Christians come under attack in China

Christians come under attack in China - thestar.com: The attack on the Gospel Shoes Factory was one of the more violent flare-ups in China’s ongoing campaign against Christians, a community that – according to researchers – exceeds 100 million and is growing rapidly. That growth has stoked concern and even alarm among some government officials, who see the spread of Christianity as a threat to their authority.

Protestant Christianity especially, they say, is experiencing “explosive” and even “exponential” growth in China, both in the countryside as well as in major cities: from Heilongjiang province in the north to Guangdong province in the south – from cities like Shanghai and Chengdu, to Beijing and beyond. When Mao Zedong first took control of the country in 1949, there were just 1 million Christians in China. Today, while it is difficult to calculate a precise number, many now estimate that number to have grown by a hundred-fold.

In Nov. 2009 – just weeks before a state visit to China by U.S. President Barack Obama – state police finally succeeded in threatening one church’s landlords to terminate its lease. The church then held its services outdoors in the snow, attracting wide public attention. Finally, with President Obama preparing to board Air Force One, Chinese government authorities – fearing a public relations disaster during the president’s visit – relented and allowed the church back indoors.

“The social contract in this country is broken,” one pastor says. “We are now in a period of moral nihilism, where people seem to care only about money and power. Christianity provides principles and morality. Both are sorely lacking in today’s China.”