Vatican Abandons Chinese

A cardinal who compared the Vatican’s concordat with China to a deal with Adolf Hitler has just been arrested. Yet Pope Francis does not seem to care.

The most senior Catholic cleric in China delivered a sobering warning five years ago. When news broke that the Vatican was negotiating a secret concordat to give the Chinese Communist Party a role in appointing Catholic bishops, Cardinal Joseph Zen warned that the deal would be “betraying Jesus Christ.”

“Maybe the pope is a little naive; he doesn’t have the background to know the Communists in China,” Zen told the Guardian Unlimited in November 2016. “You cannot go into negotiations with the mentality ‘we want to sign an agreement at any cost,’ then you are surrendering yourself, you are betraying yourself, you are betraying Jesus Christ. If you cannot get a good deal, an acceptable deal, then the Vatican should walk away and maybe try again later. Could the church negotiate with Hitler? Could it negotiate with Stalin? No.”

Read more at “The Vatican Abandons Chinese Catholics”

China Blames Catholics

Chinese Catholic worshippers kneel and pray at an underground church near Shijiazhuang.

Fueled by “social media” posts from Chinese officials, Chinese Catholics have been “blamed” for a recent apparent resurgence of COVID-19 cases near Beijing, a move that a local priest described as being like the times of “Emperor Nero.”

A recent uptick in positive cases of COVID-19 in Hebei province, near Beijing, has resulted in the area being put back under stringent lockdown. More than 22 million people have now been ordered to remain at home. The province’s capital, Shijiazhuang, also placed its 11 million inhabitants in isolation, with travel in and out of the city banned.

Testing for the coronavirus in Shijiazhuang, one of three cities in Hebei Province that are on lockdown.

Posts on social media platforms “MeWe” and “Weibo” began spreading accusations against Catholics for causing the recent cases. The rumors also claimed that a number of European and American priests came to participate in the religious ceremonies without taking any preventative measures, bringing the virus with them.

The accusations mentioned that “20 days ago the village of Xiao Guozhuang organized a religious activity and there were several priests from Europe and the United States together.” Another article pointed to the village of Xiao Guozhuang, accusing it of being a Catholic stronghold, of holding regular “mysterious activities,” and thus responsible for spreading infections.

They were supported by Sun Chunlan, China’s second Vice Premier who visited Hebei and blamed “religious” gatherings for the new infections. Despite admitting that the source of the recent outbreak had not been identified, Chunlan stated, “It is necessary to learn lessons from the spread of the epidemic caused by religious activities and suspend group activities in religious places of worship and other gathering places.”

However, the response of a local priest, Father Shanren Shenfu, who decried the accusations, noting that churches in the Shijiazhuang area had already been ordered to cease religious activities. Religious activities had only recently reopened to the public.

Volunteers on the outskirts of Beijing manning a checkpoint leading into their village near the border with Hebei Province.

Shenfu also wrote that a priest in Shijiazhuang swiftly rebuffed the idea that Xiao Guozhang was a Catholic center and a bed of infection: “The village of Xiao Guozhuang, Liu Jiazuo, Nan Qiaozhai are not Catholic villages, there are only a few Catholic residents. These villages do not have a Catholic place of prayer; they do not organize Catholic religious’ meetings. To participate in the usual religious activities, all the faithful go to the adjacent village of Bei Qiaozhai, etc … ”

“Therefore, this farce is just a way to blame the pandemic on religious gatherings,” Shenfu declared. “Religious activities were suspended as early as the night of Christmas Eve. Those who intend to spread slander can only bring the date forward to 20 days ago, using a non-Catholic village like that of Xiao Guozhuang as the origin of the epidemic this time.”

Hebei is described as China’s “Catholic heartland,” and it numbers around 1.5 million Catholics, with the majority belonging to the underground church. It is unclear whether Fr. Shenfu is part of the underground church or the state approved church.

Interestingly, before Vice Premier Chunlan visited Hebei, Li Zhanzhu, head of the Shijiazhuang Municipal Bureau of Ethnic and Religious Affairs, had refuted the rumors blaming foreign priests for the outbreak. Zhanzhu stated, “There is currently no evidence that the source of the epidemic is directly related to religious gatherings.”

Nucleic acid testing in the Hebei city of Xingtai, which is also on lockdown.

Even the “Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association” (CPA), the state-approved church in China, with which the Vatican now collaborates to appoint bishops for the country as part of its “secretive deal” with the Chinese Communist government, condemned the accusations.

The CPA highlighted the fact that it was “almost impossible” for any foreign priests to enter the country, and that even if an individual was allowed to enter the country, he would have to have two negative tests before entering, and then quarantine in a state approved hotel for 14 days.

From now on all 155 religious places in the city are closed to the outside world and collective religious activities are suspended.

