Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09SHANGHAI178
2009-04-17 08:53:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Consulate Shanghai
Cable title:  

AMERICAN BISHOP SHARES IMPRESSIONS OF EASTER IN SHANGHAI AND

Tags:  PGOV PHUM ECON KIRF SCUL CH 
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R 170853Z APR 09
FM AMCONSUL SHANGHAI
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 7849
INFO AMEMBASSY BEIJING 
AMCONSUL CHENGDU 
AMCONSUL GUANGZHOU 
AMCONSUL HONG KONG 
NSC WASHINGTON DC
AMCONSUL SHENYANG 
AIT TAIPEI 1706
AMCONSUL SHANGHAI
C O N F I D E N T I A L SHANGHAI 000178 


STATE FOR DRL/IRF
NSC FOR KUCHTA-HELBLING

E.O. 12958: DECL: 4/17/2034
TAGS: PGOV PHUM ECON KIRF SCUL CH
SUBJECT: AMERICAN BISHOP SHARES IMPRESSIONS OF EASTER IN SHANGHAI AND
PROGRESS IN RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS

REF: A. (A) 08 SHANGHAI 407

B. (B) 08 SHANGHAI 374

C. (C) SHANGHAI 162

CLASSIFIED BY: BEATRICE CAMP, CONSUL GENERAL, U.S. CONSULATE
SHANGHAI, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)


Summary
-------

C O N F I D E N T I A L SHANGHAI 000178


STATE FOR DRL/IRF
NSC FOR KUCHTA-HELBLING

E.O. 12958: DECL: 4/17/2034
TAGS: PGOV PHUM ECON KIRF SCUL CH
SUBJECT: AMERICAN BISHOP SHARES IMPRESSIONS OF EASTER IN SHANGHAI AND
PROGRESS IN RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS

REF: A. (A) 08 SHANGHAI 407

B. (B) 08 SHANGHAI 374

C. (C) SHANGHAI 162

CLASSIFIED BY: BEATRICE CAMP, CONSUL GENERAL, U.S. CONSULATE
SHANGHAI, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)


Summary
--------------


1. (C) An American Catholic Bishop who was born in Beijing
shared his views on celebrating Easter in Shanghai during a
lunch with Chinese religious leaders and academics at the
Consulate. The Bishop and Chinese guests asserted that much
progress has been made for religious believers in Shanghai who
have greater freedom of worship than they previously enjoyed.
Two guests also described recent developments, including
exporting Chinese Bibles to the United States and planning to
accommodate foreigners' religious needs during the upcoming
Shanghai 2010 World Expo. End Summary.

Bishop Wang's Visit to Shanghai
--------------


2. (C) Bishop Ignatius Wang currently is the Auxiliary Bishop in
the Archdiocese of San Francisco. He was born in Beijing in
1934 and was ordained a priest in 1959 in Hong Kong. Because of
the lack of relations between the Vatican and China's Catholic
Church, Bishop Wang never has served in China. He is the first
Catholic Bishop of Chinese ancestry to be appointed in the
United States. He was the first Chinese Catholic pastor in San
Francisco when he was appointed pastor of St. Francis of Assisi
Church in 1982. Bishop Wang arrived in Shanghai for a private
visit on April 11; the Consul General hosted a lunch in his
honor on April 15.

American Bishop Impressed with Progress in Shanghai
-------------- --------------


3. (C) Bishop Wang described giving Mass on Easter Sunday to a
standing room only crowd at Xujiahui Cathedral, Shanghai's
largest Catholic church. Bishop Wang told the Consul General he
originally had planned to participate in the Mass at a much
smaller church, St. Francis, but Bishop Jin Luxian insisted that
he preside over the Xujiahui service. Bishop Wang said at least
2,000 people attended the Mass at Xujiahu, overflowing the

historic church. The Bishop's nephew, Joseph Yeun, added that
the pews were already filled when he arrived at the church a
half-hour prior to the start of the Easter service.


4. (C) Bishop Wang recounted how much the state of religion in
China has improved since his first return to China after reform
and opening. In 1982, the Bishop said, he visited Beijing and
snuck into one of the Catholic cathedrals there, finding trash
everywhere and broken pews. The progress since that time is
"unbelievable," he said.

Shanghai's Catholic Church Focused on Education
-------------- --


5. (C) Shanghai Catholic Diocese Vice Vicar General Ai Zuzhang
also said the current situation for Catholics in Shanghai is
good. Certainly, there are external problems with China-Vatican
relations, currently prohibiting Chinese Catholic officials from
having contact with the Pope, but those issues have little
influence on Shanghai Catholics, he said. Bishop Ai, who was
sent to labor camp in 1951 expecting to be executed and
persecuted during the Cultural Revolution (he described the
former in a February Mass homily in Shanghai) reiterated to
PolOff that the Chinese Catholic Church is expending a great
amount of energy on identifying younger leaders, as the current
crop of bishops all are elderly (Bishop Ai is 83, and head of
the Shanghai Diocese Bishop Jin Luxian (Ref A) is 92). Nearly
seventy men are preparing for ordination at the diocese's
Sheshan Seminary, but only 30 of the candidates for the
priesthood hail from Shanghai. The nearly 40 other candidates
hail from several other Chinese dioceses; all of them and even
several of the Shanghai-born will go to dioceses other than
Shanghai upon ordination. Shanghai's shortage of Catholic
clergy will not end anytime soon.


