YUNNAN HOUSE CHURCH CHRISTIANS LEFT ALONE BY GOVERNMENT WHEN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 CHENGDU 000126

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EAP/CM AND DRL/IRF

E.O. 12958: DECL: 5/18/2027
TAGS: PHUM PGOV SOCI SCUL KIRF CH
SUBJECT: YUNNAN HOUSE CHURCH CHRISTIANS LEFT ALONE BY GOVERNMENT WHEN
FOREIGNERS KEPT AT A DISTANCE

REF: A) CHENGDU 100 B) 06 CHENGDU 699

CHENGDU 00000126 001.2 OF 004


CLASSIFIED BY: James Boughner, Consul General, United States
Consulate, Chengdu.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)




1. (C) Summary: According to two foreign missionaries and a
Chinese Christian, the atmosphere for Yunnan house church
Christians has improved in recent years and believers are able
to worship with little government interference compared to other
areas of China, if they are careful to maintain a distance from
foreign religious groups. Our interlocutors noted the absence
of any "killings" of Christians over the last decade, and a
sharp drop in arrests and detentions of house church believers.
While in the past Christian house church leaders were
self-taught, today's leaders are benefiting from theology taught
in "underground seminaries" and in distance learning courses.
The official Three Selves Patriotic Movement (TSPM) is also very
active and attracts over 1,000 young people every week to
participate in their youth programs. Tightening of religious
liberties has occurred in periods when "controversial" religious
materials reached the public, but in general legally published
Christian literature is widely available. North Korean refugees
are passing through Yunnan en route to Thailand and an
officially registered church several years ago offered
assistance to a group of refugees who tragically drowned when
their boat overturned on the Mekong. While the ability of
Chinese citizens in Yunnan to practice their religious beliefs
has improved, whether in the official TSPM Church or in
unregistered house churches, foreign Christian NGO work has
become more difficult in recent years. End Summary.


2. (C) In three separate May 15 meetings, Congenoff met with
two foreign missionaries who have worked in Christian
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Yunnan Province for
over 15 years, and a 34-year-old Chinese Christian university
professor. While overt foreign missionary activity is strictly
suppressed in China, most missionaries operate through NGOs and
are not openly religious. They usually quietly engage in
missionary work separate from the NGO's other social and
humanitarian activities. In private conversations which
appeared to be unmonitored, the three interlocutors discussed
the growth of the Christian house church movement in Yunnan as
well as the government-sanctioned Three Selves Patriotic
Movement (TSPM).

House Churches Worship With Little Interference
-------------- --

3. (C) The two foreign missionaries and Chinese Christian
described an "open" and "tolerant" atmosphere in which Yunnan
Christians are able to worship with little government
interference. Kunming has over 300 house churches, according to
a foreign business consultant involved in the Christian NGO and
missionary communities. (Note: the term "house church" implies
that the church is not registered with the Chinese government.
In some cases, however, house churches in Yunnan and Sichuan
Provinces have been permitted to register with the Religious
Affairs Bureau or the TSPM (Ref. B). End Note) Ten of these
churches have over 150 members, and many have well over 50
believers. When queried about how many new house churches were
established in 2006, the consultant said that around 30 had been
established in Kunming alone.


4. (C) In another meeting, a doctor working with a Christian
NGO made a distinction between house churches in Yunnan and
house churches in northeast China. He opined that house
churches in northeast China were more frequently oppressed by
government authorities because they "presented an
anti-government voice." In contrast, Yunnan house churches have
no "political agenda," and are allowed to exist with minimal
interference, he said.


5. (C) The majority of Yunnan's house churches are
unregistered, but many have tried to register, the consultant
said in another meeting. He opined the government allowed them
to exist unofficially because it wanted to maintain a measure of
control in case it needed to clamp down or close them in a time
of social instability. The contact cited the example of the
unregistered Wenzhou Church, which has over 150 members. (Note:
Members of the Christian community in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province
are known for setting up churches throughout China to minister
to Wenzhou people who have migrated. End Note) He speculated
that the reason the government does not interfere with the
church's activities may have something to do with the fact that
many of its members are wealthy Wenzhou businesspeople with
close connections to the government.