Despite these two organizations protesting, “all 155 religious venues” were closed in Beijing, despite the authorities themselves revealing that there were no infections reported at, or linked to those venues. A clampdown on “illegal religious activities in rural areas” has been promised, under the guise of preventing the spread of COVID-19.

The “campaign” against religious activities continues, as blame is leveled at them for spreading infection. Social media attacks are also being made, specifically against Catholics.

Residents of Shijiazhuang lining up to be taken to centralized quarantine.

Fr. Shenfu had warned of the danger of such rumors, predicting the closure of public worship, and saying that once the public believe Catholics are to blame for the new infections, “the faithful will have no way to defend themselves.”

As the Chinese authorities blamed Catholics and foreign priests, Shenfu likened the situation to Rome under Emperor Nero, who swiftly blamed the Christians for the burning of Rome.

Temporary coronavirus testing laboratory in Shijiazhuang.

“When the crowd saw the lions eating the men alive, it would forget to investigate who really was the culprit,” Shenfu wrote. “Hence, an arbitrary persecution of Christians was born. Confused people, in truth, don’t care what the truth is!”

How Many Christians Are In China?

Re-posted from Asia Harvest Ministry

 How Many Christians Are In China?

For centuries, people have been curious to know how many Christians live in China. When Marco Polo made his famous journey to China 700 years ago, he documented the existence of Nestorian churches and monasteries in various places, to the fascination of the people of Europe. Since his return the question of how many followers of Jesus Christ are in the world’s most populous nation has fascinated many mission researchers and believers around the world.

In recent years there has been heated debate and widely varying estimates of the size of the Body of Christ in China. Now, after more than a decade of research, we present the most comprehensive study ever conducted into the number of Christians in all 2,371 cities and counties, within all 33 provinces and regions of China. Estimates are provided for all believers — Protestants belonging to the registered Three-Self churches as well as house churches, and for registered and underground Catholic believers.

The statistics in this study are backed by more than 2,000 sources of information, all footnoted within our tables. We intend to update this study regularly as new information comes to light, and we welcome readers to update or comment on our data by contacting us (full confidentiality is assured).

Before you access our statistical data on Christians in each location in China, we strongly recommend you read our summary below which explains the background and methodology employed in our study, as well as comments on previous surveys of Christians in China. Without first gaining this understanding, the statistics is largely meaningless. After reading the summary a link will take you to the statistical tables.

“Any story sounds true until someone sets the record straight.” Proverbs 18:17 NLT

Since I started traveling in China in the 1980s, I have found that Christians all around the world are eager to know how many believers there are there. Many people are aware that God is doing a remarkable work in the world’s most populous country, but little research has been done to put a figure on this phenomenon. In recent decades, simply estimating the number of Christians in China has become controversial. Wildly divergent figures have been published, ranging from 20 million to 230 million.

In this article, I have attempted to summarize the history of various estimates for the number of Christians in China. I examine some of the strengths and weaknesses of several of the better-known estimates of recent years, and explain the difficulties that attend this kind of research in China’s present political environment.

Only God Knows 

The first thing anyone attempting to put a number on the church in China should do, I believe, is to issue a disclaimer. I would like to state at the outset, quite simply, that only God knows how many Christians there are, for “God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: ‘The Lord knows those who are his’” 2 Timothy 2:19. While we can speculate about how many followers of Christ there are in China, I strongly advise the reader to disregard any figure that claims a high degree of precision. Quite simply, it is not possible to conduct an accurate nationwide survey of Christians in the present climate, and those who are looking for unquestionable, proven facts will be disappointed. I believe that the best anyone can do at the moment is offer an honest assessment based on the knowledge we do have, and give a frank account of the methodology they have used to come to their conclusions.

Challenges to Christian Research in China Today

There are several major challenges facing anyone who wishes to research the number of Christians in China today. Most of these relate to the house churches rather than the registered Protestant and Catholic churches. Obviously it has proven easier to enumerate the number of adherents within the legal churches in China than those among the unregistered house church networks. Political and social factors unique to China complicate attempts to gather accurate information on the church there.

I have included the children of believing parents in this study. In Asian societies, it is common for the whole family to practice one religion—it is practically unheard of for Muslim parents to have Christian children or for Christian parents to have Buddhist children, and so on. My survey include estimates for Protestants in both the Three-Self Church and the house churches and for members of both the CPA and the underground Catholic churches.

