KUNMING CHURCH FLOURISHES DESPITE RESTRICTIONS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 CHENGDU 000274

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EAP/CM AND DRL

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/30/2017
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KIRF SOCI CH
SUBJECT: KUNMING CHURCH FLOURISHES DESPITE RESTRICTIONS

REF: A) CHENGDU 126 B) CHENGDU 272

CHENGDU 00000274 001.2 OF 003


CLASSIFIED BY: James A. Boughner, Consul General, U.S. Consulate
General, Chengdu.
REASON: 1.4 (d)


1. (C) Summary: According to the co-pastors of an
officially-registered church in southwest China, while
person-to-person proselytizing remains severely restricted, the
number of Protestants in the city is growing rapidly. The city
of Kunming, including subordinate adjacent counties, has 360
approved religious venues for small groups of Protestants but
very few churches. One district committee representative in
Kunming has called publicly for the city to build more churches
and highlighted in an official proposal published on a
government web site the "positive role of religion." Her
mention also of how approved churches can help prevent
"nefarious" foreign missionaries who "infiltrate Yunnan under
various pretexts" from making inroads in the province, however,
is more likely to appeal to the local Party leadership. End
Summary.

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A Busy Church
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2. (SBU) During a recent Sunday in the Yunnan provincial
capital of Kunming, Congenoff visited St. John's, a
non-denominational official Protestant church in the center of
the city. The well-appointed church, located at the north end
of Kunming's Jewelry Street, was renovated in 2006. Some shops
are housed on the first floor of the church building (Note:
Commercial income has likely been a major source of support for
this construction and upkeep of the fine new building. One
indication is a posting on a Chinese Christian internet forum
denouncing the real estate deal that made the new building
possible, claiming that many in the congregation opposed it.
End note).


3. (SBU) The church, which has a seating capacity of 1400
people, has two Sunday services. In her sermon, the pastor
discussed such social problems such as the rapidly rising
divorce rate in central Kunming and as well as the moral support
that religion can provide. Many children attended the service
and the Sunday school on the upper floor of the church. There
were many people in their twenties and thirties among the
congregation. A new sound system and video projection of the
Bible and hymn texts enabled the congregation to follow along
with the service.

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Parishioners and Pastors
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4. (C) Congenoff spoke with a man in his thirties holding two
young boys following the church service. The man said his
family, which has been Christian for several generations, lives
in the countryside. Now he lives in a Kunming suburb with his
wife and two children. Although there is also a church in his
area, he prefers to come to St. John's since people attending
services there are generally better educated. Christians in the
countryside really don't understand their faith, he said. He
noted that since he has a rural household registration, he and
his wife were allowed to have two children. He added that the
two children dispensation for Yunnan people with rural
registrations will end in three years, apparently a consequence
of Yunnan's elimination of rural registrations that will take
effect in January 2008. The man noted that Christians, as
idealists in a materialist led society can lose out in the
workplace, but have to accept some suffering for their faith.


5. (C) When asked the apparently more sensitive question, "Have
the authorities allowed the founding of new Christian
congregations in the area?" he looked around before answering.
He avoided giving a direct answer, saying first that a proposal
for a new congregation would need the approval of the
government's religious affairs authorities and, after
Congenoff's second formulation of the question, "A proposal to
form a new congregation and build a new church must not conflict
with the Kunming City government's plan for the city." (Note:
Congen in ref A reported on the Protestant underground house
churches in Kunming earlier this year. End note).


6. (C) Later when Congenoff asked one of the church's two
pastors -- a husband and wife team -- several moderately
sensitive questions, the pastor too paused and looked around
before answering. (Comment: Despite well-attended services,
there appear to still be shadows of intimidation at the church.
End comment). Both pastors are graduates of the Nanjing
Theological Seminary, an officially supported non-denominational
Protestant seminary, with the husband succeeding his father as

CHENGDU 00000274 002.2 OF 003


pastor in 1986 shortly after St. John's was returned to its
congregation following a long closure.

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Protestants, Catholics, Proselytizing
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7. (C) According to the pastor Congenoff spoke with, the
Protestant community in Kunming is growing rapidly but the
number of Catholics is holding steady or declining slightly. A
youth group meets in the church on Thursday nights. The pastor
said, "The Catholics are more conservative" and sometimes lose
priests to marriage. He also noted he knew several priests who
had left the priesthood when they married and remarked he has
cordial relations with several Catholic priests and they
regularly visit each other's congregations.


8. (C) When Congenoff asked the pastor whether the religious
authorities objected to the large Sunday School program and the
many young people in the church, he replied, "That is beyond
their control" (Tamen guanbuliao). A young woman in the pew
next to Congenoff said she had been introduced to St. John's by
her high school teacher. With regard to possible foreign
missionary activity, the pastor noted a South Korean pastor had
recently been sent home because he would not observe
restrictions on preaching. The government recruited another
pastor for the Koreans who was ordered to limit himself to
serving Koreans.


9. (C) Although he and his wife may not preach outside the
church or an authorized religious venue, the pastor noted they
can encourage individuals to attend Church services.
Distributing religious literature on the street is also
forbidden. The pastor told Congenoff that the national and
local regulations that govern their religious work are available
online and suggested that Congenoff read them. (Note. Ref B
followed up on the pastor's suggestion by translating and
analyzing some of the Kunming City and other local religious
affairs regulations that govern the religious activities of
local believers and their churches. End note).


