China Reaffirms Religious Freedom, Bishop Reports

Bishop K. H. Ting, leader of China’s officially recognized Three-Self Movement, reports that church life and work is going on “more or less as usual” in China despite the bloody government crackdown six months ago against the country’s student-led democratic movement.

The government has “reaffirmed its policy of religious freedom,” Ting said in a recent interview conducted by a staff officer of the Amity Foundation. The foundation has links with the National Council of Churches in the United States and sponsors teachers in China and prints Bibles there.

The bishop said he initially feared that the confrontation between the government and advocates of democratic reforms might have “adverse effects” on the church.

“But this has not happened, as far as I am aware,” Ting said.

Ting has been a frequent target of critics--particularly the leadership of the unofficial “house” churches--who claim he has scrupulously toed the Communist Party line and failed to challenge injustices against Christians in China.

The bishop issued a statement before the June Beijing massacre of scores of demonstrators in which he “wholeheartedly” affirmed the student protests and called on Communist leaders to carry on a dialogue with students. However, after the movement was quashed, the China Christian Council, which the bishop heads, issued a statement that “resolutely endorsed” decisions of the party.

But on church life after the June events, Ting’s views are not unlike those of other China observers, some of whom have had longstanding opposition to communism.

The Rev. Robert Hawley of Open Doors, an international agency that distributes Christian materials in restricted countries and is well-known for its opposition to communism, said in an interview this week that his organization has been tracking the situation in China since the crackdown and has “not found any adverse repercussions toward the church.”

The California-based Hawley, who said he was speaking of both the Three-Self and house churches, surmised that one reason authorities have not attacked the church is that not many Christians took part in the pro-democracy demonstrations.

Cynthia McLean, a specialist in the China program of the National Council of Churches, said that statements made by public figures such as Bishop Ting cannot always be taken at face value because of the tense situation in China.

But she noted that the Rev. Franklin Woo, director of the China program, returned recently from five weeks in China and reported that he saw evidence that corroborates what Ting said.