Interview: Rising Persecution in China
‘We need to expand and grow to meet the increased need." In this interview, Peony*, who oversees Open Doors' work in China, talks about changes in China over the past year that affect Christians.
China has become much harder on Christians in the last few years. Can you remind us why you think that is?
As China’s economic prowess and influence has grown, so has Chinese nationalism. President Xi Jinping prefers a new socio-economic model over what he sees as ‘failing’ western, democratic economies. To prove his point, he requires social stability and singleness of political persuasion. Citizens must ‘be directed’ rather than allowed freedom of speech or other belief systems. Now, maybe more than ever before in history, China sees an opportunity for ascendency on the world stage… but unification at home is a non-negotiable in this autocratic style of governance.
Religion is seen as a potential de-stabilizer and certainly not aligned with socialist ideology. It is as if Xi Jinping believes the time has come to rein in and restructure or realign religions, particularly Islam and Christianity, hence the recent determination to enforce restrictions on the Church.
More recently, Xi has pushed hard to project the impression that people love the Communist Party more than any other personality, group, or school of thought. This includes popular billionaires, film stars, reporters, pop groups, social media icons etc, and of course Jesus and the church.
How has the situation for Christians in China changed since last year?
Since 2020 we have seen tighter control and monitoring due to covid and the 100th Anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party, which occurred in 2021. An increasing number of churches are being warned by the authorities to ‘do as they are told’ by the government.
Several church leaders who are high profile and who aggressively implement church growth and ministry were targeted. Some others received subtle warning signals from the local authorities via short detentions. Some were interrogated and warned sternly to scale down their ministry activities. More and more churches were forced to quit their regular meeting venues leading to many breaking their congregation into small group gatherings hosted by individuals in their own homes.
Online Sunday services and training meetings flourished under the pandemic but have since been monitored and now experience tight internet control. House church meetings have prevailed online if the number of participants doesn’t exceed a few dozen. State churches however have been told they cannot hold services online.
In addition, Christian websites and social media accounts with high-volume traffic were blocked or closed.
Since last year, have many churches been forced to shut down or meet in smaller groups?
Most house church gatherings in commercial buildings have been told to shut down and have become invisible. They now meet in homes. We estimate about 80 per cent of churches have been pressured into meeting in smaller groups.
Some churches continue to meet using internet platforms they established during the pandemic. However, they find it less effective when it comes to pastoral care and spiritual growth.
Government-sanctioned (Three Self Patriotic Movement) State churches must follow the instructions and safety measures introduced to control the virus in public venues. This means most congregations in these (TSPM) churches have downsized to about a third of their original capacity. Anyone who does want to attend one of these services must first register online.
In some jurisdictions, TSPM churches in neighbouring localities have been forced to merge into one congregation, making it easier for authorities to monitor church activities and control church growth.
Have many Christians been imprisoned in China in the last year?
Our local sources estimate between 10-20 Christians were imprisoned in the last 12 months.
Eight Christians that we know of were sentenced for ‘running an illegal business’. Five of them were selling audio Bible players and received prison sentences of between 15 months and 6 years. Three were sentenced for publishing or selling illegal Christian publications. A few others were targeted for their high-profile church ministries. Some of these were ethnic minority Christians.
What is the current situation for children and youth?
For many years the Chinese government has tried to ban children under 18 from attending church in order to stem the tide of young Christians growing up as passionate believers. In theory, children’s church (Sunday School), youth groups and youth camps were forbidden, but both the State-sanctioned churches and the (often unregistered) house churches found ways to run Sunday school for the very young, and youth camps for school age children. But this is very difficult now.
Since February 2018 Christian kindergartens have been closed, summer camps have been banned, and quite a few churches have been forced to place formal signs at the entrance forbidding children under 18 to enter.
