder of one of the largest Christian movements in China, was beaten and tortured many times throughout his five prison sentences (McGeown np).  Peter described an event during one of his sentences saying: "They hung me up across an iron gate, then they yanked open the gate and my whole body lifted until my chest nearly split in two. I hung like that for four hours" (McGeown np).  He also saw many people being tortured and killed for their beliefs in prison including one event where he says: "A believer was praying, so a jailer made other prisoners lift him up to the ceiling and drop him to the ground many times until he died" (McGeown np). 

The nagging question is why?  Why is the Peoples Republic of China so violent against Christians?  Fear.  According to Marshall, China’s Communist leaders are afraid that China will end up like the Soviet Union if they allow Christianity to spread.  The Chinese press voiced this concern noting “the church played an important role in the change" and warned China “must strangle the baby while it is still in the manger” to prevent a repeat in their land (Marshall np).  The CCP’s mentality seems to be ‘kill or be killed’. In their eyes, they must kill Christians to prevent their communist government from being ‘killed’.  Far East Economic Review quoted one Beijing official as saying, "If God had the face of a 70-year-old man, we wouldn't care if he was back. But he has the face of millions of 20-year-olds, so we are worried" (Marshall np).  Bay Fang quotes Jonathan Chao, president of a Taiwan based research company saying: “These leaders could mobilize over a million people in one place,” “They are so organized, it would take just a word. That is why the government is so alarmed" (np). 

Fear does not work both ways.  Christians are not afraid of the communists or their persecution.  Christians, like Li Dexian, are not afraid of dying, they are willing to “worship in caves, be baptized at night in ice rimmed rivers, live underground---and endure persecution” all for the sake of their faith (Marshall np).  Some embrace the torture and suffering as Fang says: “One experience that has come to be regarded as an integral part of the training is arrest and torture in a labor camp”, Sam, a church leader who spent many years in a labor camp, after describing torture in the camp said: "Suffering is beneficial to us—it tests our faith and our love" (np).  Why do people choose persecution over an ‘official’ church?  After describing one underground church, Fang says:

They are risking their lives to be here, having chosen not to attend an official church, which would require ultimate allegiance not to God but to the Communist Party. “The authorities are very afraid of these groups right now because they are not willing to obey,” says Kwok Nai-Wong, a retired minister based in Hong Kong. “If you ask them to register, they refuse. If you harass them, they have more martyrs.” (np) 

One Chinese preacher and business man says, “Why don't I think it will be a problem? Because, as time goes on, the government will get to know the Christian spirit and realize that God exists." He smiles with the secret knowledge of a true believer. "And then," he says, "they will become Christians too (Elegant np)."  Christians are willing to die for their faith and for God and the lost souls of China.

            Underground Christians in China have a vast network connecting the different churches.  Fang writes: “The command center for one band of these Christian warriors is a small apartment in southern China. One room holds bunk beds for visiting missionaries. Another has a heavy-duty computer, printer, and copier, surrounded by boxes of copied books waiting to be distributed (np).”  These underground Christians do not reflect a feeling of oppression.  The narrator of the documentary The Canaan Hymns, which is a story of a farm girl, Xian Min, who is a high school dropout who does not even know how to read music but creates nearly a thousand hymns by the power of the Lord, says: “wherever there are Christians, you will hear joyful voices of the faithful expressing their devotion through their hymns” (The Canaan Hymns). 

            What are we to do?  What do Americans and Christian Americans do about this persecution?  Marshall quotes Elliot Adams who calls to Americans saying: “Fifty years from now, will Chinese thank us—as today Poles and Czechs do—for helping them win their freedom? Or will we be compared to the Swiss, who loved gold more than they hated persecution?”  Are Americans going to sit back and let China go by unnoticed (np)?  After a church service in Beijing, President George W. Bush makes the remark:

You know, it wasn’t all that long ago that people were not allowed to worship openly in this society. My hope is that the Government of China will not fear Christians who gather to worship openly. A healthy society is a society that welcomes all faiths and gives people a chance to express themselves through worship with the Almighty. (np) 

President Bush recognizes the problem in China but most seem unwilling to do anything about it; some seem unwilling to even acknowledge the problem.

            Though brutish and evil in their attempts to subdue the spread of Christianity in China, the CCP is failing.  Christianity is spreading quickly throughout China in underground churches and in authorized churches.  The violent CCP does not scare Christians but Christians scare the CCP.  The CCP sees Christianity as a threat to their political survival, and every year the number of Christians in China increases by the millions.  These Christians sing and shout praises in the faces of the CCP.  Christianity is alive and well in China. 

Works Cited

Bush, George W. "Remarks Following a Church Service in Beijing, China." Weekly

Compilation of Presidential Documents 41.47 (2005): 1751-1751. Academic Search Premier. 25 January, 2007. http://library.cocc.edu:2056

Carnes, Tony. "Arrests of Pastor Signal Religious Freedom Setback." Christianity Today.

44.2 (2000): 28. Academic Search Premier. 25 January, 2007. http://library.cocc.edu:2056

Elegant, Simon. "THE WAR FOR CHINA'S SOUL" Time 168.9 (2006): 40-43. Academic Search

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Fang, Bay. "China's Christian Underground." U.S. News & World Report 130.17 (2001):

32. Academic Search Premier. 25 January, 2007. http://library.cocc.edu:2056

Missionary (name withheld for safety purposes).  E-mail interview. 26 January 2007

MacLeod, Calum. “Christians in China persevere despite religious restrictions” 

USA Today 17 November, 2005 Accessed: 30 January, 2007.

            http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-11-16-china-churches_x.htm

Marshall, Paul. "Chinese will hail Clinton, jail Christians. (Cover story)." Human Events

54.24(1998): 1. Academic Search Premier. 25 January 2007. http://library.cocc.edu:2056

McGeown, Kate. “China’s Christians Suffer For Their Faith” BBC News 9 November,

2004 Accessed: 30 January, 2007.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3993857.stm

The Cross: Jesus in China – The Canaan Hymns. China Soul.  DVD. China Soul for Christ

Foundation, 2003

Wikipedia. Tiananmen Square Massacre.  Accessed: 25 January, 2007.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_Massacre

Yu, Carla. "How tolerant is China?" Alberta Report/Newsmagazine 26.21 (1999): 31.

Academic Search Premier. 25 January 2007. http://library.cocc.edu:2056