China continues its relentless assault on Christianity

 

See this article from the Christian Post on China's continuing assault on Christianity

China shuts down Bible App, Christian WeChat as new crackdown policies go into effect

The curtailing of freedoms in China will impact business, missions and the free flow of information

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China is moving back to a surveillance state where people are watched, phones are tapped, the internet is controlled, hotel rooms are entered without permission and surveillance can even be found in the home. It is not by accident that China is also on the cutting edge of the development of face recognition software that will further erode individual freedoms. In addition, China is making it more difficult for the news media to report what is going on and limiting their freedom to travel. Even reporters in Hong Kong who have crossed a line with Beijing are finding that their visas are not being renewed. All of this is reminiscent of the days of Mao but it is taking place in a globalized world.

This will have major implications for the business community. Already, the government is holding international companies hostage for positions they take or anything on their web site that is contrary to China's image and politics.

More importantly this will potentially bring much more scrutiny to those who are in China to spread the gospel. Not that Christianity can be stamped out in a country with many believers but foreign missionaries may well find it much harder to find a valid reason to receive a visa. China is already doing battle with the church in various locations and the government is not trying to hide their actions.

It is my belief as well that Chinese students from the mainland are being watched in the United States more carefully for their associations with Americans and the church.

Below are links to an important article for those who desire to know more. It is a report entitled Under Watch: Reporting in China's Surveillance State. It is a report by the Foreign Correspondents Club of China. It ought to give us pause.

Rapidly expanding surveillance and widespread government interference against reporting in the

country’s far northwestern region of Xinjiang drove a significant deterioration in the work environment

for foreign journalists in China in 2018. This is shown by the annual survey of correspondent members

conducted by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China (FCCC).

 UNDER WATCH: REPORTING IN CHINA'S SURVAILLANCE STATE

Creating cultures of excellence

Rapidly expanding surveillance and widespread government interference against reporting in the

country’s far northwestern region of Xinjiang drove a significant deterioration in the work environment

for foreign journalists in China in 2018. This is shown by the annual survey of correspondent members

conducted by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China (FCCC).

Rapidly expanding surveillance and widespread government interference against reporting in the

country’s far northwestern region of Xinjiang drove a significant deterioration in the work environment

for foreign journalists in China in 2018. This is shown by the annual survey of correspondent members

conducted by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China (FCC

Disturbing trends for Christianity in China

As China's president Xi Jinping continues to consolidate his power there are very troubling signs of the repression of the church. In recent days major house church movements have been banned, Churches have been told to replace pictures of Jesus with pictures of Xi Jinping, there is a plan to prevent on line ministries and China is seeking to restrict Christian activities with 26 new rules.

For an overview of these developments, read this article from Christianity Today

Missions and China's current political climate

As one who grew up in Hong Kong during the cultural revolution and witnessed the awful abuses of Mao Tse-Tung, I am watching with concern the return to one man rule in China under President Xi Jinping. His smiling visage hides a level of ruthlessness that almost always accompanies “one man for life” rule. China and Russia and the failed state of Zimbabwe all demonstrate the dangers of unchecked power.

Consider:

• China is on the leading edge of facial recognition  technology and is running some pilot programs in a few cities that they hope will allow them to keep track of the movements of its population and in particular individuals who they are concerned about.
• China is punishing multi-national corporations who speak up about things China does not want in the media by shutting down their web sites, requiring executives to abjectly apologize and holding them hostage to doing things their way. In essence they are further stifling free speech.
• China has started to demand that foreign corporations accept political officers from the party on their paid staff who would have veto power over employee placement and promotions. Of course the concern of a political officer is not the well being of the company or its competitiveness but the interests of the party.
• China has been demolishing large churches in some cities under less than legal pretexts to ensure that the church knows who is in charge.
• There has been the appearance of slogans (Mao loved slogans) to the effect that people need to put their trust in Xi Jinping rather than in Jesus. Of course this puts Xi Jinping in his own evaluation as superior to Christ.
• Increasingly employment and promotions are tied to party loyalty and those who don't give the party primacy (Christians give Christ primacy) are being discriminated against, denied employment or promotions.
• Don't be fooled by the anti-corruption campaigns in China. Here is the truth. Almost all senior (and many not so senior) leaders are corrupt. When you read about a wealthy business person or political figure being charged with corruption it almost never has to do with corruption but about removing from power those individuals who are a threat to the senior leader in power. Corruption charges are simply a pretext for getting your enemies out of the way while those who bring the charges are usually as corrupt as those who are charged.
• China is making it much harder for those who are in country for mission purposes and they usually know who those individuals are. Visas for new personnel are often being denied. China is nothing if it is not pragmatic and those individuals or organizations who give them something they want are tolerated until their threat to the powers that be becomes greater than their positive contributions.
• China works very hard to block internet sites that they believe are a threat to them. These can be religious, political or simply sites that promote free speech and the candid exchange of opinions. Tech savvy young people often find a way around these efforts, however. 

Remember that there is often a direct correlation between the accumulation of power and resistance to the church. Xi Jinping knows that Christians give ultimate allegiance to Christ rather than to the party, or more importantly, him. Thus the church and those who are committed to its growth are seen as threats and will be marginalized by those in power. This is having and will have a direct impact on mission efforts within China, both for the west and for the Chinese church.

Having said this, a few caveats are in order. China has more Christians then perhaps any other nation on earth today while at the same time being one of the largest people groups remaining to be reached. In addition, while mission efforts from the outside may be impacted by the current politics within China, it will not impact the growth of the Chinese Church no matter how hard authorities try. Even in the terrible days of the cultural revolution, the church continued to grow and it will in the years ahead.

Further, citizens of China are travelling abroad like they never have in the past which  means that they are not isolated any longer. My final caveat is that while these trends are present, the situation varies in different parts of China. What is clear to me is that what we have been used to in terms of missions in the past several decades is undergoing a fundamental shift. The next several decades will likely be significantly different than the past several decades.

Cracks in the atheist edifice in China - a very encouraging update from the Economist Magazine

Economist article on Christianity in China