House Church Registration in South China: Few

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 GUANGZHOU 021213 SIPDIS C O N F I D E N T I A L SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR EAP/CM AND DRL PACOM FOR FPA E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/12/06 TAGS: PHUM PREL PGOV CH SUBJECT: House Church Registration in South China: Few Successes REF: A) Beijing 13794 B) Guangzhou 13576; C) Guangzhou 11042 ¶1. (U) Classified by Acting Consul General William Martin. Reason 1.4 (d). Summary -------------- ¶2. (SBU) While crackdowns against house churches in South China seem on the decline, nevertheless, registration seems a daunting task to many groups. Throughout the Consular district, the only true success story in terms of church registration is a foreign one. In late 2000, the Guangzhou International Christian Fellowship (GICF) became the first registered non-Three Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) church in China. Meanwhile, of the thousands of domestic house churches in the district, (according to Consulate's sources) only a hand-full have tried to register (in Fujian and Hainan),all of whom have been denied. End summary. ¶3. (SBU) Various church leaders from some major cities in the provinces of Guangdong, Fujian and Hainan, told Poloff about the number of unregistered churches in their area and the process of church registration. Guangdong - Strict RAB Rules -------------- -- ¶4. (C) Sources estimated the number of unregistered churches in Guangzhou City between 40 and 120. In general, Christianity seems to be growing in Guangzhou. For example, Guangzhou's largest official Protestant church, the Dongshan Protestant Church, which is a Three-self Patriotic Movement Church (TSPM),already has 3,000 members, but is expanding because the church has surpassed its capacity. In terms of church registration, Samuel Lamb (Lin Xiangao), one of the leading religious figures in South China, said last year there were no new Chinese house churches who registered with the RAB and nor any major crackdowns of Chinese house churches. Lamb's underground church is Guangzhou's largest, with roughly 3,000 members. Although his church is very well known, Lamb has refused urgings from the Religious Affairs Bureau (RAB) to register his church. The church has been saved from any serious repercussions because some of the church's members have close connections with the Chinese Public Security Bureau (PSB). ¶5. (C) One of the few registration success stories from Guangdong Province is an expat church - the Guangzhou International Christian Fellowship (GICF) - which is one of two registered, non-TSPM churches in China (the other is in Beijing). Head pastor of GICF, Alfred Leong (please protect) and the former head pastor, Andrew Kelly (please protect) said the registration process was not easy. According to the church leaders, the church was founded in the 1980s when U.S. Consulate officers were looking for a place to worship. Beginning in 1999, with about 150 members, the church rented space in a hotel in downtown Guangzhou and concurrently applied for registration with the RAB. Initially the RAB would not allow registration of a non-TSPM church. A year later, the Guangdong RAB decided to make GICF a test-case and, in August 2000, the GICF finally received official registration to be renewed annually. The church license, however, was limited to a particular place (not to a group) and time. Today the GICF totals over 400 members, but their license is still restricted to their original place of worship and are allowed only one service a week. ¶6. (C) According to Leong and Kelly, the process was difficult because of mistrust from the hotel and RAB officials. Since 2000, the GICF had problems again in 2003, when the RAB refused to register them and accused the church of public proselytizing (through bible distribution), allowing locals to worship with foreigners, and involvement with the making of a Christian video entitled "The Cross" (an underground DVD, presenting a lecture given in Beijing by "Jesus in Beijing" author David Aikman). Eight members of the congregation (mostly Amcits) were also expelled that year from China for illegally proselytizing in public areas. ¶7. (C) The GICF was able to get re-registered in 2004 (with help from the Australian Consular General in GUANGZHOU 00021213 002 OF 003 Guangzhou) only after it agreed to a certain number of conditions including 1) monitoring entrance of local Chinese into its services, 2) limit Sunday School activities, 3) eliminate free bible distribution, and 4) create a number of small house churches made up of foreigners (ensuring the numbers were below 20 adults and 10 children for each group). ¶8. (C) According to Kelly, other expat groups in Guangzhou have been less