The dawn of a Christian century? Kevin Frayer/Getty Images.
True to its Marxist-Leninist roots, the Chinese Communist Party has long regarded religion as spiritual opium. A few weeks ago, it appeared to double down on the drugs imagery by banning people from entering the country carrying religious ideas or objects beyond those required for personal use. Foreign nationals hoping to deal in religion — preaching, teaching or organizing religious events — must now seek permission ahead of time from state-sanctioned religious bodies (that permission will probably be refused). Anyone found with multiple copies of the same religious book, including the Bible, either in their bags or about their person can expect to face unpleasant questions.
Skepticism in China about Christianity predates Communism by quite some way. When Jesuit missionaries like Matteo Ricci (1552-1510) began to visit in the late 16th century, they found that even those elites who were sympathetic to their faith required a great deal of persuasion before entering the fold — God appeared to ask too much while offering too little and so many of the aspects of Christianity they would have to adopt seemed to clash with traditional Chinese life. Doing away with concubines seemed self-defeating, since they might furnish a man with an heir. Removing ancestor tablets from the home meant losing the means of paying filial respect. The crucifixion of Jesus struck many as shocking rather than heroic: corporal punishment was reserved for the very lowest in society.
Still, Christianity in China grew under the Jesuits and then again in the 19th and 20th centuries when missionaries from Europe, the United States and elsewhere began to travel there to spread the gospel. Fortunes changed, however, with the Chinese Revolution in 1949. For China’s early Communist leaders, Christianity was associated with the ravages of European imperialism and was seen as a clear ideological competitor. Its transnational connections, from the Vatican — where a number of modern popes have condemned Communism — across to America’s West Coast meant that it might readily become a tool of foreign subversion.
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Rather than seek to ban Christianity outright, the strategy from the Fifties onwards has been to build ideologically safe, state-sponsored Christian organizations. Protestant Christians were shepherded into a state-sponsored “Three-Self Patriotic Movement” (TSPM) — the three selves being self-governance, self-support and self-propagation. Catholics were asked to join a Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CPA). In both cases, links with foreign organizations were banned in favor of a state-directed fusion of Christian with Communist and patriotic ideals. Most foreign missionaries operating in China at the time of the Revolution were thrown out.
Even then, given the CCP’s interest in managing people who possess the ability to influence whole communities in China, the ideological soundness of church leaders has never been taken for granted. Education at seminaries is tightly managed, with a strong focus on patriotism. Qualified clergy face constant pressure to demonstrate their loyalty, to which some respond by emphasizing Christianity’s proletarian credentials: Jesus was a carpenter, who chose fishermen as his early disciples and had harsh words for merchants and the wealthy.
Given these unpromising beginnings for Christianity under Communism, China-watchers were astounded by its rapid growth across the final three decades of the 20th century. In 1949, Protestant Christians accounted for less than 0.2% of the Chinese population — a million people at most. By the mid-Nineties, that figure had risen to 14 million. And that was only registered Protestants. Underground “house churches” were doing spectacular business, raising the overall number of Protestants to somewhere between 60 million and 90 million people. Breathless commentators began to predict big things for Christianity in China. Some claimed that by 2050, Christians might even be in the majority.
That now seems unlikely — and for two reasons.
First, Xi Jinping is a keen student of why the Soviet Union collapsed and some scholars in China regard religion as a factor. It served, they say, as a “sacred banner” under which anti-government elements could unite. It’s no surprise, then, that during Xi’s term in office the regulation of religion in China has tightened. Patriotic religious associations are now overseen by the United Front Work Department, which in turn reports directly to the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. New measures, in 2018, on “Internet Religious Information Services” linked religion to national security and required churches to apply for licenses before sharing religious content online, from live-streaming to micro-blogging. Most registered churches in China are thought to be under some form of electronic surveillance.
[su_pullquote]”During Xi’s term in office the regulation of religion in China has tightened”[/su_pullquote]
Christian organizations have meanwhile been required to re-evaluate their teachings in light of Xi’s push for “Sinicization”: a fusion of traditional Chinese values and ideas with the CCP’s vision for China’s future. Christmas hasn’t been cancelled, but local governments increasingly seek to steer local businesses away from erecting Christmas displays or selling Christmas-themed commodities.
