WENZHOU: CHINA'S "JERUSALEUM"

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 SHANGHAI 000047

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E.O. 12958: DECL: 1/23/2032
TAGS: PHUM PGOV KIRF CH
SUBJECT: WENZHOU: CHINA'S "JERUSALEUM"

REF: A) SHANGHAI 44, B)SHANGHAI 45

CLASSIFIED BY: Veomayoury Baccam , Acting Section Chief,
Political/Economic Section, U.S. Consulate Shanghai.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)




1. (C) Summary: During a December 14-15 visit to the coastal
city of Wenzhou in Zhejiang Province, Congenoffs visited three
official churches in the city and discussed religious issues
with a few local citizens. Congenoff also discussed Wenzhou's
religious situation with a researcher in Shanghai who
specialized in Protestant communities, as well as Shanghai
Catholic Bishop Jin. All agreed that Wenzhou had a dynamic
religious situation and that the number of believers had
increased. They attributed this increase to the independent
spirit of the people and the hands-off attitude of the local
government. Cables on Wenzhou's economic development were
reported reftels. End summary.



Local Officials' Refuse To Discuss Religion

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2. (C) Wenzhou is famous for its entrepreneurial-fueled economic
development and its religious communities. While local
officials were eager to discuss economic issues (reftels),they
refused to discuss religious issues and denied requests for
meetings with the local Religious Affairs Bureau (RAB) and
religious leaders. Congenoffs trip was arranged by CHINT
President Nan Cunhui. CHINT is an electrical equipment
manufacturer and one of the largest enterprises in Wenzhou
(reftel b). This was not the first time that Consulate
employees had been denied access to religious leaders in
Wenzhou, requests by previous CGs and Poloffs were also denied,
most recently in April 2005. When Congenoffs raised religious
issues during a meeting with Vice Mayor Chen Hongfeng, he merely
said that the local government policies were in line with
national policies. (Note: Chen's portfolio included religious
affairs. End note.) Fred Hong, a legal advisor to CHINT,
raised Congenoffs requests for religious meetings during a
conversation with Congenoffs on December 14. He was not
surprised that the requests for meetings on religious issues had
been denied. He noted that religious groups in Wenzhou operated
with little government interference as evidenced by the
abundance of registered churches. He suggested that local
government officials might be worried that by discussing the
situation with foreigners, this would lead to more attention
from Beijing, thus jeopardizing the current situation.



Churches In Every Neighborhood

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3. (C) Despite the local government's lack of assistance,
Congenoffs were able to get a glimpse of the vibrant religious
situation in Wenzhou. Wenzhou is known to many Christians as
the Jerusalem of China because of the large number of churches
in the city. During Congenoffs' trip, we found churches in
almost every neighborhood and had no problems obtaining
directions from locals to nearby churches. Several official
churches were even marked in the local tourist map. According
to the Bible Society International website
(www.biblesociety.org),there were 1,180 registered churches in
Wenzhou with 31 ordained pastors and 132 non-ordained pastors.
(Note: Bible Society International jointly owns Amity Printing
Press which is responsible for printing all official Protestant
bibles in China. See reftel. End note.) The local Chinese
Christian Council/Three-Self Patriotic Movement (CCC/TSPM) also
built a training center for lay members of the church, which
provided instruction on preaching, hymns and music studies,
congregation management and laws or religious practice. The
CCC/TSPM also established an old people's home in 1992 which
takes care of Christians over 60 years of age.



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4. (C) Congenoffs visited two registered Protestant churches and
one registered Catholic church. The Catholic church served as
the Headquarters of the Catholic Patriotic Association and know
as the Central Catholic Church of Wenzhou. Its sanctuary and
main building was built by Polish missionaries in 1848, but is
currently not useable for structural reasons caused by
land-subsidence caused by a high rise construction project on
land adjacent to the church. Other, old buildings built by
Italian missionaries were still in use. The church currently
held services in recently-constructed temporary building built
using donations from outside of China. This facility, built on
a piece of land prone to flooding, could hold approximately
1,000 worshipers. According to a church volunteer by the name
of Xu Yongli, the church would need at least three million USD
to fully repair the church and this money would need to come
from abroad. Plans for the renovated sanctuary called for a
seating capacity of 3000 congregants. The church held four
daily services, and had a growing congregation with university
students and young professionals making up the bulk of new
members. Xu said that while its congregation was one of the
fastest-growing Catholic congregations in Wenzhou, it was not
growing as fast as some Protestant churches.




