wfn.org | Disagreements Block Dialogue Between China, Taiwan Christians

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

02-June-1997 
97231 
 
             Political Disagreements Block Dialogue  
                 Between China, Taiwan Christians 
 
                          by Eva Stimson 
 
SHANGHAI, China--They are brothers and sisters in Christ.  They know what 
it means to suffer for their faith.  They have similar cultural and ethnic 
backgrounds.  But getting Presbyterians in Taiwan and Christians in China 
to talk to each other is no easy task. 
 
    Members of a mission study trip sponsored by the Presbyterian Church 
(U.S.A.) confronted this difficulty firsthand when they visited China and 
Taiwan May 1 14.  The bitter division between advocates of Taiwanese 
independence and proponents of a united Taiwan and China has created a 
major ecumenical challenge. 
 
    "We do not regard China as our enemy," said the Rev. Chi-Sou Yang, 
general secretary of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan (PCT) General 
Assembly.  "We regard [Chinese Christians] as brothers and sisters, 
although our political positions are different." 
 
    But Yang acknowledged a "basic point of disagreement" over the future 
of Taiwan.  "I hope," he added, "that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) can 
play a role as healer of the breach between our two churches." 
 
    Both the PCT and the China Christian Council (the body that represents 
the postdenominational Protestant church in China) are members of the World 
Council of Churches.  But groups that want to maintain friendly 
relationships with both churches have had to walk a fine line between two 
opposing political stances. 
 
    The PC(USA)'s 1996 General Assembly, for example, expressed support for 
"the people of Taiwan in their efforts for self-determination" but stopped 
short of calling for independence or the restoration of United Nations 
(U.N.) membership for Taiwan.  The Assembly also said, "We stand with the 
people of China and the China Christian Council in the affirmation of their 
integrity and selfhood." Commissioners called for "the continuation of 
dialogue" between the two church bodies. 
 
    Participants in the May mission trip -- which was sponsored by the 
Worldwide Ministries Division, the Advisory Committee on Social Witness 
Policy and the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program -- attempted to nudge along 
the dialogue process in separate meetings with church leaders in Taiwan and 
China. 
 
    Leaders on both sides expressed appreciation for the efforts of Robert 
Bohl, moderator of the 1995 PC(USA) General Assembly, who brought them 
together for an informal meeting in Seoul, Korea, in February 1995.  Bohl, 
now pastor of Village Presbyterian Church in Prairie Village, Kan., had 
been scheduled as one of the mission study tour leaders, but canceled 
shortly before the trip because of heavy pastoral responsibilities. 
 
    Interviewed later in May, Bohl said the Seoul meeting was successful 
because "we steered away from politics and issues such as U.N. membership. 
We had a good conversation about the state of the church in China and 
Taiwan." 
 
    "It's worthwhile to meet each other and have that kind of 
conversation," Wenzao Han, president of the China Christian Council, told 
PC(USA) mission trip participants in Nanjing, China. 
 
    While agreeing that the meeting had value, Taiwanese church leaders 
said they wished there had been discussion of more substantive issues.  As 
Yang put it, "We only ate and talked together, but did not decide 
anything." 
 
    A follow-up meeting scheduled for May 1996 in Taipei fell through, 
according to Bohl, because the Chinese were not notified in time to secure 
visas. 
 
    In meetings with the PC(USA) delegation this May, Chinese church 
leaders said the PCT's advocacy of independence for Taiwan threatened 
efforts to continue the dialogue.  "If the PCT continues to promote 
Taiwanese independence," said Han, "that could be a hurdle." 
 
    At a meeting in Shanghai, Luo Guan Zong, chair of the Three-Self 
Patriotic Movement (TSPM), which acts as a liaison between China's 
Protestants and the government, was even more blunt.  "The independence of 
Taiwan is a political question," he declared.  "It's an internal affair of 
the Chinese government." 
 
    "Hope for peaceful reunification with Taiwan is a common feeling of all 
Chinese," said the Rev.  Deng Fu-Cun, secretary general of the TSPM.  "Now 
we can become one family again.  Why must we split?" 
 
    The Rev. Cao Sheng-Jie, vice president of the China Christian Council, 
said she "felt hurt" when she attended the Churchwide Gathering of 
Presbyterian Women in Ames, Iowa, three years ago and heard Presbyterian 
women from Taiwan forcefully promoting Taiwanese independence.  "If that's 
their priority, what can we do?" she said. 
 
    Interviewed after the mission trip, one of the trip leaders, the Rev. 
Insik Kim, East Asia/Pacific coordinator for the PC(USA)'s Worldwide 
Ministries Division, said he had met privately with church leaders in 
Nanjing and Shanghai and urged them to send a representative to this year's 
Churchwide Gathering in July.  Kim said the Chinese indicated they might 
reconsider an earlier decision not to send anyone to the Gathering. 
 
    Asked about the possibility of future meetings between the PCT and the 
China Christian Council, Kim said he felt the PC(USA) delegation had pushed 
too hard to try to get the Chinese church to commit to continuing the 
dialogue.  "We need to find ways to cool off a little bit," he said.  "We 
have caused our partners to lose face. ...  My immediate concern is to 
recover our relationship with the church in China." 
 
    Bohl said he hoped another meeting between Chinese and Taiwanese church 
leaders could be arranged at least by next spring.  "I think there's hope," 
he said.  "It will continue to be hard.  It will be slow.  But I believe in 
the next decade something good will happen." 
 
    And when that breakthrough occurs, he declared, "It will be a marvelous 
gift to the future of the church." 

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