A second reason why this might not, after all, be a “Christian century” in China is that statistics suggest a slowing-down of the growth rate of Chinese Christianity since the 2000s. Some urban churches are growing, but at the expense of rural Christianity: a consequence of large-scale urban migration in China. Once a rich, inter-generational weave of miracle healings, exorcisms and Spirit-infused worship, many village churches are now said to resemble old people’s homes, that are more sober, full of people in search of meaning through a combination of community and a rational, textual faith.
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The reality for Chinese Christianity is that over the next few decades, almost anything might happen. Even if Christian numbers begin to decline, match or run ahead of an overall fall in the country’s population, the lesson from countries like South Korea is that the cultural influence of Christianity can end up mattering more than raw numbers. “Sinicization” may backfire on the CCP if potent combinations emerge of Christianity and Chinese philosophy: Jesus, Confucius and Mencius forming an ethical dream-team, focused on love, self-sacrifice and prophetic critique of spiritually empty, narrowly growth-focused governance — of the sort with which the CCP’s critics within China charge it. At the same time, those same two traditions, Christian and Confucian, provide the basis for regarding government as God-given and thus profoundly legitimate.
Western culture may play its own modest role in what comes next, serving as it does as a vehicle for Christian values. Christian creations, from The Chronicles of Narnia to The Passion of the Christ, are the focus of discussion, where internet restrictions allow or where the use of a VPN permits. China is even home to a number of high-profile “cultural Christian” intellectuals like Liu Xiaofeng, who are capable of taking varying degrees of critical distance from the CCP.
Meanwhile, academics and journalists who study underground Christianity in China — with heavy use of pseudonyms for the people they interview and even the cities where they conduct their research — reveal grassroots churches in rude health. Branches of McDonalds have been used for sessions of the Timothy Training Course, a grassroots discipleship and leadership program. A different lesson from the course is taught at each plastic table-top, and when the police arrive to round everyone up, they cheerfully sign pledges not to do it again — or, at least, in that particular branch of McDonalds.
The bigger picture is of a country that has upended many of the predictions confidently made about it by Western commentators. It was once expected that market forces would drive political liberalization in China. Perhaps Xi Jinping enjoys a quiet chuckle about that one, now and again. In a similar way, secularization theorists once claimed that modernity brings a two-fold decline: first, in the social significance of religion, and then later in its salience for the individual. This hasn’t been borne out in South Korea or in China, where Christianity has grown in tandem with the economy and with urbanization. Xi no doubt finds this departure from expectations rather less amusing. The battle for China’s soul goes on.
drchrisharding 
what will still remain in China in the near future, Communism or Christianity, i’d put my money on the latter. China has already peaked, and will fail to deliver for the majority, Communism worked when people had limited information of other forms of politics.
The reality if Communism does’nt deliver it will be replaced, something Politicans in the West should also take note of.
The thing is with the USSR, despite the 70 year crackdown on the Christianity, religion, it did’nt really work did it. People who where born into Communism under the likes of Stalin, still became Christians.
This again should be noted by the people of the West, Religion for many new imports is where their loyalty lies, esp when it comes to Islam
I hope before i die, every Communist country has been liberated from that awful anti human failed idea, not many remaining, and i can’t forsee the likes of N Korea existing as is in 50 years time, probaly sooner, likewise China will soon drop the communists, even the Russians did it, Russia making China look bad, slow and stupid
China isn’t communist and hasn’t been for a while. The government of course parrots adherence to it because the alternative – prosperity in return for authorianism and compliance doesn’t really lend the same aura of legitimacy.
It mightn’t be “Communist” in the strict sense, but it is still authoritarian (as Jack Ma can attest).
China isn’t Communist. It’s much closer to Mussolini’s Italy than anything resembling the Soviet Union
well to be honest the difference between historical fascist states like Italy, Germany and authoritarian leftist states is not massive.
Communism has always been a jip, a vener to repaint the control of the ‘elites’ as somehow benefical for the masses , who tend to suffer far worse under their system than any non communist system
Now is Communist China, the same as Communist USSR in it’s heyday , no it’s adapted, but they call themselves Communist, it’s only fair we respect that.