10. (SBU) As Congenoff left St. John's, he stopped to listen to
conversations in the near the church bookstore which offers a
variety of Chinese translations of books by foreign, especially
U.S. Christian leaders and histories of 19th century missions in
China, as well as Chiang Kai-shek's favorite Christian
inspirational book "Streams in the Desert". There was a long,
friendly discussion underway between a visiting Buddhist in his
twenties and a man in his thirties who described himself as a
former Buddhist. The two discussed the nature of God in
Christian and Buddhist texts while an old man looked on smiling
broadly.

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District People's Consultative Congress Rep Calls for More
Churches
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11. (U) Given that St. John's services are filled to capacity,
its enthusiastic congregation, and its busy Sunday School, the
question arises as to why there are only two official Protestant
churches in Kunming. A third, St. Zion {Sheng Xi'an) is in
disrepair and so is no longer used for services. Kunming Wuhou
District PPC representative Yang Meirong, in her January 2007
submission to the Wuhu District Committee of the National
People's Consultative Congress argues that Kunming needs more
churches. A Congen summary translation of Yang's proposal,
found on a Kunming City website, follows.


12. (U) Yang Meirong writes: "The number of Protestants in
Kunming is growing rapidly. With the development of material
society, people feel their spiritual needs more urgently, so
many are turning to religion. Kunming, however has only three
churches, all near the city center. ~ In 1949, Kunming had 15 -
16 churches serving a little over 2000 Chinese citizen
Protestants. Now, our conservative estimate is that there are
30 - 40,000 Christians in the urban district of Kunming City.
We have two medium size churches - the international church,
with a capacity of 2000, that opened on December 11, 2004 and
the rebuilt St. John's with a capacity of 1500 that opened on
November 11, 2005. The third church St. Zion (Sheng Xi'an) has
been declared a hazardous structure, but there are no firm plans
yet for its renovation." Yang as an example points to the
northern district of Kunming, where there is no church but
thousands of Protestants. She writes "Some people register a
new gathering place, others register a home gathering place,
while some who oppose registration on principle hold their own
meeting."

CHENGDU 00000274 003.2 OF 003




13. (U) Yang points out that the people leading the services
are untrained and so the meetings are open to "unsavory
influences" from outside. Many "foreign missionary groups use
business, travel, culture, education, and medical services to
penetrate Chinese Christian groups and are a serious challenge
to the Chinese Three Selfs (Self-governing, Self-financing and
Self-propagating) Protestant churches just after it comes to its
feet after a long difficult period." Yang suggests the District
Party Committee and District government allocate land for
establishing new churches. She points to the examples of
Beijing and Shanghai as well as Hangzhou's plan to build the
largest church in the Chinese-speaking world. It will seat 7000
people.


14. (U) Yang writes she believes in the saying, "Build one more
church, build one less prison." She cites the example of
Yunnan's Fugong County in Nujiang Prefecture, "the only county
in the area without a drug problem." Yang argues this is because
Protestants are a large majority of the population. She notes
that the situation is similar in Funnan County where 70,000 of
the population of 80,000 people are Protestants.

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Comment
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15. (C) The CPCC (Chinese People's Consultative Congress) of
which Yang is a district committee member includes many people
from outside the Communist Party, so it is not surprising that a
committee member made this potentially politically incorrect
proposal that highlights the positive role that religion can
play in society. Yang's argument on the positive role of
religion in society of course contradicts Chinese Communist
Party doctrine that religion will gradually fade as people
become more educated and society advances. Her warning that
Christians without churches will be more exposed to "nefarious"
outside missionaries, however, may well attract local Party
support to her proposal to build more churches in Kunming.
(Reference note: Proposal to the Fifth Session of Sixth Kunming
Wuhou District Committee of the Chinese People's Consultative
Congress "On increasing the number of Protestant churches and
religious venues in the Wuhua District" dated January 21, 2007
from Yang Meirong. From the Kunming City Wuhua District
website,
URL abbreviation: . End
reference note).

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St. John's Church History
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16. (U) Begin excerpted text Congenoff was given of a brief
history of St. John's Church: "St. John's Christian Church in
Kunming is located in the downtown area of the Spring City. The
historic church was originally a Chinese Anglican Church first
built in 1915 and then reconstructed three times, from the
original earthwork structure to the current concrete building.
The current St. John's building was begun in 1944 and completed
in 1945. That was at the dawn of victory of the Second
Anti-Fascist World War. Under the leadership of General
Chennault, the American Flying Tigers came to China for help.
~In the interception of the Japanese air force, seventeen pilots
died. Two of them were English, one was Swedish and the other
fourteen were Americans. ~To commemorate these pilots~. A
monument was erected. Packs containing the ashes of seventeen
pilots were hung on the inside walls of the church. In 1948,
when the American Consulate in Kunming withdrew, the ashes were
taken as well. ~ In 1949, the PRC was founded. After 1958 the
worship of Kunming Protestants was united [into a
non-denominational Protestant church]. St. John's stopped
worship during the Cultural Revolution~ With the Open Door
policy in China, freedom of religion was adopted~. In 1986~ the
site was returned to the church by the Municipal Vehicle
Industrial Corporation. In previous years the numbers of
brothers and sisters attending worship services was about 300,
but now (2001) it is over 2000.

End Text.
BOUGHNER