Religious Freedom Varies for South China Expats

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 GUANGZHOU 001303

SIPDIS

CONFIDENTIAL

SIPDIS
SIPDIS

USPACOM FOR FPA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/20/2032
TAGS: KIRF PHUM PGOV SOCI CH
SUBJECT: Religious Freedom Varies for South China Expats

REFERENCE: A) Guangzhou 1301, B) Guangzhou 458

(U) Classified by Consul General Robert Goldberg for Reasons: 1.4 (b)
AND (d).


1. (C) SUMMARY: Control over expatriate churches in south China --
ranging from heavy-handed to laissez-faire -- suggests that local
governments have considerable latitude in how to interpret
regulations on the practice of religion. Expatriate church members
in Guangzhou report strict Religious Affairs Bureau (RAB)
supervision, with government officials refusing requests for any new
religious groups or church expansion. Leaders of the Xiamen
International Christian Fellowship (XICF) describe a more cooperative
relationship with the local RAB, where officials are open to church
growth as long as restrictive rules are followed. Expats in Shenzhen
laud the city's climate of relative religious freedom, with lax RAB
supervision of international fellowships and rare Public Security
Bureau (PSB) raids on underground churches. END SUMMARY.

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Guangzhou RAB Fears Growth of Expat Religious Groups
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2. (C) Fearing a sudden upsurge in expatriate church growth and
concerned about any movement that would be unable to control,
Guangzhou RAB officials have clamped down on any expansion, according
to Alfred Leong (strictly protect),board member of the Guangzhou
International Christian Fellowship (GICF). GICF is currently the
only expatriate religious organization in the city that is officially
permitted to hold meetings, Leong explained. Numerous other
religious groups submitted applications to the Guangzhou RAB for
official registration, but the requests from a Nigerian evangelical
Protestant group, a Korean Presbyterian church, a Mormon fellowship,
and an Islamic association were denied without explanation. As for
GICF's own request for permission to find a larger space for Sunday
services (ref B),Leong said RAB officials had privately told him
that because they had denied other groups' applications, it would be
unfair to give GICF any "additional special treatment." Leong said
that from 2006 to 2007, average attendance at Sunday services had
grown from 350 to around 500 people.

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African Groups Face Harsher Treatment
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3. (C) African Christians and Muslims experience a disproportionate
amount of pressure from Guangzhou authorities, according to Fidelis
Ogwu (strictly protect),a Nigerian GICF member and salesman for a
Guangzhou electronics company. From March to July 2007, Ogwu
explained, at least three Nigerian bible study groups meeting in
private homes were raided by local PSB officers and were forced to
shut down (ref B). Unable to find other places to practice their
faith, most group members ended up joining GICF, exacerbating the
fellowship's overcrowding. While Ogwu hadn't heard of any additional
crackdowns since July, he noted that Muslim African businessmen were
denied permission to hold their own Islamic religious services and
were forced to attend an officially-sanctioned mosque with other
Chinese and Middle Eastern worshippers.

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Xiamen's Expatriate Church: Cordial Relations with RAB
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4. (C) Xiamen RAB officials are relatively flexible and allow the
Xiamen International Christian Fellowship (XICF) to hold multiple
Sunday services, weekday small groups, and issue its own badges,
according to XICF Steering Committee Chairman Andrew Wong. The
tradeoff, Wong said, was that XICF had to keep a file of passport
photocopies for all attendees and follow requirements that local
Chinese not attend activities. In reality, according to Wong, the
Xiamen RAB rarely intervenes in the fellowship's affairs, and XICF's
interaction with city officials is limited to two cordial dinner
meetings per year. Wong said that XICF had used this climate of
relative freedom to start a separate Chinese-language service for
Taiwan and Singaporean expatriates. (Note: GICF leaders told us this
would never have been allowed in Guangzhou. End note.)


5. (C) XICF started out as a small, unregistered expatriate house
church, led by longtime resident and Xiamen University Business
School professor William Brown. (Brown is also the author of a
number of English-language books on Xiamen.) Initially serving
Christians at the Xiamen offices of Kodak, Coca-Cola, and Cathay
Pacific, in 2004 XICF applied for official recognition from the city
RAB. Initially denied registration, Wong said that XICF members
appealed the decision, claiming that a lack of religious services for
expatriates would hinder foreign investment and complaining that it
was unfair that other major cities were allowed to have international

GUANGZHOU 00001303 002 OF 002


churches. After visiting Beijing and Shanghai's expatriate
fellowships and holding discussions with religious officials there,
the Xiamen RAB gave XICF official permission to meet. Wong said that
Sunday attendance in 2007 had averaged around 160 people.

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Shenzhen RAB: The Most "Laissez-Faire" of Them All
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6. (C) Expatriate house church leader Newman Huang (strictly protect)
described Shenzhen as a "surprisingly free" city for religious
activities - for local Chinese as well as for foreigners. Huang, a
sales director at VIA Technologies Shenzhen for the last four years,
claimed that Shenzhen had between 4,000 and 5,000 individual
underground church groups, most of them with congregations of 25 to
100 members. Huang said that many underground churches had both
expatriates and local members, describing his own network of house
churches as a mix of local professionals, Taiwan businessmen, and
overseas Chinese. (Note: GICF and XICF leaders said that they are
strictly forbidden from allowing local Chinese into their church
services. End note.) Aside from one brief interrogation by a local
police officer in 2006, Huang said that he had experienced no other
pressure or oversight from RAB or PSB officials.


7. (C) Wayne Huang (no relation, strictly protect),a member of
another Shenzhen expatriate Christian fellowhip, told us that
although his group had not officially registered with the Shenzhen
RAB, it had experienced little supervision or intrusion into its
activities. Huang, an American citizen and a Technology Manager at
IBM Shenzhen, said that the fellowship held regular Sunday services
in a private American school in Shenzhen's Shekou district, where
many multinational corporations house their employees. Aside from
the 2004 deportation of a Taiwan missionary, who had been aggressive
in his evangelizing, Huang said that to his knowledge, no other
expatriates had been detained or arrested by Shenzhen officials for
religious reasons.

GOLDBERG