Either way , it’s a perputal , non accountable, non democractic method of control over the people. Now we can argue about democracy, the uniparty, but even now people in the west still have more rights than your typical chinese citizen
the problem with Communism , is that it makes you weak, why because it’s discourages ‘diversity’ (actual diversity that matters, diversity of thinking)
So China does not know when it’s doing well, or doing bad, because no one will tell them from within the system , and they won’t beleive them even if they tell the truth , hey things are good
They won’t know how to course correct, because the people in power who see the problem, can’t say they see the problem, and they are all recruited from the same line of thinking, so won’t probaly see it anyway
It’s fundamentally why China is not the threat it’s made out to be, it promotes incompetence, use’s nepotism
Now the trick is the West has an inbuilt massive advantage, we historically hire on merit (not always), the trick is not to abandon that
That’s why all the advantages of a system like chna, i.e we can ignore the will of the people, end up being a massive disadvantage.
The people are a country’s strength, they need to be unfettered, let them make mistakes, but they will also do wonderful things.China binds it’s people, as long as the CCP are in charge, they will always do that and China will suffer as a result
“What will still remain in China in the near future, Communism or Christianity, I’d put my money on the latter“. I’m not even convinced Christianity will remain in Europe (and I for my part won’t be sad to see the back of it).
China becoming Christian is of course totally compatible with Christianity disappearing from Europe. 20 years ago I read a book called Next Christendom by historian Philip Jenkins,that predicted that in about a hundred years, China and sub Saharan Africa would be militantly Christian, while the west would be ditto secular. He wrote that the term “white Christian” would be like “Swedish Buddhist”. While everyone admits there may be Buddhists in Sweden, it is not Sweden you think about when you think about Buddhism. The same would hypothetically be true for white and Christian.
An interesting point. If Communism in China ever loses out to Christianity (I’m pretty sure it won’t unless WWIII knocks us all back to the Middle Ages) it will be because people are looking for direction, for someone to tell them what to think – and Christianity, like Islam and to a lesser extent Hinduism and Judaism, does that very well.
But Hinduism and Judaism are very focused on particular ethnicities, so I doubt they would get much traction in China. It’s down to Mohammed vs Jesus. Big M currently has the momentum but it all could change in the second half….
sub Saharan Africa I can see. Not China though. The Chinese have always struck me as far too sensible to embrace Christianity in any meaningful way.
Couldn’t that have been said about the Roman’s to? I think the number of christians in china is about the same as in the Roman Empire just before Constantine.
I wasn’t alive during the time of the Roman Empire, so I can’t comment. I do however know the Chinese.
My family knew one of the last Chinese Missionaries, one allowed to stay on a good wile, and I had heard a interesting thing of Christianity formation there in the not so distant past.
China knew they were as smart as Westerners, but poor and weak and backwards – lacking in Industry, science, wealth and modernity, and wondered why, as they know they were a great culture and society. Why had they not figured out all this stuff the West did?
Some put it to Christianity – I forget the actual principals explained to me, but Christianity is actually very Intellectual – teaching individual striving, honesty, duty rather than submission and tradition – and so, many Chinese thought this philosophy was what had made the Western Christians to be so amazingly successful.
They did not see Christianity as backwards and anti-science, but intellectual and disciplined and individual striving. Many thought that Christianity showed its worth by its fruits, as it were, and so gave it respect, emulated it to advance their lives and family by getting some of this philosophy.
And really – they were right in this. Western Society under Christianity was always looking for answers, wile the Chinese way had been this attitude that China had discovered Perfection – in dress, literature, manners, social structure and all was covered in replicating the correct thoughts and ways. Exams forced this. There were no independent thinkers writing philosophy, exploring new forms of government, new literature kinds – it was like a fly frozen in amber. Tall Poppies were cut down.
Jack Ma is China’s Richest man, he took on American culture young, even getting close to an American Family who took him in as a real friend, and gave him the name Jack. Here is one bit he says on the subject.
””Today, many Chinese scholars look to the West, especially America, for the right answer, and they think that adopting the America legal system would change China from the inside out. Wrong, wrong! When you say someone is good-looking, is it simply because of his or her nose? Of course not. America’s strength is built upon her Christian cultural heritage. From her belief system came her legal system, and from her legal system came her political system – with power given to the people to elect their leaders. The whole system of American society has evolved from her Christian foundation, permeating to every aspect of her people’s lifestyle, educational institutions, medical practice, public safety, social welfare, social structure, and role of government.””
I think this idea was why China did not stamp out Christianity in the Revolution and Cultural Revolution – sort of like a double blind study, maybe there was something to it…. just keep it very tight control, but watch…. maybe there is something very practical to it… They saw Western Science and industry and power and were amazed – and so wondered why….
The materialists — Marxist or Silicon Valley — always forget: “Man does not live by bread alone.” The soul cannot be coerced — or uploaded.
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