wfn.org | Foreigners must Not Interfere in China's Churches

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

23-July-1997 
97284 
 
    Foreigners must Not Interfere in China's Churches, 
    Officials Say 
 
    by Edmund Doogue 
    Ecumenical News International 
 
HONG KONG--Chinese church officials -- from both mainland China and Hong 
Kong -- have warned that any attempts by any foreign churches to interfere 
with the affairs of Protestant Christians on the Chinese mainland would be 
"disastrous." 
 
    Although Christians are only a tiny percentage of China's population of 
1.2 billion, the churches there are growing rapidly. On average, three new 
or restored church buildings are opened every two days. But at an "Open 
Forum on the Church in China," held in Hong Kong in mid-July, church 
officials said that pastoral care and promotion of Christianity on the 
mainland should remain firmly within the hands of Chinese Christians. 
 
     While the world's interest in Hong Kong -- since its political 
reunification with China at the start of July  --  has focused on whether 
Hong Kong will retain its democratic freedoms, the forum demonstrated the 
concern of mainland Chinese, including Christians,  that Hong Kong could in 
fact try to change the rest of China, serving as a Trojan horse by which 
the rest of the world might interfere in China's affairs. 
 
    Hong Kong is already a cause of concern for churches on the mainland as 
Hong Kong has been used by some religious organizations as a launching pad 
for illegal missionary activities inside mainland China. 
 
     Tso Man-king,  general secretary of the Hong Kong Christian Council, 
the former colony's main ecumenical body, warned that if "people try to 
relate to the church in China without following guidelines and principles, 
[this] can lead to disasters." 
 
    Illustrating the risks of involvement by foreign churches in China's 
affairs, Tso Man-king said that "negative aspects" of foreign Christian 
efforts to evangelize China from the early 19th century had misled "some 
Chinese to perceive Christianity as a `foreign religion,' a product of 
capitalism and imperialism and maybe militarism as well.  Because of this, 
Christianity has not been able to root itself in Chinese soil and culture." 
 
    Bao Jia-Yuan, associate general secretary in Nanjing of the China 
Christian Council (CCC), the nation's main Protestant organization, said 
the  19th-century Protestant missions were "unfortunately ... associated 
with Western colonial expansion. After 100 years of effort by missionaries 
supported by 70 different denominations, there were [fewer] than 1 million 
Christians before the liberation in 1949." 
 
    Bao said the "withdrawal of the missionaries and the great changes in 
society after liberation challenged the Protestant church leaders to make 
the church truly indigenous." 
 
    For this purpose they developed a Chinese Christian philosophy 
emphasizing "Chinese selfhood," which had enabled the church to survive and 
grow in China. 
 
    "We believe that there's a time for missionary activity, and there is a 
time when it is no longer appropriate," Bao Jia-Yuan said. 
 
    Bao  stressed that the CCC tried to make Christians law-abiding 
citizens.  "The churches try to encourage our members to be good Christians 
and good citizens. One should stick to the Bible's teaching and raise one's 
spirituality while living out a Christian life in the society. ... We 
should love our country and love our church as well," he said. 
 
    The "Open Forum on the Church in China" was organized by the Lutheran 
World Federation as part of its Ninth Assembly, which was held at the Hong 
Kong Convention Center. Also taking part in the forum was an assistant 
Roman Catholic bishop of Hong Kong, John Tong Hon, and Chen Xida, a leading 
official in the CCC's commission for overseas relations. 
 
    Both the CCC, a Protestant "postdenominational" body that functions as 
both church and council, and the government-sanctioned Chinese Catholic 
Patriotic Association officially stress the principle of "nonsubordination" 
to churches outside China -- meaning that they neither recognize nor are 
subject to foreign church heads such as the Pope. 
 
    Bao Jia-Yuan said that the CCC was willing to be related to any 
overseas churches or church organizations that respected the "Chinese 
selfhood" principles.  The CCC is linked to the World Council of Churches 
in Geneva and cooperates with United Bible Societies. 
 
    "We don't want to control you; please don't intend to control us," Chen 
Xida said during the forum. "We exist as a Chinese church. We want to have 
our space." 
 
    However, in answer to a question at the forum,  Bishop Tong said that 
for Catholics in China the "Chinese selfhood" principles presented some 
difficulties because "being united with the Pope is an integral part of 
faith in the Catholic Church. 
 
    "Luckily," he added, "in our days, times of greater tolerance, 
Catholics in China have been allowed to pray for the Pope openly. They are 
not allowed direct contact with the church [in Rome], but they can express 
it through letters and with visitors. We find that 90 percent of Catholics 
in the church -- both the open church and the underground church -- accept 
the leadership of the Pope." 
 
    Along with the underground Catholic Church, there are many unofficial 
Protestant groups operating in China. Estimates of their total membership 
vary greatly, with some figures suggesting tens of millions of members. 
These figures are disputed by the CCC, which says many of these underground 
groups are teaching heretical beliefs. 
 
     Some of the underground groups have support from evangelical 
Christians and from other groups in South Korea, North America and Hong 
Kong, but they were not included in the forum.  

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