China: Legal Church Will Be Fully Sinicised (plus: Yang Maodong)

Source:  http://rlprayerbulletin.blogspot.com/

Date:  August 16, 2023

Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 706

CHINA: LEGAL CHURCH WILL BE FULLY SINICISED
plus: another Christian human rights lawyer goes missing.

By Elizabeth Kendal

Pastor Wang Yi of Early Rain Covenant Church, Chengdu, was sentenced to 9 years jail for leading protest against the Religious Affairs Regulations.
left: at home pre-Dec 2018 arrest; right: in prison March 2020.

Since February 2018, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has introduced a number of administrative measures, each of which further limits the space in which the Church can legally operate [overview]. On 1 February 2018, Religious Affairs Regulations (Order 686) came into force, ending any pretence of religious liberty. To be legal, religious activity must be exercised within strict CCP parameters and under the oversight of the CCP’s religious affairs departments. Christian leaders who protested ended up in prison; their church properties shuttered and demolished; their church members persecuted. On 1 February 2019, Administrative Measures for Religious Groups came into force, providing instructions on how the Religious Affairs Regulations were to be implemented. On 1 May 2021, Administrative Measures for Clergy came into force. This limits ‘religious teaching activities’ to those who hold a valid ‘clergy card’ showing they are registered in the national database of CCP-approved clergy. On 1 March 2022, Measures on the Administration of Internet Religious Information Services came into force. This limited ‘religious information services’ (via the internet) to those who hold an Internet Religious Information Services Licence. On 1 June 2022, Measures for the Financial Management of Religious Sites came into force. Far from limiting churches’ right to decide how offerings should be spent, this Measure obliterates that right by putting all church finances in the hands of the Communist Party’s United Front Work Department and Ministry of Finance.

On 1 September 2023, Measures on the Administration of Religious Activity Venues will come into force. The Measures stipulate that Religious Activity Venues must pro-actively support the leadership of the CCP. To this end, Religious Activity Venues must establish ‘a study system, and regularly organise the personnel of the place to study the guidelines and policies of the CCP, national laws and regulations, Chinese excellent traditional culture, and religious knowledge [etc]’ [Article 36]. [For full English translation see Bitter Winter (7 Aug).] China Aid Association reports (10 Aug): ‘The Measures require that the content of Christian sermons should reflect China’s political situation and the core values advocated by Chairman Xi Jinping, rather than the unique doctrines of the religion itself. If clergy members fail to comply with the party’s requirements, they may be disqualified from preaching in the future.’ As Bitter Winter notes, ‘The Measures will convert places of worship into branches of the CCP propaganda system.’ From 1 September the legal, CCP-registered Church could be said to be fully Sinicised (i.e. CCP compliant). These Measures will not merely further limit the space in which Bible-believing, Gospel-focused individuals can operate, they will effectively obliterate it.

Yang Maodong (right) 
with Gao Zhisheng (left) in Beijing, 2006.

Meanwhile, on 11 May, a Chinese court sentenced Christian human rights activist, writer and lawyer Yang Maodong (57) – pen-name Guo Feixiong – to eight years in prison, to be followed by three years of ‘deprivation of political rights’. It will be Yang’s third imprisonment, after he spent five years in prison from 2006 to 2011, and six years from 2013 to 2019. Yang was a close friend of the now disappeared Christian lawyer and religious liberty advocate Gao Zhisheng [see RLPB 704, When Christians Go Missing, 2 Aug 2023)]. Like Gao, Yang has survived debilitating torture, which he described as ‘beyond people’s imagination’ [see RLPB 356, Lawyer Yang Maodong in Critical Need, 11 May 2016]. Like the family of Gao Zhisheng, the family of Yang Maodong fled to the USA where they received asylum. In January 2021 Yang was arrested at Shanghai Pudong International Airport as he attempted to board a plane to the US; he had been hoping to visit his critically ill wife Zhang Qing. Kept in detention, Yang was formerly arrested on 12 January 2022 – two days after his wife died. On 11 May 2023 a Guangzhou court found Yang guilty of defaming China’s political system and inciting subversion of state power. Critically, though officials did inform Yang’s older sister Yang Maoping that her brother had been sent to prison, they refused to disclose to which prison he had been sent. Neither would officials provide Yang’s lawyer with a notice of imprisonment or any information as to his whereabouts.

PLEASE PRAY THAT OUR MERCIFUL GOD WILL:

• pour out wisdom, courage and direction to every faithful Christian who has stayed within the CCP-approved church, enduring restrictions so as to maintain witness – for the days when that was possible are coming to an end. ‘If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him’ (James 1:5 ESV).

May every faithful Christian who finds themselves without legal rights to gather, worship, teach or witness – commit their ways to Christ. May the Spirit of God enable them to ‘be wise as serpents and innocent as doves’ (from Matthew 10:16 ESV).

• reveal the whereabouts of severely persecuted, now missing Christian human rights lawyers Gao Zhisheng (59) and Yang Maodong (57). Let there be light!

May every faithful Chinese Christian, currently imprisoned for their Christian faith, ministry and service, be assured of Christ’s love and cognisant of his presence with them. May the Spirit of God comfort, sustain and protect them. ‘Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows’ (Matthew 10:29-31 ESV).

• continue to build, mature and equip his faithful ‘underground’ Church in China. ‘I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it’ (from Matthew 16:18 ESV).