China, Religion, and the World Economy

Third Quarter 2002

On February 5, an international conference on the church in China was sponsored at The Brookings Institution in Washington, D. C. by the Civitas Program in Faith and Public Affairs. Civitas is a program for Christian doctoral scholars initiated by The Pew Charitable Trusts. Civitas Fellow Jason Kindopp, a doctoral student at George Washington University, organized the conference. He and a dozen speakers explored contemporary developments in China against the backdrop of its long history, focusing especially on the church influence and prospects. A book is forthcoming. The edited excerpts below are from two of the conference papers, one by Professor Daniel H. Bays, Calvin College, on the history of Protestantism in China, and the other by Kim-Kwong Chan, executive secretary of the Hong Kong Christian Council on the implications of China's accession to the World Trade Organization. —Ed.

Historical Perspective

by Daniel H. Bays

There has never been a Chinese political regime from the Tang dynasty (618-907) to the present that has not required a form of registration or licensing of religious groups, or that has not assumed the right to monitor and intervene in religious affairs. This venerable tradition of vigilance intersected with the modern Protestant missionary movement that reached China in the early 1800s. By that time Christianity had already been declared illegal, appearing on the government's radar scope as one of many potentially seditious sects.

In 1839, however, conflict with Britain erupted, resulting in a British victory in 1842 and a coercively imposed new framework for China's intercourse with the West, generally referred to as the "unequal treaty" system. New treaties between China and western nations lifted the prohibition on Christianity and established a close link between Christianity and western military and diplomatic rights that lasted until the mid-20th century.

Between 1860 and 1905, Protestant Christianity grew rapidly. In 1860 there were barely 100 Protestant missionaries; by 1905 there were more than 3500. The missionaries built schools and hospitals as well as churches, chapels, and publishing houses. In my own view, the period of more than two decades from just after 1900 to the mid-1920s was pivotal in the history of modern Chinese Christianity. Although indigenous Chinese leaders emerged as a majority by 1920, the foreign missions missed the opportunity to pass over concrete power and ultimate responsibility to their Chinese colleagues within the established Protestant structures. Through the crises of two world wars, the Great Depression, and the Chinese civil war of the late 1940s, the Chinese Protestant mainstream never managed to shake its image of being in close collaboration with the foreign presence in China. The new political regime after 1949 forced it to renounce that foreign association in a way that was humiliating and traumatic for many.

World Trade Implications

by Kim-Kwong Chan

China's entry into the World Trade Organization has more of a political than an economic motive. The goal is to overcome past humiliation at the hands of foreign powers and to emerge as a major world economic power. The consequences, however, are more than economic expansion and commercialism. Social pluralism is also emerging gradually and inevitably.

The impact of these changes on Christianity is huge. Unprecedented church growth today is due to a new search for spiritual meaning among people during a time of instability and insecurity. More than 100 million people have become internal migrants and are turning to religion. Many new religions are also appearing. Moreover, many religious people are carrying their convictions outside the walls of the church compound into social involvement. Rapid changes inside the country are also related to the influence of large number of Chinese living abroad, resulting in a greater flow of information, visitors, and social as well as economic exchange.

Christianity and other religions will experience a growing tension between the government's desire to control religious and social movements and its need to encourage openness, social diversity, and growth. The challenge for Christians is to try to meet the needs of the people, to show compassion for the underprivileged, to display high ethical behavior in business, to support peace and harmony in society, to encourage the national aspiration, and to work for the unity of the Christian community. This witness in both word and deed can enhance the deeper rooting of Christian faith in this land.