Church and State

Blog Entries

Official Protestant Groups Plan Next Five Years of Sinicization

What Does the TSPM/CCC 5-Year Plan Tell Us about the Direction of Official Protestantism?

What the latest plan for Protestant leadership in the TSPM and CCC tells us is that Xi Jinping continues to attract or compel Christians to align themselves with traditional Chinese culture and, as important, with the Chinese Communist Party’s agenda.

Blog Entries

The 2023 Regulations for Religious Activity Site Registration

What the Party Doesn’t Want You to Know

Under Xi…steps toward liberalization have ended and even reversed…. Xi has removed term limits on his rule, called upon the media to serve the party, arrested outspoken lawyers and feminists, and renewed pressure on house and official churches; all sectors…have fallen under the CCP’s oversight and control.

Blog Entries

Sinicization: Culture or Politics?

The cultural and political aspects of the Sinicization campaign go hand in hand. At its core, the campaign is all about political control. Yet, given China’s culture of political dominance, it is also very much about culture—a culture of obedience in which religion serves the interests of the state…

Blog Entries

Securitization of Everything

Churches and individual Chinese Christians have felt the impact of this shift to greater emphasis and concern about security. Unregistered churches and groups are seen as threats affecting societal and cultural security. Any foreign connections are seen through a security lens as a potential threat to China’s stability and healthy development.

Blog Entries

The Mountains Are Shorter, Part 2

Mountains today no longer symbolize separation, but rather strength, as suggested by another phrase, tieda de Jiangshan (铁打的江山). Literally meaning “rivers and mountains forged in iron,” it is commonly translated “iron-clad country,” a fitting description of the seemingly unshakeable state power being exerted throughout Xi’s China.

Blog Entries

The Mountains Are Shorter, Part 1

Today China’s officials are much less likely to turn a blind eye toward unauthorized Christian activity. Under the rubric of national security, Xi Jinping has shifted the government’s emphasis from aggressive economic growth to social control.

Blog Entries

Hearing from the Church in China, Part 2

Trying to “Keep the Flies Out”

Despite China’s growing global economic power, it is becoming increasingly closed and hostile to foreign influence from outside and foreign people inside the country. How, then, does the church in China maintain ties with the global church? We remain open to the leading of the Holy Spirit and pray for discernment to interact wisely with Chinese brothers and sisters.

Blog Entries

Hearing from the Church in China, Part 1

The Quest for Trustworthy Information

One…reason for [the] drop in the number of publications [is] the measures introduced to combat the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in…less direct contact. However…the decline started before the arrival of the pandemic and secondly, the Communist Party had…been busy for many years…to control the information environment, even before the watershed 2018 regulations came into force.

Blog Entries

Instrumentalizing the Church in China

In the polarized political landscape, China garners near-universal disapproval. The instrumentalization of China's church distorts reality for political gain, linking it with domestic religious freedom issues. Genuine dialogue is needed to address complex concerns and avoid silencing Chinese Christian voices.

Editorials

New Directions in the New Era

From the desk of the guest editor.