Christianity in China

China has experienced a religious renewal over the past four decades, including a significant increase in Christian believers. The number of Chinese Protestants has increased on average by 10 % per year since 1979. According to certain estimates, China is on the way to becoming the country which will count the largest population of Christians in the world by 2030. Although the rise in the rise Christianity poses challenges to the Chinese Communist Party (PCC), officially atheist, it also offers new options to improve services, such as health care and education, for an increasingly demanding audience. The government recently launched a series of initiatives aimed at regulating more, and sometimes to restrict the followers of Christianity.

The history of Christianity in China

The first waves of Christianity began with the arrival of the Italian Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci in China at the end of the 16th and early 17th century. The first Protestant missionary in China, Robert Morrison, went there in 1807 in the name of the London Missionary Society and translated the Bible [PDF] in Mandarin. In the middle of the 19th century, Christianity became a mobilizing political force: Hong Xiuquan developed an ideology of Christian influence to set up the rebellion of Taiping (1850-1864) against the Qing dynasty, attractive missionaries and revolutionary. The rebels have taken control of more than a third of the Chinese territory and established a rival political order, known as the celestial kingdom.

The ensuing civil war killed around twenty million people. The creation of the People's Republic of China in 1949 led to a large -scale religious repression in continental China. True to its Marxist roots, the CPC declared itself atheist. Maoist thinking, a meaning of Marxism-Leninism which placed the future of the Chinese revolution in the hands of peasants, was the dominant ideology. It was particularly true at the height of the cultural revolution (1966-1976). When places of worship have been demolished, closed or reappropriate and religious practices have been prohibited.

The first Christians in China

A wave of followers of Christianity was observed in the early 1980s. Today, the Christian population of China is made up of a wide range of citizens of all ages, campaigns and urban centers, including students and professionals.

China is also the world's largest producer of Bibles. In 2016, the Amity Printing Company printing house, a joint venture between the Amity Foundation, a non-governmental Chinese organization, and the United Bible Societies, printed its 150 millionth Bible, including a third between 2013 and 2016. Bibles and other Christian products in many languages ​​for national and international markets. However, if the government shows a certain tolerance for religious practices, freedom of religion is still limited and regulated.

Christianity policy in China

What is China's policy on religious practices? PCC officially recognizes five religions: Buddhism, Catholicism, Taoism, Islam and Protestantism. The activities of religious organizations sanctioned by the State are regulated by the State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA), which manages all aspects of religious life, including the appointment of religious leaders, the selection of the clergy and the interpretation of the doctrine. Christianity in the country of China is supervised by three major entities: the Patriotic Movement of the Trois Sunes, the Christian Council of China and the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association. To register as a Christian organization sanctioned by the State, religious leaders must receive training in order to adapt the doctrine to the thought of the government and the CCP. 

Spirituality and religious practice have long been anchored in traditional Chinese culture, explains Sara Cook, main analyst of Freedom House for East Asia. Article 36 of the Chinese Constitution protects freedom of religion. However, if religious activities disturb public order, pose a problem with the health of citizens or contradicts the state education system, they will be automatically prohibited! These provisions provide authorities with a certain flexibility when it comes to determining what religious practices conform to party policy and which do not fall under the directives of the Party-State. 

Catholic Christians and Protestant from China

Fenggang Yang, from the Center on Religion and Chinese Society of the University of Purdue, estimates that there are between 93 and 115 million Protestants in China. Other Christian organizations estimate an even higher number. The estimates of the Catholic faithful in China are between ten and twelve million. However, the Vatican and Beijing have no longer official diplomatic relations since Mao has broken them in 1951. Since August 2014, Pope Francis sought to thaw relations with China, which were even more tense due to a dispute on the question of which has the power to name the bishops.

