LEVIATHAN

THE ESCALATING BRUTALITY OF THE CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY

BY THE EDITOR

The contemporary church in the comfortable west is, for the most part, dull and inactive in the face of atrocity. The physical distance between us and those who are most sorely oppressed may have explained this in the past. It is no excuse in the Information Age.

Our world is increasingly interconnected and interdependent. There are huge benefits to this from trade, to learning, to evangelism. Interconnectedness brings responsibilities, too. It broadens the scope of the answer to the question: ‘who is my neighbour?’ It means that the ‘World’s Factory’ and second economic superpower, though 4,000 miles from its nearest Free Church, requires a Christian response from us when we vote, when we consider buying its products and as we seek justice for those who are oppressed.

FAMILY MATTERS It is getting harder to be a Christian in China. On Open Doors’ World Watch List, China has risen 26 places in only three years, and is today considered the 17th most difficult country on earth to be a Christian.

In the last month alone, Christian Solidarity Worldwide has reported on the incarceration of Christian activist and citizen journalist Zhang Zhan; the disbarment of a human rights lawyer who recently defended her; and a significant increase in hostility towards Christians online, which has been allowed despite strict controls on other online communications.

In the past six months, The Record has shared reports on the suppression of Christian publishing in China, the state extorting money from churches, forcible removal of crosses from people’s homes and demands that Christians pray to President Xi instead of to God. 2020 saw the Chinese government demolishing churches, putting up surveillance cameras around places of worship and removing clergy from their positions to install government-approved replacements.

The ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is targeting young people, in particular, when it comes to the suppression of Christianity. A regulation passed in 2020 prohibits under-18s from attending church. Meanwhile, Bitter Winter, a magazine which reports on religious liberty in China, last month revealed that school curricula specifically teach believing in God is abnormal and dangerous. Students are encouraged to inform on family members who attend church. Christian parents have told the magazine that their children have returned from school frightened because they have been told by teachers that Christians are prone to setting themselves on fire.

Reports like these are troubling. But, sadly, they are far from the worst excesses of the oppression perpetrated by the Chinese government. The Record’s ‘World News’ section reports on the worldwide church. That is our area of interest and our primary concern. But it does not, and cannot, provide a complete picture.

As Christians, the church around the world naturally has our affinity. Our hearts go out immediately to those persecuted brothers and sisters with whom we share our eternal inheritance. But too parochial a view of the world carries a serious risk. If we only gaze at the stars, we may miss the looming iceberg.

‘THE DARKNESS DEEPENS’ The UK Conservative Party established a Human Rights Commission in 2005. The Commission’s remit is to highlight human rights concerns in order to ‘inform, advise and enhance the party’s foreign policy.’ Unfortunately, it has had little influence on the government’s approach to China.

The Commission published a new report in January entitled The Darkness Deepens which, having gathered written and oral testimony from expert observers and eye-witnesses, describes the true horror of the atrocities being perpetrated by the Chinese government. The details are profoundly distressing...