fortunate. Last year, an expat group tried to register with the RAB, but were unsuccessful. While waiting for their decision of their license, local police raided the group's headquarters, seizing computers, chairs and tables. The police were only willing to return the materials only after the group threatened a lawsuit. About six months ago, a Nigerian group, which also had applied for registration, were raided by 200 police. In Leong's opinion, the problem with many these other missionary groups in Guangdong Province is that they have been allowing local Chinese to attend their services, which upsets the RAB authorities. Since the shut-down of the Nigerian group, Leong has heard of other Africans enduring obstacles, most commonly, being refused entry visas. Leong said that groups of about fewer than 30 people can meet rather freely in Guangdong, as long as they do not cause to great a disturbance to neighbors. Fujian - Improvement but no Registration -------------- ¶9. (C) According to the Xiamen RAB, Xiamen City (one of Fujian's largest, and most churched cities) has only 20,000 Protestants and 700 Catholics (ref B). Chen Liangcheng (please protect),a house church leader from Xiamen, Fujian, estimates the number of house churches in Xiamen at about 10 (Chen personally knows 20 of them). Chen said "a couple" of churches have recently tried to register in Fujian, but none have been approved. Some have tried to create churches within the framework of existing TSPM churches, but this has also failed. Chen said the process for creating a satellite church from a TSPM church is difficult because it requires agreement from three actors: the new satellite church council, the Deacon committee of the TSPM church, and the RAB authorities (typically the most difficult actor). ¶10. (C) Chen said that three years ago the problems in Fujian were much worse than today. Foreigner missionaries have increasingly been allowed into China, simply by applying as tourists or businesspeople, rather than applying formally as religious figures. Children's religious education is also much improved in Xiamen among the TSPM churches. In the more rural areas, however, such as Zhangzhou and Longyuan, churches have not been allowed to conduct children's education. Also unofficial family fellowship groups are not allowed to have children's religious education programs. While harassment from the RAB itself has decreased in Fujian, within TSPM churches, self-censorship has increased. For example, according to Chen, some TSPM church members will threaten to inform the RAB of problems if they think the church has too many connections with foreigners. Hainan - Not Enough Religion to go around -------------- ¶11. (C) Amcit, Charlene O'Connor (please protect),said that in Sanya, Hainan (Hainan's number two city) she knows of one church (led by Korean missionaries with connections with a church in North China) which has tried to register, but were refused. The Koreans tried to create a separate church body through an existing TSPM church. The group was refused on the grounds that the TSPM church was already providing enough religious services, given the religious population of Hainan. (Note: Official numbers on religious believers in Hainan seem low. On a visit to the Hainan RAB, the Consulate was told that only one percent of the population was believed to adhere to any of the five official religions, ref C). O'Connor said the lack of churches was a major problem. Currently in Sanya, a city over one million people, there are two churches. O'Connor has been in Sanya since 1995 and there has not been a church added in all of Hainan Province since she has been living in China. GUANGZHOU 00021213 003 OF 003 ¶12. (C) O'Connor said, because of the difficulties and small probability of success, most family religious groups in Hainan "have an aversion to registration." O'Connor runs her own house church each Sunday. Because they strictly screen out locals from their service they have had little harassment from the RAB. Comment -------------- ¶13. (C) While Chinese law theoretically allows for house churches to register with the Religious Affairs Bureau and become legitimate churches, nevertheless, the bureaucratic process can be overwhelming for some groups. Throughout South China, only one expat church (through considerable persistence and outside support) was able to successfully register. Thus while the crackdown of underground churches has been declining in South China, the move to create legitimate religious groups is also essentially blocked. Without RAB registration, many underground churches simply continue to meet. For the moment, church groups and the government are satisfied with this ambiguous situation. The true day of reckoning for unregistered religious groups is yet to come. MARTIN