China: Christianity Is On The Rise

CHINA

For Better or For Worse

After seven decades of strained relations, the Vatican and China are nearing a rapprochement deal to allow Beijing’s communist leadership to appoint bishops for official recognition by the Holy See.

It’s a move critics say sells out China’s estimated 12 million Catholics to a notoriously repressive regime in attempt to revamp the church’s waning influence.

As evidenced in Chile, Peru and other Catholic strongholds around the globe, sexual-abuse scandals in recent years have burned the church’s devotees.

But in China, Christianity is on the rise. Doctrines suppressing religion during the Cultural Revolution ended in 1976, and today as many as 100 million Chinese identify as Christians – their numbers increase by an estimated 10 percent per year, Time magazine reported.

Beijing may allow the pious to practice, but they must do so under the watchful eye of the Catholic Patriotic Association, a government-sanctioned apparatus segregated from Rome.

The patriotic church preaches pro-communist ideals and skips over politically problematic Bible passages in an attempt to pacify Christian masses that now dwarf the size of the Communist Party itself, commentator Yi-Zheng Lian wrote for the New York Times.

That structure has forced many Chinese Catholics underground to worship anywhere they can, albeit in homes, shops or basements, Voice of America reported.

They see themselves as true followers of the faith and express dismay at the Vatican’s cozying up to Beijing. Instead, they’ve looked to oxygenating forces in Hong Kong and Taiwan for support.

“We don’t trust the PRC because they are dishonest,” said one flock member in Hong Kong. “They lie, they do bad things and never keep their promises. China is not worth our trust.”

One only has to look to recent legislation that took effect last month: As of Feb. 1, religious institutions must register with the government, and local governments must grant permission for congregations to meet, US News & World Report wrote.

Christians aren’t the only ones being targeted. Last month, Human Rights Watch reported that authorities in the Xinjiang region have used big data to track Muslim minorities, including their travel history, prayer habits, banking and health records.

Young Muslims in neighboring Gansu province were banned from participating in religious education during Chinese New Year last month. Xinjiang’s Uighur Muslims have long been subjected to near-martial law, with police checkpoints, re-education and mass collection of their DNA, Reuters reported.

The Catholic church is in a vice in China. Acquiescing to Beijing threatens not only those underground on the mainland, but also those in Hong Kong, where Beijing’s influence is growing, and in Taiwan, which is only recognized by the Vatican and a handful of other countries, Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian opined in the Washington Post.

For the Vatican, the reward of tapping into China’s burgeoning Christian community appears to outweigh the many risks that come with it, Yi-Zheng Lian wrote for the Times.

“No one, it seems, can resist the lure of the great market of China, for deodorants, cars – or congregants. Not even the Vatican.”