6. (C) More importantly, Bishop Ai said, he personally has
focused much of his attention on educating children through
Sunday School and other activities. If the Catholic Church
"cannot get through to six- and seven-year olds," he said, then
Shanghai never will have a future generation that sees that
faith and religion is "more important than money."

Religious Affairs Bureau's Positive Spin ...
--------------


7. (C) Wang Xinhua, Director of the Foreign Affairs Division at
the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Ethnic and Religious Affairs
(RAB),told PolOff on April 14, the day before the lunch, that
Shanghai now has 400 registered churches, 1800 religious workers
(clergy),and more than 800,000 believers. Wang added that the
number of expatriate religious practitioners had increased from
50,000 in the 1980s to 180,000 today. (Note: Wang's statistics
do not take unregistered churches into account, which would
multiply the number of churches, clergy and believers, by
several times. End Note.) Wang acknowledged that there is a
fundamental difference between how the United States and China
"manage religion." Americans don't understand why China has a
RAB, Wang said, and "we don't understand why you don't have one."

... and Less Positive Views of the RAB
--------------


8. (C) Edward Xu, professor at Fudan University's Center for
American Studies, and Wu Jianrong of the Shanghai YMCA, both
said they expect that China's religious group oversight system,
run by the State Administration of Religious Affairs and local
Religious Affairs Bureaus like that from which Wang Xinhua came,
will soon collapse. First, with only 2,500 personnel
nationwide, the religious affairs administration system is
vastly understaffed for its purported mission, and many of the
staff it attracts are less capable bureaucrats than those who
find employment in other ministries and agencies. Second and
much more importantly, the system is illogical and it is
inappropriate to ban some faiths or denominations while
officially registering others and turning a blind eye to the
activities of some but not all others. They noted the growth of
the Ba'hai faith (especially among intellectuals such as
university faculty members) and Mormonism, the variety of
Christian denominations and affiliated missionaries when only
the Patriotic Catholic Church and the non-denominational
Protestant Church are officially allowed, and the historical
legacy of Judaism in Shanghai and its continuing expatriate
presence here (Judaism is not recognized as one of China's five
official religions) (Ref C).

Developments in East China: Bibles, Missionaries ...
-------------- --------------


9. (C) Professor Xu said he believes China is on the verge of
being a religious "exporter." The Amity Foundation in Nanjing
already exports printed Bibles to more than 70 countries, he
said, including to the United States (Ref B). Bishop Wang said
China was the low bidder on the printing of a bilingual New
Testament that soon will be sold in the United States for a
nominal price. Perhaps someday, Xu told Bishop Wang, there will
be Chinese Christian missionaries traveling to the United States
to proselytize. Bishop Wang said that in the San Francisco
area, there already are a considerable number of priests from
the Philippines and several from Africa. Xu told Pol/Econ Chief
that three years ago Fudan had received permission from the
Reverend Billy Graham to establish a Billy Graham Chair of
Religious Studies, but Central Government permission is not
forthcoming. Xu said that many Western observers do not have an
informed view of the true situation and scope of religious
practice in China.

... Caring for Migrants and Their Children ...
--------------


10. (C) Wu Jianrong, sporting a necktie with the names of books
of the Bible, described the expansion of YMCA staffing and
service programs since he joined that organization in 1991. The
Shanghai office staff has grown from 20 to more than one hundred
over the last 18 years. The organization's historic
headquarters in downtown Shanghai is undergoing renovation and
is due to reopen in October. Through service programs, staff
and volunteers bring an implicit Christian message to many
Chinese, some of whom will then ask to meet pastors and join
congregations. The Shanghai YMCA has concluded that the several
million migrant workers and family members in the Shanghai area
are unlikely to ever permanently return home to their native
places elsewhere in China. Their situation as migrant workers,
in many ways marginalized from the Shanghai mainstream, calls
out for better access to affordable medical care, improved
educational opportunities for their children, and better diets,
if the migrants' youngsters are going to reach adulthood in
Shanghai with positive self-images, confidence and the ability
to provide for themselves and loved ones. The situation of
migrant children poses a challenge to city leaders, the Central
Government and society writ large, Wu said - and provides an
opportunity for Christians to intervene or assist in
constructive, compassionate ways.


11. (C) One recent initiative of the Shanghai YMCA is to staff
occasional free medical diagnostic clinics in migrant
communities in Shanghai with volunteer medical personnel. They
will provide free physician-signed written medical evaluations,
explain treatment options and recommend which Shanghai
hospital(s) or clinic(s) the patients should consider going to
for treatment. This provides informed medical information to
patients and directs them to appropriate medical care
facilities, thus reducing time and expense for the migrants and
for the government which has a role Q financing health care.
Wu said he had presented data on migrant children's weight,
height, incidence of health problems and educational attainment
levels at a recent meeting of the Chinese People's Political
Consultative Conference to highlight the need to address migrant
children's needs as a pressing social issue. Fellow delegates
recognized the importance. Government officials acknowledged
the challenge and the need to preclude potential future social
problems, Wu said, but they also said government agencies
currently lack the wherewithal to adequately tackle the multiple
facets of this challenge. Thus the officials encouraged NGOs
such as the YMCA to step into the gap and provide social
services to this group.