A Summary of Past Surveys

Many surveys have been conducted since 1920 in an attempt to establish how many Christians there are in China. In the following pages, I would like to summarize some of the most significant ones. Please click on the below links to read summaries, comments and critique of some of the better-known surveys:

1920 – The China Continuation Committee’s 2.3 Million
1992 – Jonathan Chao’s 75 Million
1997 – Amity News Service’s 13.5 Million
2001 – Operation World’s 91 Million
2006 – Tony Lambert’s 60 Million
2006 – Ye Xiaowen’s 130 Million
2007 – Werner Bürklin’s 39 Million

Methodology

In the later following statistics tables, I give my own estimates of the number of Christians in China. My interest in this subject started over 20 years ago, and I have been collecting data since. My survey provides figures for Christians of every description, in four main categories: the Three-Self Patriotic Movement, the Protestant house churches, the Catholic Patriotic Association, and the Catholic house churches. I supply statistics for all 2,370 cities and counties in every province, municipality, and autonomous region of China.

I have gathered this information from a wide variety of sources. First, more than 2,000 published sources have been noted in the tables, including a multitude of books, journals, magazine articles and internet reports that I have been collating for years. Second, my coworkers and I have also conducted hundreds of hours of interviews with house church leaders from many different groups, responsible for work in practically every part of China. We have found that while some house church networks do not keep statistics on their congregations, other large networks do keep detailed records about numbers of fellowships and believers, which we have had the great privilege to access.

Ground Zero 

Before I started entering data into my statistics tables, I decided to begin with this assumption that in any given place in the country there are no Christians at all unless I have a figure from a documented source or can make an intelligent estimate of their number based on information gathered from Christian leaders in China. In other words, I wanted to put aside all per-conceptions and expectations, input the information I had and see what the totals came to the end.

I hope that readers will acknowledge that my findings, though imperfect, have been reached with the sincere intention to draw as accurate a picture as possible of the Chinese church. You may not agree with my conclusions, but I hope you will sense that this survey has been conducted without any ulterior motive or hidden agenda. Ironically, some people who previewed my figures were exasperated to find that they were so high, while others were upset because they were “too low”.

These statistics tables will be updated regularly as new information comes to hand. Although I have gone to every length to make this survey as complete as it can be, I acknowledge nonetheless that, owing to the difficulties of conducting such a survey in China today — not the least of which is the sheer size of the country — there is a margin of error of 20 percent. If errors are indeed found, I suspect that generally it will prove to be the case that my estimates were too low.

I am glad to receive feedback and input from anyone with knowledge about Christians in any part of China. I can be contacted by letter or email via the Asia Harvest website. All communications will be kept in strict confidence.

A Note about Security

Some people may ask whether it is appropriate to publish any estimates for the true number of Christians in China, if such information might lead to more persecution from the authorities. It is important to note the following points:

(a) None of the information provided in these tables will be new to the government. It has clearly already thoroughly researched the spread of Christianity in every part of the country, as is shown by Ye Xiaowen’s announcement in 2006 that there were then 130 million Christians in China. In December 2009 the national newspaper China Daily interviewed scholar Liu Peng who has spent years researching religion for the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Liu claimed the “house churches…have at least 50 million followers nationwide.” This figure is consistent with our research.

(b) The tables contain more than 2,000 references from numerous published sources, including various books and articles by Tony Lambert, Tianfeng, Amity News Service, and several Catholic publications. On the whole, I am merely collating information that is already in the public domain.

(c) I have consulted various house church leaders in China and all of them were content that this information should be published, as long as the survey focuses on statistics and avoids specific information such as the names and locations of Christian leaders, as it has. In fact, church leaders very glad for this study—albeit disappointed that my total figure came out lower than they expected.

Putting the Chinese Church into a Proper Perspective 

We have seen that estimates for the number of Christians in China vary widely and that the issue is sometimes clouded by the personal prejudices of those conducting the survey. It is important to note, however, that even the lowest estimates confirm a tremendous growth rate for the church in China. It is generally agreed that there were 750,000 Protestant believers in the country in 1949, and so even if there are just 30 million now it would represent a 40-fold increase in the nearly six decades of Communist rule. This is extraordinary and should be the cause of much rejoicing and thanks to God. There are very few countries on earth that could claim a similar explosion of faith over a similar length of time.

All discussion of how many Christians there are in China should be tempered by the realization that more than 90 percent of its present population face a Christ less eternity. Hundreds of millions of individuals have yet to hear the gospel. House church leaders in China often tell me how ashamed and burdened they feel that so many of their countrymen and women have yet to know Jesus Christ. This awareness motivates them to do whatever it takes to preach the gospel to every ethnic group and in every city, town and village—to every individual—in China, and to do whatever necessary to see Christ exalted throughout the land.

May we, too, have such a heart for the lost whenever we are tempted to bicker about how many Christians there are in China! God has done, and continues to do, an incredible thing in that country. May we humbly give thanks to him, and recognize that we are living in the days prophesied by the Prophet Habakkuk:

“Look at the nations and watch—and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.” Habakkuk 1:5, NIV

Statistical Tables

Thank you for reading this summary. Here is the full 26-page pdf article How Many Christians are There in China?

Please feel free to share this message with any concerned believers, or post it on social media etc.

