Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 667 | Wed 19 Oct 2022
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CHINA’S GREAT LEAP BACKWARDS (3): TO KEEP THE CCP SAFE
Church will face suffocating, albeit sophisticated, repression and persecution.
By Elizabeth Kendal
On 16 October, at the opening of the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), President Xi Jinping gave a sobering speech in which he warned of ‘dangerous storms’ ahead. ‘We must strengthen our sense of hardship,’ he said, ‘adhere to the bottom-line thinking, be prepared for danger in times of peace, prepare for a rainy day, and be ready to withstand major tests of high winds and high waves.’ According to Reuters, ‘Xi used the terms “security” or “safety” 89 times, up from 55 times in 2017…while his use of the word “reform” declined to 48 from 68 mentions five years ago.’ Xi praised the crackdown that put Hong Kong back ‘in the hands of patriots’ and confirmed that the CCP will use ‘all measures necessary’ to ‘reunify’ Taiwan with the mainland. He also confirmed that the CCP’s zero-COVID policies will not be relaxed. As Seoul-based analyst, Professor John Delury observed: ‘The central concept of [Xi’s] speech seemed to be “security”, a word Xi used in myriad ways to justify not only his approach to foreign policy, but also the economy and public health. Mao Zedong promised to make people revolutionaries. Deng Xiaoping promised to make them rich. Xi is promising to keep them safe.’ Indeed, though in reality Xi’s interests lie not in keeping citizens safe, but in keeping the Communist Party, and himself in particular, safely ensconced in power.
On 22 October the Congress will end and China will enter a whole new era, one in which the repression and persecution of the past decade may prove to have been little more than preparation. Under Xi, the CCP has laid down a raft of new legal measures which effectively render illegal all religious practice not pre-approved by the CCP. Numerous Christian human rights lawyers, religious liberty advocates, pastors and ministry workers are currently imprisoned: some for their courageous overt dissent (e.g. Pastor Wang Yi [see RLPB 534 (29 Jan 2020)], others for their quiet, covert endurance in leading worship or engaging in ministry/witness without CCP-approval (e.g Pastor (Mrs) Hao Zhiwei [see RLPB 634 (22 Feb 2022)]. These arrests – which see believers torn from their wives, husbands, children, other dependants and fellow believers – leave a trail of trauma and hardship through the Church. Increasingly, Christians are being punished simply because of their association with illegal house churches, or their commitment to illegal Christian education [RLPB 613, The CCP versus Christian Education, 8 Sep 2021]. The cost of discipleship is increasing.
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| Evicted: Shu Qiong (China Aid Association) |
The stage is now set for mass repression; something the CCP has spent 2022 perfecting! Not only is the punitive Social Credit System now operational and expanding, but the technologies created and the measures used in 2022, supposedly for COVID prevention, are all ‘dual use’. The methods used to chase zero-COVID will increasingly be used to chase zero-dissent. Shu Qiong and her husband, Wang Song, are members of Chengdu’s much-persecuted Early Rain Covenant Church. Shu’s father died in hospital on 18 September, and the Chengdu lock-down had prevented family members from visiting him. Understandably distressed, Shu criticised the government’s rigid COVID measures. Shu then organised a small, quiet memorial service to be held in the funeral home on 21 September. However, the authorities ‘utilised COVID-prevention electromagnetic alarms to keep people in their homes. The alarms were designed such that if the doors of a home were opened, the alarm would sound and report to the police’. (CAA, 28 September) [This is but one of several COVID-prevention measures the authorities can use to prevent free movement.] Then, on 30 September, Shu and Wang received an eviction notice – their landlord was terminating their lease early without explanation. Refusing to be intimidated, the couple – who understand that their landlord has been coerced – said they would rather be arrested and go through the judicial process than submit to such injustice (CAA, 3 October). Please pray!
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| screenshot from Reuters video |
When dissent does manage to break through the darkness, the response is increasingly quick and devastating. At around 1 pm on Thursday 13 October, a lone protestor – a man dressed in construction gear, believed to be activist Peng Lifa (pen name Peng Zaizhou) – managed to hang two banners on Beijing’s Sitong Bridge. One banner read: ‘Remove the traitor-dictator Xi Jinping!’ The other banner read: ‘Food, not PCR tests. Freedom, not lock-downs. Reforms, not the Cultural Revolution. Elections not leaders. Dignity, not lies. Citizens, not slaves.’ He even lit a fire to attract maximum attention. Police were quickly on the scene, the protester was quickly taken away and all reference to the protest was quickly erased from the Chinese internet.
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| Gao Zhisheng, before his disappearance in August 2017. (For timeline see Safeguard Defenders) |
It is highly likely that the ‘Bridge Man’ of Beijing will now disappear, never to be seen or heard from again, much like the ‘Tank Man’ of Tiananmen Square, and the renowned Christian human rights lawyer and religious liberty advocate, Gao Zhisheng. Repeatedly abducted, beaten, tortured and jailed, the relentlessly persecuted Gao Zhisheng remains disappeared five years after he was last abducted by agents of the CCP [see RLPB 432 (15 Nov 2017)]. Lord have mercy!
PLEASE PRAY THAT OUR SOVEREIGN AND GRACIOUS GOD WILL
* sustain his precious Chinese Church and build her up in grace and number, even as she endures the refining fire of severe repression and persecution. Lord have mercy.
‘I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it’ (Jesus, in Matthew 16:18 ESV).
* grace China’s Church with wisdom and guidance as she navigates an increasingly perilous path amidst deepening darkness and escalating hardship. May pastors have the wisdom they need to guide their flocks, may parents have the wisdom they need to raise their children, may those with influence have the wisdom they need to know how best to use it. May the Lord of all grace make known his will to all who seek it. Christ have mercy.
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).
* sustain and protect all Christians currently imprisoned in China because of their faith; may cruel hands be restrained and may the Holy Spirit stir up compassion, shame, guilt and repentance amongst guards and police commissioned to inflict cruelty. May every imprisoned believer experience the Lord’s presence in ways that are uplifting, encouraging and palpable. Lord have mercy.
SUMMARY FOR BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN THE WHOLE ARTICLE
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CHINA’S GREAT LEAP BACKWARDS WILL KEEP THE CCP SAFE
On 16 October, when President Xi Jinping spoke at the opening of the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), his central theme was ‘security’. According to Xi, China is facing ‘dangerous storms’ and overcoming them will require sacrifice and obedience (i.e. a united front amidst increased hardship). When the Congress ends on 22 October, China will move into a whole new era: one of suffocating yet sophisticated, escalating repression and persecution. Having already enacted a raft of new laws and set up the punitive Social Credit System, Xi confirmed that the measures introduced in 2022 to chase zero-COVID will not be relaxed. Indeed, they are already being used to chase zero-dissent; to control and imprison people in their homes, to keep Christians from meeting or even communicating. Please pray.
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Elizabeth Kendal is an international religious liberty analyst and advocate for the persecuted Church. RLPB is a donor-funded ministry; to support this ministry visit www.ElizabethKendal.com.
Elizabeth has authored two books: Turn Back the Battle: Isaiah Speaks to Christians Today (Deror Books, Melbourne, Australia, Dec 2012) which offers a Biblical response to persecution and existential threat; and After Saturday Comes Sunday: Understanding the Christian Crisis in the Middle East (Wipf and Stock, Eugene, OR, USA, June 2016). She is also an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Arthur Jeffery Centre for the Study of Islam at Melbourne School of Theology.
For more information visit: www.ElizabethKendal.com