Police actions against several house churches in Guangdong province in recent weeks again point up the fragile state of China’s vast unregistered Christian community.
Functioning in a legal gray area, China’s unregistered congregations have—particularly in the cities—come “above ground” by meeting openly in fixed locations. Some have become quite large and carry out a variety of programs directed at strengthening their members and having a witness in society. Yet their lack of legal status prevents them from defending themselves against official abuse. Their tentative legal position also keeps these groups from serving society through active participation in China’s growing local charity sector.
Professor Liu Peng of Pushi Institute for Social Sciences in Beijing, long an advocate of religious policy reform, earlier this year published a lengthy proposal on the We Chat public account Religious Law in which he offers a way forward for both the government and the house church. His proposal has been translated and now appears as a two-part series on Chinese Church Voices.
Liu begins by stating, “The existence of house churches is a reality, whether or not the government acknowledges it. The question of the legality of house churches is the main sticking point between the house churches and the government. Solve this central issue and all the rest will follow.”
According to Liu, the way out of the current stalemate is recognition of the unregistered church, which currently constitutes the largest single social group outside Communist Party control. Liu outlines a procedure whereby individual congregations would receive this recognition by registering with local government officials.
Significantly, Liu proposes that this process come under the Ministry of Civil Affairs rather than either the Three Self Patriotic Movement or the State Administration for Religious Affairs, both of which have a long history of tension with the unregistered church. Liu also suggests that house churches not be required to undergo investigation or approval by the Public Security Bureau. Once registered, the congregations would be expected to follow the same laws as any other legally recognized community group, with national law enforcement agencies using legal means to deal with any illegal conduct.
Taking the process out of the hands of the current religious policy establishment, says Liu, would spare both the government and the house church from having to resolve lingering questions of history that continue to cloud church-state relations. Instead, both sides would have the opportunity to move forward on a new footing.
The TSPM, meanwhile, would continue to function as is, but Liu suggests that, in accordance with its very name, the TSPM gradually reduce its financial reliance on the government and become truly self-supporting. The newly registered house churches would not be required to come under the TSPM system. They would essentially enjoy equal status with the TSPM and other China’s officially recognized religious organizations.
As this pilot registration process is carried out in select locations, both church and government leaders could ascertain how well it is working and make adjustments as needed. The long-term solution, once the registration measures have been successful, would be nationwide legislation that would take the authority of dealing with the church out of the hands of local officials and place it under rule of law. Thus, in addition to proposing immediate steps out of the current stalemate, Liu strongly advocates for urgent action on a religious law for China.
Liu’s proposal raises a number of questions, including how existing Party, religious, and security organs would respond to such a move and whether they would be willing to cooperate. On the other side of the coin—would the majority of China’s unregistered Christian congregations welcome the opportunity to register, and under what conditions?
Given President Xi Jinping’s high profile speech on religion last April, which appeared to be directed specifically toward Christianity, it is likely that the government will take steps soon to deal with China’s large unregistered Christian movement. Liu’s proposal sounds a hopeful note that those steps could be in a positive direction.
Image credit: IMG_0707 by amyhsk via Flickr.
Brent Fulton
Brent Fulton is the founder of ChinaSource. Dr. Fulton served as the first president of ChinaSource until 2019. Prior to his service with ChinaSource, he served from 1995 to 2000 as the managing director of the Institute for Chinese Studies at Wheaton College. From 1987 to 1995 he served as founding …View Full Bio
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