Author foresees China becoming Christianized

Will China become Christian? Veteran reporter David Aikman thinks so.

China’s current population is about 1.3 billion, which he says includes about 70 million Protestants and about 12 million Catholics. In 1949, when China had a population of about 500 million, 4 million were Christians.

“That is a 20-fold increase in Christians, but the population increased only 1.5 times,” he said.

“It is plausible that in 30 years, 20 [percent] or 30 percent of the population will become believers. That is a magic tipping point because it means that important positions within the government are held by Christians. The case that I am making is that China is going to be Christianized if that trend continues.”

The former Time magazine correspondent makes this case in his new book, “Jesus in Beijing.”

“A Christianized China may spend less time thinking of ways to outmaneuver and neutralize the U.S. than the military strategists of the current regime,” he writes. “This is not because they will have ceased to be patriotic, but because they will not see the world as a dog-eat-dog squabble between major powers.”

Mr. Aikman, however, cautions that China could still emerge as “an aggressive global superpower menace.”

But quoting from Thomas Harvey’s biography of Wang Mingdao, he says, “Regardless of which policy the Chinese government pursues, the church in China will profoundly affect the shape of Christianity worldwide for generations to come.”

As the former Beijing bureau chief for Time, he was struck in the 1970s and 1980s by the zeal of Chinese Christians and the growth of the Chinese church.

“Those of us who were China watchers were always interested in what would come out of China. I also talked to recent refugees. I began to hear stories as a journalist of many revivals taking place. I found out they were true.”

In the 1990s, he went to China several times, and met with some of the Christian leaders.

“In August 1998, there was a gathering of several house church networks,” he said. “The leaders tried to address the question as to how they relate to the government. They came up with a document. It was the first time they had come out with any statement as to how they related to China.”

That statement is available online at www.ccea.org.tw/~cmi /belief1e.htm. It was signed by Shen Yi-Ping, representing the China Evangelistic Fellowship; Zhang Rongliang, representing the Mother Church in Fangcheng; Cheng Xianqi, for the church in Fuyang; and Wang Chunlu, signing on behalf of one of the other house churches in China.

Last year, Mr. Aikman spent four months from a base in Hong Kong, observing the real status of Christianity in China. He traveled several thousand miles, met representatives of the “official” church — Catholic and Protestant — and spent many days with leaders and others in the house churches (some of which are basically underground). Mr. Aikman also spoke to several Chinese Christians who had been kidnapped by members from the Eastern Lightning sect.

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