China blocked recently over 230 Chinese Christian delegates from joining a major evangelical conference that is slated to be held in Cape Town, South Africa.
The Chinese delegates were expecting to attend the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization, also called Cape Town 2010, which is slated for Oct. 16-25. However, the Chinese government leveled pressure on the delegates so they could not leave, CBN News said.
A number of delegates who went to the airport were blocked, and their visas and passports were confiscated. One delegate has been detained, and four delegates are being confined in their homes, according to NPR.
One church in Changsha, Hunan was told they could no longer meet because of Lausanne, and church members were threatened with arrest. Over the past months, officials had warned most of the invited pastors to shun the conference, which they said was anti-China, NPR reported.
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu, in a statement to NPR said the organizers of Lausanne did not send an official invitation to Three-Self Patriotic Movement, the official China church, which is controlled by the state.
Ma accused the organizers of secretly communicating with China’s private churches. In the NPR statement he said, “This act has openly challenged China’s principle of an independent, autonomous, self-governing church. It is a flagrant interference in China’s religious affairs.”
Doug Birdsall, executive chair of Lausanne, expressed to CBN News deep sadness about the situation in China adding, “Probably it (the China group) was the most thoroughly carefully selected group in all the world. We were looking forward to featuring what God has been doing among them in their country for the last 40 years. But they are not going to be there, and so we are just praying and trusting God’s sovereignty that whether they are here or not here that God will speak to them and through them and that they will be a blessing to the global church.”
Abraham Liu Guan, a church elder, told NPR in a phone interview that authorities had ordered him not to speak to them. He said, “The border defense people said they’d received a notice from the State Administration for Religious Affairs and the Ministry of Public Security. It said our participation in this meeting threatened state security, and they should not let us pass customs.”
Fan Yafeng, a leader of the Chinese Christian Legal Defense Association, also said authorities warned him not to speak to foreign media about Lausanne. By then, however, he had already spoken to another NPR, Christian Newswire said.
Fan said that persecution of house church Christians who were invited to the congress has increased. In his case, 20 police officers are restraining him from leaving home, Christian Newswire said.
Christianity outside the official government church has been booming in China, with believers worshiping openly as authorities often turned a blind eye (see http://theundergroundsite.com/index.php/2010/07/china%E2%80%99s-christians-increase-amid-spiritual-vacuum-13035).
Just the fact that China’s underground Christians could meet, select delegates and raise over $1 million for their travel costs was unthinkable a decade ago. However, Beijing seems to be disturbed with Christianity’s tremendous growth in China, NPR said.
Rev. Ezra Jin of Beijing’s Zion Church told NPR the current wave of persecution will not affect the larger trend. “I think Lausanne could play a positive role for Chinese Christians. For a short time there might be pressure, or there might be a price to pay. But that will pass quickly.”
However, there is concern that this may just be the start of a new wave of persecution against underground churches in China. If so, this would clearly dispute the claim of Beijing that religious freedom is permitted in China, NPR reported.