5. (C) Congenoffs also visited the Cheng Xi Church which is an
officially-recognized protestant church. It held three services
every Sunday and had bible study classes on Monday and Friday.
Next to the church was a Christian bookstore that was open
Monday to Saturday from 8:00 to 5:00 PM. Besides copies of the
Bible, New Testament, and writings of St. Francis of Assisi and
others, the bookstore sold Christian music CDs and DVDs, as well
as a Chinese-language edition of "The Purpose Driven Life."
Congenoffs also visited the Flower Garden Lane Church, another
officially recognized Protestant church. The three-story church
was located in a poor area of Wenzhou and, according to the
Bible Society International website, regularly received 600
believers for evening prayer services. During Congenoffs'
visit, volunteers, most of whom were women, were busy preparing
for a Christmas party that evening. A volunteer provided a tour
and said that the congregation consisted of people of all ages
and evenly divided between male and female congregants. She
said that most of the congregants were Wenzhou people, although
there were a few migrant laborers who came from other cities.




Why Wenzhou?

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6. (C) A few contacts were willing to discuss the religious
situation in Wenzhou. CHINT Vice President Lin Kefu during a
lunch on December 15 noted that there were churches throughout
the city. He said while most CHINT employees were not religious
since they were young and not from Wenzhou, the employees who
came from Wenzhou were very religious. These employees had no
problems attending religious services at nearby churches. He
attributed the growth of Christianity in Wenzhou to the fact
that Wenzhou was a port city, with more exposure to foreigners.
In addition, many Wenzhou people traveled abroad for business
reasons and while abroad, became Christians. Many of these
people brought back Christianity when they returned to Wenzhou.




7. (C) In a conversation with Congenoff on December 18, East
China University of Politics and Law Professor Li Feng said
there were historical reasons behind the growth of Protestants
in Wenzhou. Li was doing his post-doctorial work at Fudan
University and had written a book on Protestants in Wenzhou.
According to Li, Wenzhou had a long history of welcoming foreign
missionaries. The Methodists and Seventh Day Adventists sent
many missionaries to the area and were very successful in
converting Wenzhou people. In addition, many of the same
factors that led Wenzhou to become a haven for entrepreneurs
contributed to the growth of Christianity. Wenzhou was
historically very poor and isolated. It was shielded by
mountains and Beijing had difficulties exerting control over it.
Therefore, Wenzhou people learned not to rely on Beijing and

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became very independent and free-thinking. This made it easier
for Wenzhou people to practice Christianity without interference
from the central government. Li added that the Wenzhou language
was also helpful in this area. The Wenzhou dialect was very
difficult and few people outside of Wenzhou understood the
dialect. Since it was almost impossible for outsiders to
understand the language, Wenzhou people had been able to
communicate more freely with each other.




8. (C) Li added that the hands-off attitude of the local
government also contributed to the growth of religions in
Wenzhou. The Wenzhou government, in general, was very open and
did not interfere in the lives of local citizens unless citizens
were involved in political movements or threatened national
security, such as the Falun Gong. The local government had a
mixed record in controlling religious groups. For example, a
few years ago, the local government became concerned about
Sunday Schools because they provided religious education to
minors. The local government tried to force churches to cancel
Sunday School classes. The churches fought back and brought the
issue to local courts. The courts ruled in favor of the
churches. Li said that since this incident, the Wenzhou
government has been reluctant to take on local churches. He
added that many local government officials were also Christians
and supported the churches. Some CCC/TSPM officials were
genuine believers and came from the community. (Note: Per the
Bible Society International website, the Vice-Chairman of the
Wenzhou CCC was also the pastor at the Flower Garden Lane
Church. End note.) When possible, these officials sided with
local churches.




9. (C) He said that it was difficult to estimate the number of
unregistered churches in Wenzhou. The CCC/TSPM essentially
controlled the process since any church that wanted to register
was required to obtain the approval of the local CCC/TSPM
representative. He said that there were two types of
unregistered churches. The first type had never registered and
opposed CCC/TSPM and the central government's control over
religions. The second type used to belong to the CCC/TSPM, but
had separated from the official church. The leaders of these
churches resented the CCC/TSPM's control and did not want to
share power and resources with the CCC/TSPM.




10. (C) Li noted that other religions in Wenzhou were also
increasing in popularity and, in particular, the number of
Buddhists and Catholics were growing quickly. Like the
Protestants, Wenzhou Buddhists and Catholics were also very
independent. In a meeting with Poloff on November 30, Shanghai
Bishop Aloysius Jin Luxian had a similar view about Wenzhou
Catholics (reftel). He said that there were 120,000 Catholics
in Wenzhou who were evenly divided between the official and
underground church. The Bishop of Wenzhou, James Lin Xili, was
not recognized by Beijing and had been arrested in September

1999. According to Jin, Bishop Lin suffered from Alzheimer's
disease. In addition, two underground priests from the diocese
were charged in November 2006 for attempting to illegally visit
the Vatican. Li shared Bishop Jin's view on Catholics in
Wenzhou and said that it was impossible for the local government
to completely and continuously control religious groups in
Wenzhou. There were too many groups and they were becoming too
powerful.
JARRETT