[Mr. Xi, apparently concerned that independent worship might pose a threat to the ruling Communist Party’s dominance over daily life in China, has sought to bring Christianity more firmly under the party’s control. The government this year banned online sales of the Bible, burned crosses, demolished churches and forced at least a half-dozen places of worship to close.]
By
Javier C. Hernández
 |
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Members
of Early Rain, a well-known Protestant church in Chengdu, attended
Christmas
Eve services elsewhere in the city after the Chinese authorities
shut
down their church. Credit The New York Times
|
CHENGDU,
China — For months, Gu
Baoluo had been looking forward to a boisterous Christmas celebration at one of
China’s best-known Protestant churches. He loved decorating trees, singing
songs like “Silent Night” and watching the annual Christmas pageant recounting
the birth of Jesus.
But in early December, the police shut down
Mr. Gu’s usual place of worship, the Early Rain Covenant Church in the
southwest city of Chengdu, as part of what activists say is the most severe
crackdown on Christianity in more than a decade. The police confiscated Bibles,
shuttered a school and seminary run by the well-known church and detained Early
Rain’s outspoken pastor on charges of “inciting subversion,” punishable in
serious cases by at least five years in prison.
On Christmas Eve, Mr. Gu, 31, a rice seller,
went to the only safe place to worship that he knew: a friend’s home, where he
recited hymns and prayed for the two dozen Early Rain members that are in
detention. Fearing that he and his friends might be arrested, Mr. Gu used
encrypted chat apps to share information about surveillance and harassment by
the police.
“We will not forfeit our faith because of
suppression by the authorities,” Mr. Gu said.
As millions around the world gathered to
celebrate Christmas, China is capping a year in which the government of
President Xi Jinping has led an unrelenting campaign against unofficial
churches in China, which by some estimates serve as many as 30 million people.
Mr. Xi, apparently concerned that independent
worship might pose a threat to the ruling Communist Party’s dominance over
daily life in China, has sought to bring Christianity more firmly under the
party’s control. The government this year banned online sales of the Bible,
burned crosses, demolished churches and forced at least a half-dozen places of
worship to close.
The campaign comes as Mr. Xi, the most
powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong, has worked to more aggressively
control religion across China, including the detention of thousands of Muslims
in the western region of Xinjiang.
Renee Xia, international director for China
Human Rights Defenders, an advocacy group, described the effort as targeting
the “heart of the underground Christian resistance.” The government has focused
its campaign on unofficial Christian churches that promote ideas like social
justice or have been critical of the party’s grip on society.
“The message,” Ms. Xia said, “is that Xi
can’t be messed with.”
The crackdown escalated in the weeks leading
up to Christmas. The police this month shut down the 40-year-old Rongguili
Church in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, which attracted thousands of
worshipers. And in September, the authorities in Beijing ordered the closing of
the 1,500-member Zion Church, one of the largest unofficial churches in the
capital.
The government requires religious groups to
register, though many still worship in unofficial churches, sometimes called
underground or house churches.
Many in the party believe Christianity, which
by some estimates is China’s fastest-growing religion, promotes Western values
and ideals like human rights that conflict with the aims of China’s
authoritarian government and Mr. Xi’s embrace of traditional Chinese culture
and Confucian teachings that emphasize obedience and order.
But the government’s heavy-handed efforts to
obliterate several high-profile churches have been met with resistance among
Christians.
On Christmas Eve, the authorities posted a
sign at Early Rain’s former headquarters saying its 23rd-floor sanctuary had
been converted into office space for the local government.
Li Shuangde, a teacher in Chengdu who has
been part of Early Rain since 2011, said that church members had been asked by
the authorities to sign letters stating that they no longer believe in
Christianity. He said Early Rain had no choice but continue to exist in secret.
“We have moved underground,” he said.
Members have continued to hold Sunday
services, sometimes on the banks of a river near the church’s former
headquarters in a downtown high-rise. They have called for the release of
detained leaders, including Wang Yi, the pastor of Early Rain, and his wife,
Jiang Rong.
Mr. Wang, in a prewritten message released
after his detention, spoke about the importance of disobedience.
