universities to root out foreigners suspected of plotting against the
Communist Party by converting students to Christianity.
By William Wan,
Washington Post, Wednesday, December 19 2012
The 16-page notice — obtained this month by a U.S.-based Christian group —
uses language from the cold war era to depict a conspiracy by “overseas
hostile forces” to infiltrate Chinese campuses under the guise of academic
exchanges while their real intent is to use religion in “westernizing and
dividing China.”
The document suggests that despite small signs of religious tolerance in
recent decades,China’s ruling officials retain strong suspicion of religion
as a tool of the West and a threat to the party’s authoritarian rule. And
with the country’s top leadership in transition and looking to consolidate
power, Chinese religious leaders worry that the stance is unlikely to
change in the near future.
Government officials did not respond to requests for comment and did not
confirm the document’s authenticity. But university records and official
postings on college Web sites show that after the notice was issued — on
May 15, 2011 — many campuses began adopting the stricter restrictions it
proposed.
A leader in the illegal underground “house church” movement said Christian
students in his province began hearing about the document in fall 2011 as
university and government officials discussed how to implement the
stipulations.
“The notice was read out loud in party meetings and youth league committees
within colleges, but it was done orally, without giving out any hard
copies,” the church leader said, speaking on the condition of anonymity for
fear of reprisal.
The party’s Central Committee is thought to have issued a few dozen orders
last year, but one focused solely on religion is rare. Such “notices” and
“opinions” are followed closely and implemented as though they are law
because they come directly from the central party. According to
instructions included with the May 2011 order, only 8,330 copies were to be
printed and only city, regional and military division leaders were allowed
to read it.
China Aid, the Texas-based Christian organization that obtained a copy of
the notice, works primarily on human and religious rights in China and came
to prominence last year after helping dissident Chen Guangcheng escape from
house arrest.
The group’s founder, Bob Fu, said the order provides rare proof of an
anti-religious campaign initiated by the central government and of
high-level collaboration among government agencies on religious controls.
“It’s a shock to see they still hold this old mentality of Christianity as
some secret conspiracy of the West,” Fu said.
The document talks about infiltration by religion as a whole, but it
singles out Christianity as particularly dangerous and the United States as
leading the effort. No other country or religion is mentioned by name.
Leery of Christianity
China’s Communist government is officially atheistic and has a long history
of suspicion of religion. Although Buddhism — the most popular religion in
China — and Taoism are now supported by the government to some degree,
Christians remain a source of contention, along with Tibetan Buddhists,
Uighur Muslims and Falun Gong practitioners.
Leery of anyone who claims higher authority than the Communist Party, such
as the pope, the government created an agency to oversee Chinese Catholics
and appoint its own bishops.
The government has tried to herd Protestants into a state-run denomination
called the Three-Self Patriotic Movement. But illegal house churches — so
named because congregants often meet in private homes — are flourishing.
Some operate openly without interference; others have been shut down, their
members surveilled, imprisoned and put into labor camps.
Since 1999, the U.S. State Department has designated China as a “Country of
Particular Concern” for what it calls “severe violations of religious
freedom.” This year, in the department’s annual report on religious
freedom, U.S. officials noted the imprisonment of religious individuals,
raids on house churches, confiscation of Bibles and a continued ban on
worship outside government-sanctioned religious groups.
According to official estimates, China has 23 million Christians, or less
than 2 percent of the population. But independent analyses by institutes
and think tanks such as the Pew Research Center in Washington suggest that
the real number is probably much higher and that Christianity has been
rapidly growing in China during the past decade. Activists within China
have estimated house church membership at 50 million to 100 million.
‘Take forceful measures’
In the document, authorities warn that foreigners are using academic
research, study abroad, English-language instruction and charitable work as
pretexts to spread religion among China’s youths. “The intensity of
infiltration is increasing,” the document reads. “You must not
underestimate the current harm and the long-term effect of such phenomenon
and you must take forceful measures.”
The notice calls for stricter visa screening for foreigners suspected of
traveling for religious purposes and says nonprofit groups should be
scrutinized for religious ties. The Ministry of Education also was called
on to collect information on religious organizations to be shared among
universities.
In one section, university officials are told to be more caring toward
their students as a way to counteract the appeal of foreigners. “Advisers
should hold extensive heart-to-heart talks with students and learn in a
timely manner the new students’ ideological status, answer questions that
puzzle them, guide their feelings,” it reads.
Instructors who persistently proselytize are to be removed from their job,
according to the order, and foreign students who refuse to stop
proselytizing should be expelled.
Since the order went out, several universities — including Northeast
Agricultural University in Heilongjiang province, Chongqing University and
Hohhot Minzu University in Inner Mongolia — have responded with online
reports about new anti-religious infiltration protocols. But it is unclear
whether they are simply following the orders superficially or enforcing
them seriously.
According to Chinese officials, there were more than 290,000 foreign
university students in China last year, a record high — including about
23,000 from the United States.
Religion on campus
Several international Christian groups that send teachers and students to
China declined to comment on the order, citing fears of being shut down by
the government.
One Christian nonprofit official said foreign teachers from Christian
organizations have long been made to sign strict pledges not to talk about
religion at the Chinese universities where they work, although some
involved in such work acknowledged that not all foreigners abide by such
pledges. Another Christian nonprofit official defended foreign educators as
people motivated by a desire to do good, describing as far-fetched the idea
that they are infiltrators sent by overseas governments.
One reason that Chinese authorities may be shifting their attention to
religion on campus is the house church movement’s expansion in the past
decade from rural to urban centers, where colleges are located, several
church leaders said.
Another reason, one religious scholar said, may be related to the Communist
Party’s roots.
“The Communist revolution began in ideology, so they fear it can be
defeated by ideology,” he said, speaking on the condition of anonymity
because of the sensitivity of the issue. “What they fear is not really
religion itself but ideas that may be brought on by religion, like freedom
and equality.”
