How Did Christianity Enter China?
China’s Boxer Rebellion
Ryan: One of the biggest sufferings and trials for Christian missionaries at the end of the 19th century and in the early 20th century was the Boxer Rebellion. The gentry class in China resented and hated Christians, especially foreign missionaries. That resentment toward eventually grew into a local movement that turned violent.
The Boxers were a group of people who practiced martial arts, therefore named Boxers. They ended up wanting to destroy some of the churches and temples, and then went around killing missionaries and some local Christians. Eventually, that erupted into a wider rebellion, known as the Boxer Rebellion, in northern China. This started about 1899, and grew throughout the region until it expanded to the capital. The Boxers targeted Western missionaries, Western establishments, and also local Chinese Christians. About 204 missionaries were killed, and about 32,000 Chinese believers.
Western powers asked the Qing court to suppress the rebellion. But the Dowager Empress saw this as an opportunity to get rid of the Westerners, so the court inflamed the rebellion to do more. The rebellion spread across northern China, and a lot of missionaries were killed. Eventually, some of the missionaries, soldiers, and diplomats came under siege in the foreign legation quarter in Beijing. There was a period of several months where a bunch of foreigners, missionaries, and some local Chinese believers were under siege there.
Then eight nations, including the British, French, Germans, and Americans, formed an alliance together to invade Beijing and northern China to bread that siege. That became known as the Eight-Nation Alliance, and it was successful. They crushed the Chinese army and occupied Beijing for many months, but they also looted many palaces, and even burned one of the biggest ones. The Eight-Nation Alliance freed the missionaries, diplomats, and Westerners under siege, but it also capped off a whole century of humiliation in China. Today, the Eight-Nation Alliance is still referred to as the biggest national shame in Chinese history, because that showed how weak the Chinese government and military were.
The Boxer Rebellion got a lot of attention because of how much it affected the Western missionaries. But through it all, God used the suppression of the rebellion. Now that the Westerners occupied China, they opened up China even more to carve it out for colonization – but that also allowed more missionaries and other Westerners to move in.
Christianity and Colonization
Beth: So, colonization and missions are marching arm in arm. It’s very interesting and sobering to think about, because the Lord used it for good – but there’s also a lot of pain and hurt that still has echoes down into today.
After the Boxer Rebellion was defeated, China opened up, and more new missionaries started arriving in China. Something interesting happened around this time. In the West, at the time in the church, there was a big split between more liberal Christianity and more fundamentalist, conservative Christianity. The missionaries of the 1800s were definitely spiritual descendants of the Puritans: they were very focused on Christ, crucified, and sharing him with the people of China. After the rebellion, a lot of those older missionaries who had lived in China for decades were martyred or ended up leaving the country.
As the new generation of missionaries came in, most of the new missionaries ended up not being directly involved in evangelism and church planting. Instead, a lot of them focused on how faith influences society. They did things like build hospitals, schools, and other social institutions. Mercy ministry had always been a part of missionary work in China. There were great needs, and life was very, very hard for the common people. The missionaries had always come bringing medical care and education – especially for girls – and meeting the needs of the people. But as these newer missionaries came in, a change started to happen.
Pastor Wang Yi has a series on this. He says there was a switch between the missionaries of the 1800s, who were focused on “China for Christ,” to newer missionaries, who had an attitude of “Christ for China.” The newer missionaries looked at missionary work as mostly about helping people, not about preaching Christ crucified. Some of them also came in with political goals and ideology. They didn’t just focus on teaching people about Jesus, but on helping to build what they believed would be a better, free, democratic, independent country, not just the gospel. So, this split between the more liberal and more conservative missionaries ended up filtering down into the church.
About one-third of Chinese Christians at the time were killed in the Boxer Rebellion. And this wasn’t just any third! The people who were targeted were the Chinese leaders of the church. The Boxers would kill a pastor before they’d kill a regular churchgoer. So, for a while, the Chinese church didn’t have strong leadership. That had to be raised up again. And as this new generation of Chinese Christian leaders was rising, it would come to mirror the liberal-conservative split in the church.
Eventually, these theological differences laid the groundwork for the split between the house churches and the government churches. This split would be overseen by the Communist Party, following the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.
Editor’s note: Fuyang is a city of about 9 million people in Anhui Province in eastern China. Fuyang has a relatively large number of believers, but the last few years have been a time of trial for the churches, as they have experienced intense persecution. But house church leaders say God has been with them through the storm, and his presence sustains them.
Fuyang: With God in the Storm
China Partnership: How has Fuyang changed in the last five years? How has your church changed in that time?