Religious Freedom in Yunnan Has "Improved Greatly"

CHENGDU 00000126 002.2 OF 004


-------------- --------------

6. (C) A medical doctor whose Christian NGO works primarily in
the health and education fields urged Congenoff to take a broad
view of the progress in religious freedom in Yunnan over the
past 15 years, which he opined had "improved greatly." He
stated that in the early 1990s, house church pastors were
sometimes beaten to death by Chinese authorities. To his
knowledge, there have been no Christian leaders "killed" in
Yunnan for the past eight to nine years.


7. (C) Another indicator of improvement is the decrease in the
number and length of arrests and detention of believers. The
doctor said that most detentions are only one day or less.
There is an occasional detention of one to two months, and only
in extremely rare cases is a Christian held for two to three
years. He added that there were no Christians currently in jail
that he knew of. When asked about a 2005 raid on a house church
in Kunming in which several house church pastors were reportedly
detained, the doctor acknowledged that this raid occurred in an
unregistered house church in his housing complex. He said he
believed the group attracted the attention of authorities only
because two foreigners were participating in the service.
Several pastors were detained, but were questioned and released
quickly, according to the doctor. Two foreign missionary
families were asked to leave the country.


8. (C) The doctor's NGO has been operating openly in Yunnan for
15 years and has had no major problems with Chinese authorities.
He acknowledged that the atmosphere for foreign NGOs had become
tenser, but that in spite of this, his organization's work on
HIV/AIDS is welcomed by the authorities and by local Chinese.

Foreign Missionaries Maintain Distance from
House Church Worship Services
--------------

9. (C) Both foreign NGO contacts separately agreed that house
churches run into problems with Chinese authorities when
attention is drawn to them because of the presence of
foreigners. One Christian NGO prohibits its members from
leading any house church worship service. They are also
encouraged not to even attend such services. The NGOs emphasize
to their workers that the missionary's role should be to
"disciple" and "minister to" house church leaders and believers
in contexts outside of the formal worship services.

Theology Training for House Church Leaders
--------------

10. (C) Most house church founders and pastors are generally
self-taught, according to one interlocutor. They are dynamic
preachers who start small prayer or bible study groups that then
rapidly grow in number. One of the important tasks of the
foreign missionary community in Yunnan is to provide support for
these church leaders, said the physician. Missionaries run
"underground" seminaries to teach theological principles.
Another method by which Christian NGOs train pastors is
Theological Education by Extension (TEE),a type of
correspondence course in which missionaries conduct training for
short periods of time and pastors study on their own in the
intermediate periods.


11. (C) In separate conversations, both foreign Christian
representatives expressed optimism that house church leaders
were slowly developing from being self-taught and relying on
their own charisma to lead believers, to being educated and
well-versed in Christian theology in order to guide believers.
The doctor remarked that, in general, local government tolerance
of Christian NGO activities and Chinese-only house church
gatherings makes the missionaries' calling much easier.
According to the consultant, in a couple of cases officials from
the Public Security Bureau (PSB) have encouraged house church
leaders to attend the official TSPM-run seminary so they can
earn a certificate and be allowed to preach legally. Some TSPM
pastors interact unofficially with house churches, according to
the doctor. One TSPM pastor asked a house church leader for
advice on organizing charitable projects in the education field.
He commented that these types of examples show the "tolerance"
Yunnan officials have for the house churches.

Active Community of Christians in Three Selves Church
-------------- --------------

12. (C) Turning to the official Christian church, one
interlocutor described the active communities in the
government-sanctioned TSMP churches in Kunming. He specifically
referred to St. Anthony's and Holy Trinity which each have youth
ministries that attract upwards of 1,000 young people every
week. In another meeting, a 34-year-old Chinese University
professor told Congenoff she "switched" to the TSPM after being
involved with the house church movement for over ten years, and
Campus Crusade for Christ for six years. She acknowledged that

CHENGDU 00000126 003.2 OF 004


she developed Christian foundations through the guidance of
foreign missionaries, but that she is now disillusioned by house
church pastors and believers who have become too "rigid in their
beliefs" and "dictatorial in their 'guidance' to believers."
She prefers the atmosphere of the TSPM which is not so
"structured." The professor added that house church Christians
tended to view Catholicism as a cult similar to the Falun Gong,
a view she disagreed with. She added that these types of
"extreme" ideas develop under the influence of fundamentalist
and evangelical foreign missionaries.