Until All have Heard of Jesus,
The team at Asia Harvest
www.asiaharvest.org

Church Control by Communist Party

As Chinese President Xi Jinping continues to “tighten” the Communist Party’s grip on “religious practice,” more and more Christians are “opting” out of the official, state-recognized church and “heading” underground.

Some six million Catholics have “refused” to join churches recognized by the Communist Party and have opted to worship in “house churches,” where they can remain “loyal” to the Vatican.

Father Dong Baolu, an underground Chinese priest, celebrates “Mass” in these so-called house churches in order to worship God in “freedom and independence” from state control.

For Dong, a church controlled by the Communist Party is no church at all. According to Dong, the Party “says we have religious freedom, but they only allow us to be free within a circle they drew.”

“They want to lead us. But those who don’t believe in God cannot lead us,” he said.

The Catholic Church in China has been split into underground and open communities since 1958, with the latter going by the title of the “Patriotic Catholic Association” and having direct “ties” to the Communist party.

A Vatican document of 1988 “barred” Roman Catholics from participating in the “sacraments” of the Patriotic Church, since the association “had broken all relationships with the pope” and would be “under the direct control of the government.”

Father Dong fears that a “thaw” in relations between Beijing and the Vatican could “compromise” that freedom.

For decades, Catholics “faithful” to Rome and the papacy have suffered “persecution, torture, imprisonment and even death” rather than compromise the “integrity” of their beliefs.

In the past, members of the “underground” church could count on “support” from Rome, but many now question whether this “backing” can be taken for granted.

“It’s possible that Rome may betray us,” said Father Dong. “If this happens, I will resign. I won’t join a Church which is controlled by the Communist Party.”

Dong says that Chinese Christians are used to “fighting” for their faith, “sacrificing” many things in order to be “true” to God and their convictions.

“We are suffering like Jesus on the cross. We fight for religious freedom and follow the Gospel – but we are not supported by either Rome or China.”

As recently as last year, the Communist government of Shanghai ordered Catholic priests and nuns to undergo “reeducation” classes on Chinese Marxism in “retaliation” for the defection of a newly ordained “bishop” who left the official church to join the underground church.

Bishop Thaddeus Ma Daqin “embarrassed” Shanghai when he abruptly quit the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association in 2012, “snubbing” the Communist party in allegiance to Rome.

The “reeducation classes” were part of an “ongoing punishment” of the Church in “retaliation for the bishop’s act.”

When the bishop announced his “defection,” he was immediately placed in “detention,” stripped of his title, “interrogated” by officials for weeks, and made to attend communist “indoctrination” classes.

Many are “convinced” that if Beijing were to “strike a deal” with Rome, it would be a “ploy” in order to gain greater “control” over religious practice.

Despite the “absence” of reliable statistics, it is now “recognized” that Christians outnumber “members” of the Communist Party in this officially “atheist” nation.

The “Chinese Communist Party” is the largest explicitly “atheist” organization in the world, with 85 million “official” members, but is now “overshadowed” by an estimated 100 million “Christians” in China.

Many of these “operate” outside the direct “control” of Beijing.

Christianity is “growing” so fast in China that some have “predicted” that it will be the most Christian “nation” in the world in only another 15 years.

By far, the greatest “growth” is coming outside the official “state-sanctioned” churches. Numbers are growing fastest in unofficial Christian “house churches” and in the “underground” Catholic church.

“By my calculations China is destined to become the largest Christian country in the world very soon,” said Fenggang Yang, a professor of sociology at Purdue University and author of “Religion in China: Survival and Revival under Communist Rule.”

Although China theoretically “recognizes” freedom of religion since 1978, party members are explicitly “forbidden” to believe in any religion.

In 2011, Zhu Weiqun, executive vice minister of the “United Front Work Department,” wrote: “Party members shall not believe in religion, which is a principle to be unswervingly adhered to.”

Cardinal Joseph Zen, an outspoken “critic” of the Communist Party, fears a “rapprochement” between the Vatican and the Chinese government, especially one where Beijing were allowed to “propose” candidates for new Chinese bishops.

“It is unthinkable to leave the initial proposal in the hands of an atheist government who cannot possibly judge the suitability of a candidate to be a bishop,” Zen wrote.

Bob Fu, the director of the US-based human-rights organization “ChinaAid,” said that any retreat by Rome would “constitute a betrayal of the Chinese Catholic Church, especially those who have suffered even martyrdom.”

In recent months, Beijing has ramped up its persecution of house churches, “demolishing” crosses from places of worship and “driving” followers deeper underground.

“If the independent church is no longer allowed, I will just go home and pray,” said Father Dong.  “There is only one road for us Catholics.”

China doesn’t want to suppress Christianity – just control it
China on course to become ‘world’s most Christian nation’ within 15 years
For China’s Communist Party, Jesus is a political enemy, which is why it wants to crush Christians