Student ministry in schools and on university campuses is also banned. TSPM church activities are monitored to ensure there are no activities for children and teenagers under 18 years of age. While some churches continue to hold activities for the youth, they are always covert, and the scale of youthwork is becoming progressively smaller. Restrictive government regulations and the many distractions pulling young people away from seeking true spiritual growth means churches have so far failed to develop creative, impactful youth ministries.
The tremendous pressure of academic study and homework is stifling the young generation, leaving them very little time to spend with God and in church activities.
In some cases, schools pressure students not to attend religious activities and some teachers dissuade students from registering their religious affiliation as ‘Christian’ at school to avoid pressure from their superiors in the Communist Party.
How is the church responding to these growing challenges?
We have seen a range of responses to the recent enforcement of religious regulations, from defiance of government regulations to the belief that God will open new doors even if one is closed.
A certain church that was closed in Western China, so the believers chose to take their meetings to the streets, meeting in local parks, singing, preaching and handing out tracts. However, this was met with a swift crackdown so the church no longer enjoys any freedom. Local churches dare not cross the line now.
In other areas believers have chosen to downsize and meet in numerous smaller groups.
Most churches feel it is time to take extra precautions, to downsize or maybe relocate some of their ministries. For millions of churches across the country at this stage however, many have gone low-profile – back to believers’ houses for church meetings or down-sizing in rental apartments – with extra care and vigilance.
Has the work of Open Doors in China changed or grown since last year?
The work of Open Doors in China has continued throughout the COVID-19 pandemic despite increasing persecution and travel restrictions. In particular, our small-scale training and presence ministry to believers from Muslim backgrounds and believers from Buddhist backgrounds, the most persecuted believers in China, has stayed on track besides the occasional pause due to travel restrictions.
Where longer term travel restrictions or lockdowns occurred, we experimented with online training instead of meeting face-to-face.
In order to prepare Chinese Christians for more persecution and train them in how to disciple the next generation, more time is now invested in developing contextualized materials that focus on persecution preparedness and youth training.
We have also increased efforts to strengthen our team that works on the ground with local churches.
What has been the biggest challenge for the church in China in the last year?
One problem for many house churches is that discipleship and leadership development has been neglected, leaving one or two pastors to do all the work. This is a timely challenge to the Chinese church to implement small group discipleship so they can release younger believers to share the load while meeting in small house churches. Old lecture-style training needs to be replaced by creative, interactive teaching styles that serve to attract and engage young inquiring minds. This is a new paradigm for older generation pastors.
Bible apps have gained country-wide popularity and are still accessible, though closure of some Bible apps and on online platforms has been occurring as well.
Surprisingly, many believers in their 30s or younger had never experienced severe persecution, so facing this new wave of persecution is a huge challenge for them.
Another big challenge is that we may lose the connection with the younger generation. Christians are not allowed to disciple children and youth and the world they grow up in is focused on social media, status, money and possessions.
State-sanctioned TSPM Churches now must issue permits to their leaders and they are ‘guided’ by the government in terms of how to elect elders and leaders, and allowable preaching content. They must follow all government guidelines pertaining to religious affairs.
What has been the biggest challenge for the Open Doors China team in the last year?
While online training opportunities have emerged due to the pandemic and have become a growing trend, the various platforms are still very limited when it comes to training church leaders and contacting our local partners. We have to be very wise in what language we use online as the risk of being monitored is high.
While the COVID-19 pandemic has subsided somewhat, occasional lockdowns in some areas have restricted our interaction with local churches and partners.
We need to expand and grow our local team to meet the increased need.
Is there something that your team has achieved or worked on this year that you are especially proud of?
In spite of how difficult it is to serve them, our team has continued to visit believers from Muslim backgrounds and believers from Buddhist backgrounds in very difficult situations to encourage them and develop strong connections.
Our partners have been translating the Bible into an ethnic minority language spoken by a Buddhist majority group. While the New Testament was finished some time ago, this year excellent progress was made on the Old Testament. We praise the Lord that the Old Testament translation is now entering its final stage.
