Abstract
What are the origins of religious tolerance and repression? How do frontline religious affairs officials decide who should be punished and who should be approved or rewarded? This chapter provides historical and institutional details for the above theory and interpretations of these important questions. In short, the Chinese Communist Party created a religious affairs system to operate an army of religious establishments (the opportunists) that have monitored, divided, and co-opted independent religious organizations (the protestors) since the 1950s. Relying on the discourse of anti-imperialism, this system fostered a rigid religious affairs policy and then hostility from the system toward transnational activism. The functionality of the two mechanisms, backdoor listing and minority–majority alliance, is to overcome these two barriers by promoting an uneasy collaboration between foreign advocates and local activists.
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Notes
- 1.
The San-min Doctrine or Three People’s Principles is the political philosophy of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, which aims at promoting Chinese nationalism (Principle of Mínzú), democracy (Principle of Mínquán), and Welfare (Principle of Mínshēng). The platform is highlighted by the KMT as the highest political guideline against the radical socioeconomic reform promoted by Communism, but the fundamental ideas are shared by both CCP and KMT. In fact, Sun proposes “supervised democracy” as the transitional period before constitutional democracy, which is like the democratic dictatorship of Lenin in the way that it legalizes the party–state system and strips civil and political rights away from regular citizens. Dr. Wang Shih-Chieh (王世傑), French-educated constitutional expert and congressional representative of the KMT, argues that “supervised democracy” is a single-party system but is still democracy, since its framework puts legal restrictions on the party and itemizes the boundaries of the party’s power (Wang & Chien, 1997).
- 2.
Anthony C. Yu (2003, pp. 1–20, 2005) has argued in his book on religion and state in China that “there has never been a period in China’s historical past in which the government of the state, in imperial and post-imperial form, has pursued a neutral policy toward religion, let alone encouraged, in terms dear to American idealism, its ‘free exercise.’ The impetus to engage religion on the part of the central government is for the purpose of regulation, control and exploitation whenever it is deemed feasible and beneficial to the state.” Although it may be also true that the American definition of religious freedom is exceptional, and few states would let religion alone, his work provides systematic evidence to reject the conventional wisdom that the Chinese state is not religious and always acts neutrally.
- 3.
Lutz (1976, pp. 395–416) points out that both the CCP and the leftists of the KMT passionately engage in the anti-Christian movement through initiating and coordinating protests, providing support and publicity that are crucial to the Educational Rights Movement, which aims at taking the administrative power of Christian schools and universities back from Western missionary agencies. A similar observation can also be found in Lewis Hodous (1930, pp. 487–497).
- 4.
In 1948, the first general assembly of the World Council of Churches elected him as one of its six presidents. He is one of the 40 church leaders who signed the first Three-Self Manifesto. In his letters in 1949, including “Days of Rejoicing in China,” “Christian Churches in Communist China,” “Christianity and Crisis,” and “Red Peiping after Six Months,” he praises the discipline of the Red Army and believes Christians would receive fair treatment after the CCP seized power.
- 5.
Many believe that many Protestant Christians who actively support the denouncement campaigns and the establishment of the TSPM are secret Communist Party members. For example, Pastor Li Chu-wen of Shanghai International Church, the largest church in Shanghai serving mainly foreign nationals, admitted that he was an undercover Communist member when Red Guards tortured him during the Cultural Revolution.
- 6.
Both academic and church sources confirm the surprisingly high number of Christians signing the document. It should be noted that the CCP applied a relaxed social policy in the beginning period of the new republic. The harsh political campaign did not happen until 1957 (Anti-Rightist Movement). This view is from Ying and Leung (1996); Leung (2002, pp. 165–168, 2006); Ren (2007, p. 20).
- 7.
By accusing Patriarch Tikhon of instigating a coup against the government and trying to establish a new schismatic church (Marsh, 2011, pp. 58–59).
- 8.
Stalin began his new strategy on repressing religion through collectivization of church properties with carefully designed steps of social mobilization, such as arresting church elders, anti-religion activists removing crosses and bells, and an “anti-religious carnival” vandalizing church properties (Marsh, 2011, p. 61).
- 9.
Signed editorials must have the authorization of the CCP . CCP literature published later also recognizes and shows pride in this resolute action (Ren, 2007).
- 10.
- 11.
Two famous cases are Methodist Missionary F. Olin Stockwell and Chen Wenyuan (陳文淵), Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church in China. Stockwell was charged with espionage activities and deported in 1953 (Stockwell, 1953, pp. 72–85). Chen’s case can be seen in Ying (2008a). Ying’s work collects documents from China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong; it is the most detailed and balanced work on the struggle between Wu’s TSPM and independent Chinese churches.
- 12.
For example, Presbyterian missionary and Chief Pastor of Shanghai International Church Frank W. Price was accused as an “American imperialist” and forced to leave China in October 1952 (Ying, 2008a, pp. 88–89).
- 13.
It is also called Assembly Hall or Little Flock in other writing; Juhuisuo (Ying, 2008a, p. 42).
- 14.
Vala (2008) makes a similar observation and believes that the resistance demonstrated by Protestant dissidents in the 1950s became the “seeds” and inspiration of Protestant social activism in the reform era.
- 15.
The government insisted that Yang Maodong (pen name of Guo Feixiong) was the person to blame for this violent confrontation. For the official interpretation of the incident, see “A true story about Taishi village incident” (2005).
- 16.
Without large-scale anthropological work, this suspicion remains unproved. However, all the churches I contacted have similar stories that the origins were when some elders from the cities began talking about the gospel and then started small fellowship or bible study groups.
- 17.
To protect the identities of interviewees, real names and locations are kept confidential.
- 18.
Interview No. 78, April 20, 2011.
- 19.
Ibid. The interviewee refused to identify the amount of financial support received from foreign churches or denominations, only noting that exchanges are very frequent. However, from the interior layout, forms of service, and theological stances of the church, it is evident that the leadership has received a significant amount of foreign influence. From participant observation in the field, all transnational exchanges, even an hour-long day visit, involve a certain amount of financial sponsorship. It is a common social norm that foreign visitors pay all board, lodging, and travel expenses as a gift to local churches; Chinese visitors’ travel expenses are often compensated or directly paid by foreign agencies. The amount of money involved could range from a few thousand RMBs to enough for a building project. The unequal duties reflect the difference in economic status between Chinese Christians in general and mission-sending societies. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that the more foreign exchanges a church has, the more money it receives from the outside.
- 20.
For example, a series of “outdoor worship” services occurred in major cities as well as a confrontation between government and house church leaders about attending the World Christian Conference in 2010.
- 21.
The demolished crosses were all owned by member churches of the TSPM, which is registered under the SARA and supervised by the UFWD (Ying, 2016).
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Wang, R. (2019). China’s Religious Affairs Policy. In: Resistance Under Communist China. Human Rights Interventions. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14148-6_3
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