Journalist Says China's Regional Politics Influence Christian Persecution
by Chad Groening
November 25, 2003
(AgapePress) - A man who spent many years covering the events of Communist China says while there is definitely Christian persecution going on in that country, it is not happening unilaterally. In fact, he says in some areas, believers are largely left alone.David Aikman has recently published a book titled Jesus in Beijing: How Christianity is Transforming China and Changing the Global Balance of Power. As a former bureau chief for Time magazine in Beijing, Aikman had an opportunity to observe the lives of China's Christians first hand.
The writer says government persecution of adherents to the Christian faith depended on where the believer lived. He says even though Chinese officials have instructions at the national level from the Public Security Bureau to "suppress any social or religious activity that is not controlled by the government," not all regional authorities carry out those instructions in the same way.
Aikman says much depends on who is in charge of individual provinces. "At the provincial level," he says, "depending entirely on who is running the province, that order is either implemented in a very nasty way -- which it has been in several provinces of China -- or it is substantially disregarded."
The author says this results in sporadic, intense persecution happening in certain parts of some provinces, while in other provinces, sometimes "next door," Christians are generally left alone. "It's a confusing and a contradictory situation," he says, "but anybody who has spent any time in China would recognize that as the reality."
Aikman believes Christianity in the Communist nation is growing at such a tremendous rate that eventually it will bring about a political change there. As a result, he expects the Church in China to play a major role in global events in the future, and he says China may turn out to be one of the most significant allies of Israel and the United States.