... and Prayer Rooms at the Shanghai 2010 World Expo
-------------- --------------


12. (C) Yan Kejia, Director of the Religious Studies Institute
at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences (SASS),told the
Consul General he is focusing more of his research on Shanghai's
provision of religious services to expatriates. In particular,
Yan said, he has been asked to commission a study on how to
provide religious services to foreign visitors during the
Shanghai 2010 World Expo. According to Wu Jianrong, General
Secretary of the Shanghai YMCA, the Beijing Olympics also had
attempted to offer venues for foreign Protestants and Catholics.
Both Wu and Yan said, however, that given Shanghai's attraction
as a "city of immigrants" and the Expo's six-month duration,
establishing a means to provide "prayer tents" to foreigners is
even more important.

Bio Notes on Chinese Guests
--------------


13. (SBU) The following six Chinese guests attended the lunch in
honor of Bishop Wang:

--Bishop Ai Zuzhang: Born in 1925, Bishop Ai is a native of
Shanghai. He began his Seminary studies in 1947 and was
ordained in 1954. He has been affiliated with the Xujiahui
Catholic Church (St. Ignatius Cathedral) for more than 20 years.
Bishop Ai is a deputy of Bishop Aloysius Jin Luxian, and like
his mentor, Bishop Ai endured terrible suffering during China's
Cultural Revolution period. Previously recounting his
experiences for younger priests, Bishop Ai has stated, "When I
finished up in the re-education camps, I asked myself: how am I
going to get through? But, then, instead it was the gift of God
which did everything for me. Even my health improved." Ai has
a younger brother and a younger sister in the United States (he
himself was one of nine children) and he has visited the United
States at least once, about 15 years ago. When first taken into
custody in 1951, his parents were in Hong Kong, which was
another factor in his expectation about imminent execution. The
Ai family is one of four family names in Shanghai with a
400-year connection to Catholicism, he added. Ai will not
succeed Bishop Jin upon Jin's passing; Bishop Xing, now in his
forties, has already been designated as Jin's successor.

--Yan Kejia: Professor Yan is the Director of the Religious
Studies Institute at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences and
a key advisor on religious issues to the Shanghai Municipal
Government. The 45-year-old scholar earned graduate and
undergraduate degrees from the Fudan University Philosophy
Department, and he was a visiting scholar at Harvard University
during the 1995-96 academic year. He also was a research fellow
at the University of Mumbai in 2000-01. Catholicism is one of
Professor Yan's primary research interests, and he authored a
book, entitled "Catholics in China" in 2004. Much of his recent
research since 2004 has focused on the religious practice of
Shanghai's expatriate community.

--Pan Guang: In addition to serving as the Director of the
Institute of European and Asian Studies at SASS, Professor Pan
also is the Dean of the Center of Jewish Studies Shanghai. He
received a PhD and MA from East China Normal University in
Shanghai and a BA from Renmin University in Beijing. He has
written several books and articles on the Jewish experience in
China, including "The Jews in China," "The Jews in Shanghai,"
and "The Jewish Civilization." Professor Pan has been widely
recognized for his work on religious issues, and then-UN
Secretary General Kofi Annan named Pan as a member of the High
Level Group of the UN Alliance of Civilizations. He also is a
recipient of the Austria Holocaust Memorial Award (2006) and
several other awards for Sino-Jewish studies.

--Wang Xinhua: The Director of the Foreign Affairs Division of
the Shanghai Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau (RAB) since
2000, Wang has worked at the RAB since 1989. A Shanghai native,
the 46-year-old Wang is a Fudan University graduate, having
received a bachelor's degree in History and a master's degree in
Modern Chinese Culture. He worked for the Civil Aviation
Institute of China from 1984 to 1986.

--Edward Yihua Xu: Dr. Xu is an expert on religion in the
United States and teaches graduate and undergraduate students at
Fudan University's Center for American Studies. He received his
PhD in Religion from Princeton University in 1994. His research
interests also include theological education in China, and he
has written several articles on the Nanjing Theological Seminary
and other religious education institutions. He is the editor of
two biannual journals. He will participate in a June 2009
Shanghai conference between Fudan and Georgetown University on
the role of religion in international affairs.

--Wu Jianrong: In addition to serving as a Vice Chairman of the
Shanghai Committee of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM)
of Protestant Churches, Wu also is the General Secretary of the
Shanghai YMCA. He began working for the YMCA in 1991. At the
YMCA, Wu is at the forefront of expanding the work of NGOs in
the provision of social services in Shanghai. Through the YMCA,
Wu was very active in providing relief to earthquake victims in
Sichuan in 2008. Wu promotes exchanges between the YMCA and
U.S. visitors.


CAMP