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

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C O N F I D E N T I A L

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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

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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.


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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