Besides this, we also equip Han Chinese workers to serve and disciple Christians in ethnic minority groups.
We are excited that some Han church workers continue to serve believers from Buddhist backgrounds in these ethnic minority areas.
Despite travel restrictions introduced around the pandemic, our team has made good progress on three areas of materials development:
- A contextualized ‘Standing Strong Through the Storm’ (persecution preparedness) devotional
- Contextualized materials to train churches in how to prepare for persecution
- Next generation youth leadership training materials.
Some of our church contacts, who attended our persecution preparation training not only teach their own congregations, but also shared this biblical view of persecution with other church networks in the region, helping them all to prepare for persecution.
A few of the Chinese churches we have been connected with for a long time have taken the initiative to donate finances to support Christians in other countries who are still suffering under the covid-19 pandemic. These are the first steps for Chinese churches to identify with the persecuted church and demonstrate this practically.
What are your hopes for China for 2022?
One priority is to strengthen the size and capacity of our local team.
We want the contextualized devotional materials we are developing based on Standing Strong Through the Storm (Open Doors’ persecution preparedness training) to be shared far and wide and become a huge blessing to many Christians who are facing increased persecution. We also plan to develop Bible Study materials about persecution preparation.
Due to the government’s determination to prevent the next generation from being reached for the gospel, we have allocated time and resources to address the issue of youth ministry. This is a crucial time for China’s youth and providing training and developing materials that outline creative ways to deliver youth ministry is vital.
We will continue to train Han church leaders and stir in them a passion to serve the persecuted church, beginning with believers from Muslim and Buddhist backgrounds within China’s borders, and then praying for and supporting overseas churches that are experiencing severe persecution and hardship.
We continue to train, encourage and support ethnic minority church leaders from Muslim and Buddhist backgrounds primarily in the area of discipleship of other believers who are caught within this unique Chinese environment of persecution.
Is there anything that you are worried about as you look ahead to 2022?
The threat of losing the next generation to the world is very real. Persecution aims to tear young people from the Christian community, while enormous academic pressure and competition to enter a better school hijacks nearly every waking moment. On top of these challenges is a new obsession with social media and materialism. All of these are having a huge impact on China’s youth.
Is there anything that Open Doors China is planning for 2022 that you can tell us about?
Owing to the assault on China’s youth from the government, education and the media, we will focus much more attention on youth ministry.
As China’s house churches downsize to avoid new waves of persecution, we will continue to provide discipleship training for new and emerging house church leaders.
We aim to increase efforts to engage with and strengthen the most persecuted minorities in China, the Muslim and Buddhist background believers.
We believe it is vital to mobilize Chinese churches to serve persecuted Muslim background believers and Buddhist background believers in China. We plan to increase our emphasis on Chinese churches praying for and supporting persecuted churches in the wider body of Christ.
Do you think the winter Olympics in Beijing will have much of an impact on Christians or the level of persecution they are facing?
Increased monitoring is expected, especially to prevent any interaction or connection between Chinese Christians and people from overseas.
How can Christians around the world be praying for China, for the church in China, and for the work of Open Doors at this time?
- Please pray that Chinese Churches would stand strong during times of persecution, and for wisdom in how to deal with government officials.
- Pray that many new house church leaders would be equipped to carry the Chinese church through this difficult season. Pray that the church would be unified and grow stronger and multiply despite being divided into smaller groups.
- Ask God to help the church, youth ministry workers and Christian parents to find free time and strategies to connect with, teach and disciple the next generation. Pray they would become solid in their faith, passionate followers of Jesus, and always choose to follow Jesus rather than give in to worldly desires and pressure.
- Ask God to protect and anoint our contextualized devotional materials that we plan to distribute across China. Pray that they will become a life-changing blessing and encouragement to millions of Christians who are facing increased persecution.
- Finally, please pray that our team is strengthened and that our capacity and effective reach is increased.
*Names changed for security reasons.
