Paul KeenanDespite Christian growth, religious freedom is not yet assured, writes Paul Keenan
One can only speculate if the powers-that-be in Beijing, looking back at the year to November, are actually asking ‘how did it come to this?’ in light of news of Christian growth. After all, it was in November 2013 that the Communist Party of China, assembled for its national congress, discussed threats to the stability of the state and set in train a fresh round of persecution of Christian Churches as perceived avenues of infiltration of western ideas, such as the promotion of universal values and constitutional democracy, for example.
Direct and destructive actions were taken against Christian places of worship to stem both growth and the western tide. Then, in May of this year, the government seemed ‘vindicated’ in its approach when the country’s University of International Relations and the Social Science Academic Press issued a report pointing the finger directly at Churches as the source of “foreign religious infiltration powers [which] have penetrated all areas of the Chinese society”.
A year on, November 2014 opened with much excited media coverage of the finding that China is not only a powerhouse of Christian evangelisation, but that, with 100 million adherents, the community outnumbers the 87 million signed-up members of the Communist Party. (In truth, the figures are more stark – anecdotally, it is thought that at least three million Party members are also Christians.)
Reality
The statistical reality led commentators to predict, based on studies undertaken by Prof. Fenggang Yang, director of the Centre on Religion and Chinese Society at Purdue University in Indiana, USA, that China will be home to at least 247 million Christians by the year 2030, a larger community than that in America.
If any of this seems somehow familiar to readers of The Irish Catholic it is because the wide reporting of all this by the secular media at the beginning of November came a full six months after this newspaper covered the issue, including Prof. Fenggang’s study, against the backdrop of the wave of church demolitions in China. More of that anon.
Of course, the story of growing Christian numbers in China is one stretching back further than the last year, and is, in fact, a tale of endurance as much as evangelisation. Focusing solely on the Catholic experience offers an illustration of this: in 1949, when the communists swept to power in China, the Catholic community numbered some three million, nurtured by western missionaries who were subsequently expelled by the authorities.
Across the years of persecution and the ideology of the Party as God, the latest Christian figures, when broken down by denomination, reveal some 12 million Catholics.
While evangelical Protestants are the ‘big winners’ in the modern numbers game in China, the exponential growth of Catholics from the outset of communism cannot be viewed as anything but the power of endurance over oppression (or, as one media outlet put it, the power of the Good Book over the Little Red Book).
As a connected sidebar, the Good Book made the news too as Christian figures were lauded. In November, the world’s most productive Bible factory, based in Nanjing, printed its 125 millionth Bible. Operating since 1987, the factory has, in addition to 59 million Bibles produced for export, printed 65 million Bibles in 10 distinct Chinese languages during that time.
Good news all round, it would seem. But celebration should be tempered with caution. Enter Xia Baolong.
For readers of this newspaper, a paraphrasing of the Gospel of St Matthew seems relevant in introducing Mr Xia: by his works you know him.
Currently General Secretary of Zhejiang province, a south-eastern coastal province that is home to the city of Wenzhou, the ‘Jerusalem of the East’, it is Mr Xia who lies behind the veritable tsunami of church demolitions and cross removals (up to at least 300 to date) in that province as he became an enthusiastic practitioner of Beijing’s drive against Christians in 2014.
The much-publicised destruction of the majestic Sanjiang church in May can be laid directly at his feet. Surely, it would be reasonable to assume, Mr Xia is the one man now truly confounded by the rise in Christian numbers. Perhaps, but it would be far wiser to view Mr Xia as the man who may delay China’s progression to full religious freedom.
In leading Zhejiang, Mr Xia presides over one of the most wealthy and successful provinces in the emergent China. It has been pointed out that the region has a gross domestic product in excess of that of many European countries. And, as foreign powers and corporations hungrily seek new markets in the East, it is to Zhejiang they are turning, regardless of ongoing persecution.
Take, for example, the November arrival of Canada’s prime minister Stephen Harper in Wenzhou for a cordial meeting with Mr Xia and with the aim of strengthening trade links. Pressed on the topic of religious persecution during the trip, a spokesperson for Mr Harper said the prime minister had “indicated Canadians would be concerned to know that religious freedoms were being restricted” but, the spokesperson added, “beyond that, it was a private conversation”.
Other powers have been less circumspect in their actions.
Economic projects
Last week it was reported that during a visit to Singapore, Mr Xia signed off on no fewer than 15 economic projects worth $3 billion (€2.4 billion), the highest number of such agreements reached since Zhejiang and Singapore began bilateral talks in 2003, covering areas such as financial services, education and marine economy. Trade between the two regions is currently worth almost $5 billion (€4 billion).
Later in the week, the general secretary led a major trade delegation of 100 Chinese companies to Gujarat in India, where bilateral trade and investment were both lauded and negotiated. According to the Times of India newspaper: “The delegation had members from sectors like agriculture, automobile and auto components, banking and finance, chemical, construction and building materials, electrical, environment, food and beverages, furniture, health care cosmetics, industrial products, information technology, infrastructure and real estate, leather, logistics, machinery, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, renewable energy, rubber products, textile, travel and tourism.”
What’s 100 million when faced with monetary figures stretching into the billions?
Again, however, the figures do not tell the whole story.
Certainly, the willingness of powers to overlook Christian persecution in favour of Mr Xia’s business opportunities does not bode well for an immediate improvement of matters in Zhejiang. But, simultaneously, there is another perspective, one only now becoming an area of examination for academics like Prof. Fenggang.
That is the way in which China’s touch of capitalism, having lured ordinary Chinese from the party, is now, through vacuous consumerism, leading people to seek spiritual nourishment in Christianity.
What a bitter irony that must be for Mr Xia and his Beijing masters.