The Church in China

In 1980, at the beginning of China’s economic reform era, a Party leader described the emerging Chinese economy as a “birdcage.” He said the bird (the nascent free market) could be allowed to fly only within the confines of a state-planned economy (the birdcage). In other words, Chinese capitalism must be controlled by the Communist Party.

That metaphor describes China today — and not just the economy but all of society, including religious life. The government claims that citizens have “freedom of religious belief.” What it means is that people can believe what they want, but the government decides how those beliefs can be practiced. Religious beliefs must take a back seat to Party ideology.

In the late 1990s and 2000s, the size of the birdcage expanded, resulting in more space for religious life. The urban house-church movement flourished. Christians became involved in meeting social needs. Christian content proliferated online. However, the birdcage began to shrink after 2012, when the Party began issuing new regulations that increasingly restricted civil society and religious life. These restrictions ranged from limits on the size of church crosses to stricter clergy qualifications to prohibitions on using the internet to conduct religious services. This has led to a new wave of persecution, particularly against some of the more prominent house churches.

For Christians, what does life in a shrinking birdcage look like?

Life Inside the Birdcage

In registered churches, which are overseen by the Party-led religious-affairs bureaucracy, years of being encouraged to eschew politics have given way to expectations that the churches must serve the interests of the Party-state through the so-called Sinicization campaign. This campaign calls on all religious leaders to align their work and teaching with “socialist values,” as defined by the Communist Party. Laws prohibiting the teaching of religion to anyone under the age of eighteen are now being strictly enforced. This means that children are not allowed to attend church.

Unregistered churches (often called house churches), which have no legal status and are perceived by the Party-state as a threat, are experiencing more overt persecution and pressure. Churches that cross government “red lines” (getting too big, engaging in political advocacy, cultivating ties with foreign groups, organizing online) may be shut down and the pastors arrested. In the past decade, some of the higher-profile house churches have been in the headlines for experiencing this level of persecution. Pastor Wang of Early Rain Church is currently nearing the end of a nine-year prison sentence for “inciting subversion of state power.” Pastor Jin of Zion Church is currently being held for “illegal use of information networks.”

The stories that make the biggest headlines do not necessarily represent the experience of all churches in China. Many, while not on the receiving end of harsh crackdowns, experience what some have labeled trouble or pressure, with local officials simply making life difficult. Pastors may be invited by security officials to “drink tea,” a common euphemism for police questioning. Landlords are pressured not to rent to religious groups, making it difficult for churches to find space to meet, forcing them to gather in different locations each week. Sometimes, local officials encourage congregations to move to other neighborhoods or districts so they will no longer be responsible for them.

“The birdcage may be shrinking, but the life of faith inside it is still real, active, and full of witness.”

And China is a land of contradictions, where little is as it seems and multiple things can be true. There are churches all over the country that remain small and quiet and are not experiencing harsh crackdowns. At the same time, some churches have been shut down and pastors detained, but they don’t make the headlines in the West. Furthermore, being “shut down” doesn’t necessarily mean a church ceases to exist. Churches adapt by dividing into smaller fellowships, thereby actually multiplying.

Finally, experiences vary by city, province, and region, often depending on the local political environment. In general, circumstances are more open in larger cities and coastal provinces, and tighter in the inland regions.

Challenges Beyond Persecution

Government persecution and pressure are real, but for many Chinese Christians, these are not the most immediate challenges they face. Beyond political persecution and pressure, our Chinese brothers and sisters face a myriad of other challenges that are often more pressing, ones that almost all people in China face.

The social effects of the forty-year one-child policy are beginning to batter Chinese families. Young couples struggle to care for two sets of aging parents. Many young adults are choosing not to marry or have children, leaving their parents without the prospect of grandchildren or having someone to take care of them in their later years.

The intensely competitive education system places immense strain on children. Thousands of young people are so worn down by the pressure and disillusioned about their future that they refuse to get out of bed each day. They stay at home doing nothing. This social phenomenon even has a name: tangping, “lying flat.” In a society that values education and hard work, the effects are devastating to individuals, families, and society at large.

In the face of these pressures, many are choosing to leave the country. The motivations vary. Some leave in search of better economic opportunities. Others want to free their children from the harshly competitive educational system. Homeschooling is illegal, so Christian parents who want to shield their children from the atheism taught in schools are looking for educational options outside of China. Some of those departing are pastors moving to other countries to plant churches. This is leading to a growth of Chinese diaspora churches, while also leaving behind congregations without leadership.

More Than a Persecution Story

While we tend to focus on the size of the birdcage, Chinese Christians focus on adapting and being faithful within it. When large-group meetings are no longer possible, they quietly become smaller fellowships that gather in homes or rotating locations. In the process of this unintended “multiplication,” believers learn simpler, more relational forms of church life — praying, studying Scripture, sharing meals, and caring for one another in smaller settings.

Believers continue to live faithfully in their families, workplaces, and neighborhoods. They care for aging parents, visit the sick, help neighbors, do honest work, and bear witness without drawing unnecessary attention.

Finally, the gospel continues to spread — in small groups and churches, in social and work relationships. More recently, Chinese missionaries are taking the gospel to the nations.

To faithfully serve and pray for churches in China, we must be willing to look beyond the headlines. If persecution is the only lens through which we view the church in China, we risk seeing Chinese Christians primarily as victims rather than fellow disciples. This can obscure the work that God is doing through them and prevent us from adopting a posture of learning.

The story of the church in China, then, is more than a story of persecution or a shrinking birdcage. It is a story of faithful living in a hostile environment. The birdcage may be shrinking, but the life of faith inside it is still real, active, and full of witness. God remains faithful! As one of my colleagues at ChinaSource, Andrea Lee, has written, “Christian hope does not rest on the recovery of space or the relaxation of regulation. It rests on the faithfulness of Christ.”