Preserving faith in China

Another round of crackdowns highlights the creativity and persistence of China's Christians

A Chinese flag waves near a Christian church. Credit: Kyodo News via Getty Images.

China is a great power with a strong desire to ensure that the country’s large number of Christians serve the interests of the Chinese Communist Party. The key word in the latest chapter of CCP management of Christianity is “Sinicization,” or making religion consistent with Chinese socialism.

China’s Protestant Christians can roughly be divided into two main groups: the officially sanctioned Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) and unapproved house churches. To be safe from repression, Christians have to play by the government’s rules. But under Xi Jinping, TSPM churches have faced greater pressure to do the state’s bidding.

To interpret the current situation for Christians in China, I called on Brent Fulton, founder of ChinaSource, which has been a reliable source on the Chinese church since 1997. ChinaSource obtains information from an extensive network of informants inside and outside China. The newest edition of its ChinaSource Journal contains a series of articles on the historical roots and implications of China’s present Sinicization policy and how it is shaping the relationship between faith and politics.

Q&A with Brent Fulton

What’s driving the current push for Sinicization of the church?

A few things. One is the CCP’s national security concerns. They see foreign involvement with the church in China as a threat to the country’s governance. They also see many things in Christian teaching that don’t align with socialist ideology, so they want to recreate Christian doctrine so that the church will serve the party’s interests. In keeping with China’s long tradition of state dominance of religion, they want to keep religion in its place by limiting the church’s presence on the internet or in the public sphere. Finally, they’re concerned about the church’s ability to mobilize large numbers of believers, so the party wants more direct control over church activities.

How is the TSPM responding?

The official church has been told to push Sinicization forward. This includes annotating Scripture consistent with Chinese culture and socialist values. The party is not rewriting the Bible, but it has been reported that committees have been formed to do in-depth research and produce a study Bible that aligns with China’s values and socialist priorities.

Pastors are being told to preach on these things, so they are incorporating more of Chinese culture in their sermons, or talking about the party’s “12 socialist values.” Required “study sessions” or special seminars for TSPM pastors have increased. Churches are required to display the Chinese flag. Some put up posters with a Scripture verse on one side and a quotation from Confucius on the other, to show how the two go together.

How is this insistence on ideology affecting Christian education of youth?

The government is enforcing a rule that religion should not be taught to anyone under age 18. This means the official church’s Sunday school and youth programs, which were often vibrant, are now technically illegal. Anecdotally, I know of a case where parents ended up going to a house church because they couldn’t bring their kids with them to the official church, and another where a TSPM church rented a nearby apartment so the children would have someplace to go while their parents attended church.

The government is also stepping up atheistic education in schools, particularly targeting youths with a Christian background. In some schools, students have been required to fill out a survey on their family’s spiritual background. Thousands of unofficial church-run schools have been subject to crackdowns because the government is insisting that all children should be in the state’s education system. This is leaving Christian parents in a dilemma. Many who can afford it have moved abroad for the sake of their children’s education.

Last year, an evangelical delegation met with leaders of the official church. What is your view of collaborating with the TSPM?

Any dialogue is valuable, but you need to be realistic about what’s happening on the ground. To completely close the door would not be wise, but to take everything you’re told at face value is also not wise. We need multiple ways of hearing from the Chinese church, which is getting harder as the government cracks down on Christians’ communication and travel.

How can we support the church in China?

First, listen. Make an effort to understand the Chinese Christians, their challenges, and how God is working through them. The more we understand, the more intelligently we can pray for them and walk with them.

It is important not to try to project our priorities on the church in China, but to take the church in China for what it is. Whether on religious freedom, denominational distinctives, or how we think the church should impact the culture, we may have our own ideas, but we must not project them onto the church there because their situation is so different. [A December 2024 ChinaSource article by Chinese scholar Sam Ren covers this topic insightfully.]

There are also ways to support pastoral training, both inside and outside China, and to come alongside missionaries going overseas from China. The Chinese church has sent out 200 to 300 long-term missionaries. Ten years ago, one indigenous agency reported an attrition rate of 80 percent; now 80 percent of their workers are staying in the field, because of a huge improvement in the training and support they receive.

As global relations continue to decline, Chinese students and businesspeople in other countries may feel increasingly isolated. That gives Christians an opportunity to befriend and care about them.

There are still opportunities to serve in China. The number of foreign workers has dropped, but Chinese universities are still looking for English teachers and companies are looking for foreign expertise. Expatriates retain freedom of worship, attending international fellowships where a passport is required to get past the door.

This is a time of pressure and increased restrictions for the church, perhaps the worst in the last 40 years. But it’s also an important time of maturation. With foreigners leaving, the church has had to rely on its own resources and on the Holy Spirit. Believers are reconsidering what it means to do church and ministry in the current environment. They are blessed to have a generation of pastors, many with advanced degrees, who are thinking deeply about the future of the church in China.