Expanding Protestant Churches Face New Opposition From Chinese Government

Yesterday's Christian Science Monitor carried a long story on the rapid growth of Protestantism in China and the government's new moves to crack down on official as well as unofficial churches.  Here is an excerpt:

As evangelical Christianity grows sharply, officials fear it could undermine their authority. Already, Christians may outnumber members of the Communist Party. That has far-reaching implications both for Chinese society and for a party that frowns on unofficial gatherings and other viewpoints. In China, party members cannot be Christian.

More than half of China’s Protestants attend illegal “house churches” that meet privately. The rest go to one of China’s official, registered Protestant churches.... [which] operate under an arrangement that says in effect: We are patriotic, good citizens. We love China. We aren’t dissidents. We go to official theology schools. So the party will let us worship freely....

Yet in the past year authorities have attacked and even destroyed official Protestant churches, as well as unofficial ones. Many Evangelicals feel they are now on the front lines of an invisible battle over faith in the world’s most populous nation, and facing a campaign by the party-state to delegitimize them. Underneath it all is a question: Will China become a new fount of Christianity in the world, or the site of a growing clash between the party and the pulpit?

China Government Is Promoting A Chinese Version of Protestant Theology

China Daily this week reported on remarks by China's director of the State Administration for Religious Affairs outlining a 5-year campaign started last year to promote Christian theology in China. Wang Zuoan was speaking at a seminar in Shanghai on the Sinicization of Christianity, part of the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the National Committee of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement of the Protestant Churches in China. The new government campaign is designed to adapt Protestant theology to China's national condition and Chinese culture. It will give guidance to Protestant churches in an attempt to promote theological ideas seen as positive and correct by the government.

China Orders Muslims In Northwest Not To Observe Ramadan Fast

AP reports that schools, government agencies and Communist Party organizations in China's northwestern Xinjiang region have ordered students and civil servants in the region to avoid observing the traditional Ramadan fast that began Saturday night. The move comes in the midst of tightened security in the heavily Muslim region after attacks in May and June led to over 50 deaths.  China blames the unrest on Muslim extremists with foreign terrorist ties, and fears that religious activities could become a rallying point for anti-government activity. Apparently earlier this week authorities in some towns held celebrations of the founding of the Communist Party and served food to find out whether Muslim attendees were fasting.

2nd Circuit: Chinese Asylum Applicant Wrongly Questioned By IJ About Doctrinal Knowledge

In Chang Qiang Zhu v. Holder, (2d Cir., Jan. 23, 2013), the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals vacated and remanded for further proceedings the denial by an Immigration Judge of an application for asylum, withholding of removal and relief under the Convention Against Torture brought by a Chinese Christian man who claimed religious persecution in China.  The court said in part:

The agency based its credibility determination primarily on Zhu’s testimony concerning his telling of the story of the biblical figure Paul to Chinese authorities during his detention. The agency found that Zhu’s demeanor while testifying was “hesitant” and “evasive” and his account of the story was inconsistent. The record, however, reveals that Zhu’s demeanor began to suffer only when the IJ required him to provide highly detailed information regarding the story of Paul. Indeed, while Zhu was able to explain that Paul was a disciple of Jesus Christ who persecuted Christians, and later converted to Christianity after being blinded on the road to Damascus, he struggled to answer more detailed questions such as what form Paul’s  persecution of Christians took or in what year Paul converted to Christianity. By inquiring of Zhu and expecting him to provide this extensive detail, virtually all of which he testified to accurately in any event, the IJ contravened our holding in Rizal v. Gonzales, 442 F.3d 84,90 (2d Cir. 2006), which prohibits relying on a petitioner’s lack of doctrinal knowledge as the basis for an adverse credibility determination or denying relief. 

The court also concluded that neither the Immigration Judge nor the Board of Immigration Appeal adequately considered Zhu's claim of a pattern or practice of persecuting Christians in China. The New York Daily News last week reported on the decision.