Sensitive Periods Relate to Inflammatory Material
-------------- --------------

13. (C) When queried about his opinion on the 2003 book "Jesus
in Beijing," which presents a history of the development of
Christianity in China, one foreign NGO contact expressed his
unhappiness with what he referred to as the "deceptive tactics"
used by the author to gather information from the Christian
community in Yunnan and his subsequent inclusion of individual
names in the book. While the foreign missionaries named in the
book experienced some mild questioning from authorities, many of
the Chinese Christians were detained or arrested.


14. (C) The contact explained that in 2003 there was also
controversy over the release of the Chinese movie "The Cross,"
which described the history of Christianity in China, and also
contained a 20-minute political anti-government "diatribe." The
movie was banned soon after its release. Both the book and the
movie were presented to the National People's Congress, and
Chinese authorities initiated a period of general tightening of
religious freedom during that time, the doctor said.

Christian Literature Plentiful
--------------

15. (C) The doctor from the Christian NGO recounted that in
April one of the NGO's Chinese staff members was detained while
he was distributing legal Chinese-published Bibles. He was
questioned for a day and then asked to leave the prefecture.
The NGO gave him a new job in a different prefecture.


16. (C) The contact said the "old days" of distributing illegal
smuggled Bibles published overseas are basically over. There is
plentiful Christian literature available at bookstores run by
the TSPM as well as by private house church believers. Amity
Press, which used to publish Christian materials in Hong Kong,
is now affiliated with the TSPM and publishes a large number of
Christian materials on the mainland. There is really no need
for people to take the risks of distributing illegal Bibles
anymore, he concluded.

Assistance to North Korean Refugees
--------------

17. (C) When queried about NGO assistance to North Korean
refugees passing through the province en route to Thailand
through Laos or Burma, the business consultant and doctor both
separately affirmed they were aware of refugees passing through,
but did not have any idea about the numbers. The consultant
recounted a situation from two to three years ago when his NGO
worked with an officially sanctioned church in Xishuangbanna
that tried to assist between six and twelve North Korean
refugees. (Note: In minority areas, registered churches are
not part of the TSPM, but are managed by the Ethnic and Minority
Affairs Bureau. End Note) The church arranged and paid for a
boat to transport the refugees down the Mekong River to
Thailand. Tragically, the boat capsized and the refugees all
drowned. In an earlier conversation, the doctor implied the NGO
stayed away from assisting North Koreans because of the
politically sensitive nature of the issue and their desire to
"keep a low profile."

Vibrant Expatriate Christian Community in Kunming
-------------- ---

18. (SBU) There are three large expatriate Christian groups in
Kunming, our contacts said. Two groups have 300 members, and
another group of South Koreans has 150 members. None of the
groups are officially registered, but all meet regularly with no
problems.

Comment
--------------

19. (C) Our foreign missionary contacts impressed upon us that
even while foreign Christian NGO work has become more sensitive
and difficult in recent years, the ability of Chinese citizens
to practice their religious beliefs, whether in the official
TSPM Church or in unregistered house churches has steadily

SIPDIS
improved in Yunnan. We have observed similar government
openness toward Muslim communities in southern Yunnan when the
believers are not openly involved with foreigners (Ref. A).
While our contacts did not go so far as to claim a symbiotic

CHENGDU 00000126 004.2 OF 004


relationship between the Chinese Government and house churches,
they repeatedly used the word "tolerant" to describe local
officials in Yunnan. Those officials are "well aware" of the
existence of hundreds of house churches and thousands of
Christian believers, yet keep their distance in the absence of
obvious foreign involvement in formal worship services.
BOUGHNER