Beijing puts itself on a collision course with Christians
CRUCIFY THIS HAN CHINESE
MONSTER! AND JAIL HIS ACCOMPLICE POPE FRANCIS!
Chinese
President Xi Jinping. Picture: Getty Images
- THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
- 9:53AM DECEMBER 24, 2020
- 113 COMMENTS
With the European
parliament threatening to block an investment deal with China over persecution
of Muslims in Xinjiang, the shock waves released by Beijing’s Hong Kong
crackdown still reverberating, and the debate over the next US administration’s
China policy heating up, this would seem like a bad time for Beijing to kick
off another major international dust-up over human rights.
But that logic holds
little appeal for today’s Chinese policymakers; crushing domestic dissent takes
priority over burnishing the country’s image. This is bad news for China’s
Christians, who face growing hostility from a ruling party that until a few
years ago was willing to turn a blind eye to the proliferation of unofficial
“house churches” across the country.
Catholic
worshippers wait to take communion at an “underground” church nar Shijiazhuang,
Hebei Province, China. Picture: Getty Images
That era of toleration
coincided with one of the greatest expansions of Christianity in the past 2000
years. From an estimated three million believers at the end of the Cultural
Revolution, the number of Protestants in China is now believed to exceed 100
million, with another 10 million to 12 million Catholics. (The government
offers an implausible figure of 38 million Protestants.) The Council on Foreign
Relations cites a 2018 estimate from Purdue’s Centre on Religion and Chinese
Society of between 93 million and 115 million Protestants in China. Much of the
growth has come since 2010, and some projections suggest that by 2030 China
could surpass America to have the largest population of Christians in the
world.
This is one of the few
competitions with the US that Beijing does not want to win. Churches are
increasingly targets of the Chinese Communist Party’s repression of free
speech. Some have been demolished; others have been “secularised” as local
officials tear down religious symbols such as crosses. Authorities are now
demanding the installation of cameras to monitor worshippers’ behaviour and
pastors’ sermons. There are reports of Catholic churches being forced to
replace pictures of the Virgin Mary with portraits of Xi Jinping.
In October, National
Review’s Cameron Hilditch pointed to a Xinhua News Agency report that the
Communist Party has produced a state-approved bible. Hilditch reports that one
change is to the New Testament story in which Jesus spares a woman accused of
adultery from stoning by telling her accusers not to cast the first stone
unless they are sinless. In the new, improved version, when the accusers have
left, Jesus stones the woman himself, saying, “I too am a sinner. But if the
law could only be executed by men without blemish, the law would be dead.”
China’s
crushing of dissent is bad news for Christians. Picture: AFP
Long before the
communists took power, Chinese rulers feared religious cults could cause
political unrest.
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Given the history of
Western countries demanding special privileges for missionaries, Christianity
was seen as an alien and threatening faith, and the Communist Party was quick
to expel missionaries and persecute local Christians after 1949. Protestantism
and Catholicism are, with Islam, Buddhism and Taoism, among the officially
recognised religions in China, but membership in any but state-licensed and
state-controlled congregations is illegal — and no longer overlooked.
The explosive growth of
Chinese Christianity is on a collision course with a government determined to
centralise power in the Communist Party in ways not seen since the death of
Mao. China’s Christians are to a great extent urban, well-educated and
connected to global information networks. For these reasons, serious pressure
on Christians will have an even more damaging impact on China’s international
standing than what happened in Tibet, Xinjiang or Hong Kong. As news spreads
that the Communist Party is persecuting Christians for their faith, the effects
on American public opinion will be both explosive and long-lasting, potentially
ending any hope for better or even stable relations between Washington and
Beijing.
Young
Chinese worshippers attending mass at a Catholic church in Beijing. Picture:
AFP
China’s rulers saw how
the strong example of Pope John Paul II contributed to the collapse of
communism in Poland, and they were horrified at the part South Korean
Christians played in that country’s transition to democracy. Local Christians’
prominent role in the Hong Kong democracy movement provided another argument
for those counselling a stern crackdown. Something very ugly may be in the
works.
Throttling diversity at
home comes at the cost of deepening isolation abroad. No earthly power has the
ability to stop Beijing from choosing this path if that is what party leaders
wish. But it is unlikely that China will like what it finds at the end of that
road.
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Let us hope in this
season of peace and goodwill that moderation and tolerance will prevail in
Beijing.
The Wall Street Journal
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