“The Communist regime’s persecution of the
church is an extremely vicious crime,” he wrote. “As a pastor of the Christian
church, I must strictly and publicly condemn such crimes.”
Mr. Wang had been scheduled to deliver a
Christmas Eve sermon at Early Rain titled “The God Who Bestows Peace.” Instead,
hundreds of Early Rain members on Monday scattered across Chengdu for services
inside the homes of friends and relatives or at welcoming churches.
At Chengdu Xishuipang Reformed Church, a
Protestant church with close ties to Early Rain, more than 100 people gathered
inside a worship hall on the 16th floor of an apartment building.
A children’s choir sang “Silent Night,” and a
small Christmas tree, decorated with snowflakes, was on display near the
lectern.
The anxieties brought on by the recent arrests
hung over the ceremony.
“If you see the police, national security or
community workers greet them with gentleness,” Wen Hongbin, an elder at
Xishuipang, told the congregation. “If they try to grab the microphone, I ask
the brothers sitting in the front row to please stop them.”
While he did not explicitly mention Early
Rain, Mr. Wen asked those in attendance to remember “those who are criminally
detained.” Then he began a sermon about the meaning of Christmas and the sacrifice
made by Jesus.
Since Mr. Xi rose to power in 2012, the
authorities have led a sustained campaign against unregistered churches. In one
province, more than 1,500 crosses were removed from churches from 2014 to 2016,
according to advocacy groups.
This year, some Chinese cities have banned
Christmas displays. But the government also allows some degree of celebration,
in part to stimulate the economy. Here in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan
Province, Christmas trees stand side by side on city streets with propaganda
posters, and music from “The Nutcracker” plays in the background at malls.
Officials in the United States have denounced
the Chinese government’s efforts to limit the spread of Christianity.
“China’s Christians and other faith
communities are under siege and treated as enemies of the state for daring to
worship and peacefully live out their faith,” Senator Marco Rubio of Florida
and Representative Chris Smith of New Jersey said in a joint statement
condemning the recent detentions.
But China’s growing influence in world
affairs has shielded it from some criticism.
One notably silent voice: the Vatican, which
in September reached a provisional deal with the Chinese government to end a
decades-old power struggle over the right to appoint bishops in China. The
Vatican said it sent a delegation of leaders to China this month to work out
details of the agreement, but declined to comment on the crackdown on Christian
churches.
Despite Mr. Xi’s efforts to expand the
officially atheist party’s control of worship, religious life in China is
flourishing.
While official figures are imprecise, experts
believe there are about 60 million Christians in China, with roughly half
worshiping at state-sanctioned churches and half at unofficial churches.
Independent churches like Early Rain, with
more than 500 members, have attracted large followings in recent years,
especially among white-collar workers seeking an escape from rampant
materialism at the center of modern Chinese life.
While sermons at state-sanctioned churches
are often tightly scripted, independent churches boom with searing indictments
of corrupt officials and rousing calls to protect the rights of the poor.
Early Rain, which Mr. Wang founded in 2008,
was among the most daring. Mr. Wang called Mr. Xi a sinner, held prayer
sessions each year to mark the brutal crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations
around Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 1989, and organized a fund to support
relatives of political prisoners in China.
Mr. Gu, the rice seller, began attending
services two years ago after finding videos of Mr. Wang’s fiery sermons online.
He felt Mr. Wang’s concern for the poor was in line with his own view that the
government was abusing workers and violating human rights by destroying their
homes to make way for expensive developments. Mr. Gu was baptized last year.
“I saw injustices in society,” Mr. Gu said.
“I saw that the government’s promotion of China as a just country that enforces
laws in a civilized manner was all a lie.”
Worried for his own safety, Mr. Gu recently
closed his business, hoping to avoid government scrutiny. He said he has grown
fearful as he has watched the police arrest his friends.
Mr. Gu has turned to the Bible in recent days
for support. Sometimes, he recites a verse from the Book of Proverbs: “The path
of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full
light of day.”
Follow Javier C. Hernández on Twitter:
@HernandezJavier.