Why has the number of Christians increased? Social science specialists have observed the rise of a spiritual void after decades of unprecedented economic growth. Modern China has become a richer and more educated society, with a renewed interest in religion. Consequently, the experts claim that as the ideology of the CCP loses its public force, the Christian, official and unofficial churches, seem to fill a part of this void. Believers are not only looking for a meaning in their own lives, but also in the future of their country, while China adapts to an economy and a rapidly evolving society.

The importance of the Christian religion for the Chinese

 Protestantism calls on Chinese ritual and community traditions, according to the French Jesuit Benoît Vermander, specialist in China. They say that China Christians appreciate the meaning of fraternity, the morale of religion, the solidarity of faith in the context of an international movement and its structure. In addition, the severe repression of traditional Chinese religions most popular, especially during the cultural revolution, has reduced the influence of Buddhism and Taoism and opened the door to greater Christian expansion.

Christians in China are mainly Protestants, attracted by the accent put by religion on egalitarianism and the spiritual community within the Church, known as Yang de Purdue. The feeling of camaraderie between Chinese Christians is attractive in relation to the hierarchical structures of other religious and social organizations, adds Yang. It is also possible that more Chinese choose Christianity rather than other religions, such as Tibetan Buddhism, Islam or Falun Gong, because Christianity is more tolerated and potentially constitutes a safer option in China, declares Cook Freedom House. Christian religious practice resurfaced after the end of the cultural revolution and gained ground in Chinese society. In the early 1980s, the number of Christians was estimated at around six million. Today, estimates vary considerably: the government has twenty-nine million Christian followers, while external organizations have placed their estimates at a significantly higher level. 

The practice of Christianity: a danger for Christians in China 

Christians have been faced with increasing repression in recent years. For about twenty-five, China has become one of the dangerous countries to practice Christianity. This according to Open Doors, a non-profit Christian association based in the United States which follows the persecution of Christians worldwide. The repression campaigns come and go. If the churches of houses and the clandestine churches have traditionally been the hardest affected by the persecution, under the direction of XI, the churches sanctioned by the State were also targeted.  

The recent efforts of repression are aimed at both the churches of the house and the churches sanctioned by the State through the harassment and the detention of Christian believers, the blocking of access to places of worship, of the interruption of Gatherings, the dismantling of the crosses, the demolition of the churches and the dismantling of the congregations. For example, party officials in the eastern coastal province of the city of Wenzhou, in Zhejiang, known for its important Christian population, ordered the withdrawal of hundreds of crosses and the demolition of dozens of churches who would have violated the rules of construction, although several of them received the prior approval of local officials. In addition, Zhejiang officials announced that the party would apply a ban on religious belief among the members of the party in order to prevent the penetration of the Western hostile forces.

In the central province of Henan, local authorities and the police have taken similar measures, performing raids on certain mandate churches and razing others. Other provinces with a large Christian population, including Anhui and Jiangsu, have also been the subject of repression measures. Confessional organizations are perceived as one of the most serious threats to the Communist Party. Fenggang Yang, University of Purdue The PCC identifies religious groups as potential threats to national security, social harmony and fundamental interests. Ye Xiaowen, former director of the Sara, said in 1996 that: religion has become a weapon in the hands of dissidents to encourage masses and create political disorders.

Christianity: a sacred religion for its country

Even if people believe that the religion of Christianity is a plot to be against the Chinese government, China Christians do not have this vocation. On the contrary, like all Christians around the world, what a Christian seeks in truth, it is the Word of God who guides him in his choices and to transmit it to those around him. Each Christian does not force his neighbor to follow his way, he explains his faith in religion and why he follows the God of the Christian, the Son of God Jesus Christ and all the other Christian Saints.

However, we have not really mentioned this point, but many Christians even in China wear the cross of Jesus around the neck. Wooden, steel or silver cross pendants. Besides, if you are Christians and you would like to wear the cross of Jesus, we invite you to visit this shop offering lots of cross pendants. Here is one of their collection much appreciated by their Christian clientele: the Collection of the cross of Jesus for women.

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