All Churches Are Being Watched
Song Xile: Fuyang has changed a lot over the last five years. The city’s economy is changing; material conditions and economic situations have gotten better. Geographically and environmentally, Fuyang is becoming more modern.
Politically, we are more sensitive. Locals used to joke, “There’s no Communist Party in Fuyang.” The culture was rough, and there were gangsters everywhere. Now we clearly feel a strong tightening on religion, especially Christianity. Police track how many believers there are, and locate churches. Control is very strict. Under current national leadership, there’s more ideological indoctrination; the atmosphere is very thick. I’ve never before experienced what I’ve seen the last few years: every single level is penetrated by political and ideological messaging. There’s no escape.
Culturally, education levels are rising. But although there has been cultural improvement, that’s not necessarily good, since culture and politics are intertwined and cannot be separated.
As for faith, the biggest change is that we have become a target of persecution. The tightening on education is another. Government officials are deeply worried that children in our Christian schools aren’t in public schools. Children who ought to be “Communist successors” are instead becoming “Christian successors.” Every local school keeps checking which children aren’t enrolled there. We’ve had many incidents and raids in the past five years; some big, some small.
Some churches have it worse than others. But all the churches are being watched.
Persecution Is More Severe
Zhang Ping: In Fuyang, Covid was a clear turning point. More and more high-rises went up, and the city visibly changed. But after Covid, the economic bubble started to deflate. Housing prices are lower, jobs are harder to find, businesses are struggling. It’s harder for both migrant workers and business owners.
In the church, right now the most important thing is understanding the overall structure. The government tells people to worship in the Three-Self church. Those churches are under government control. People outside of China might not understand how tight the government’s grip is: minors under 18 are not allowed to enter churches, and children aren’t permitted to hold the faith.
Then there are house churches. House churches are scattered, and not formally structured. They have a lot of people, but they are loosely organized, with weak accountability, weak commitment, and no real theology of church membership or sacramental life. People go wherever they feel like, and their attitude is that no one can tell them what to do.
But as more and more Reformed churches have been established, people have realized that even though these churches look stricter and more structured, this is actually a form of protection for believers. We need a genuine theology of commitment to church and submission to leadership, where every member has rights, the congregation has responsibilities, and the pastors have shepherding responsibilities. When persecution comes, this kind of church holds steadier, and doesn’t just scatter in an instant. Of course, people are still frightened and shaken, but when commitment is strong, things go much better. Even if the pastors are gone [i.e. imprisoned], we are still a church, with Christ the head and shepherd.
Persecution cases in Fuyang have grown more severe in the last five years. Before, people might just get called in for a talk. Back in the Cultural Revolution, people used to be arrested and imprisoned. Then, after the revival of the 80s, things were relatively calm. But now we are seeing repeated detentions: being held for 15 days, a dozen days, months, possibly even years.
That’s outside. Inside, gatherings are still fairly normal. Online gathering works, although it’s not the same as in person. We try to come together in person, meeting in small groups combined with Zoom. That helps with community life.
God’s Presence in the Storm
Hu Laiyang: I’ve noticed more technology in the city and in homes. You often see people riding e-bikes and scrolling their phones at the same time – and that is only going to get worse. Economic pressure is real, and it’s harder to earn money. Many rural families have come into the city, which makes competition for education extremely intense. Overall, Fuyang’s economy keeps pressing forward, but there’s weariness running through it all.
In our church, the first change started with becoming smaller. Our church used to have large gatherings, with more than a hundred people in one place. Later, we split into small groups, then even smaller groups, and then into gathering at home online. There’s been a steady reduction in space, in the number of times we could meet together.
And yet – when we started, we had only about 20 people. Since then, we’ve planted and sent out another church. There has been growth in numbers and in faith. We’ve also seen more and more children being sent to our Christian school.
But persecution has also gotten more and more intense. First there were talks, then penalties, and then criminal charges. There has been growth and refining fire. It has not been easy – these years have genuinely been like a refining furnace. Those of us who are sitting here and those brothers who are now in prison have all walked through deep and painful darkness, scattering, and fear. But God has brought us back. Our faith has been tested in the storm, and we have experienced God’s presence through it.
Push-and-Pull Dynamic
Wu Huizhi: Although the economy in Fuyang has gotten better in the last years, at the same time, the gap between Fuyang and bigger cities has also gotten wider. Fuyang is still relatively small, and the development pace lags behind.
After Covid, we feel the government has greater capacity to control and manage society: there are more cameras, more community-level government workers, and very strict social management.
Our church planted a new congregation several years ago. But although we planned to plant again, that has stalled because the external environment became very harsh. We used to meet in a worship hall, but now our church has become more and more scattered. Again and again we’ve been split apart by pressure.
There’s been a push-and-pull dynamic with the government over these years. When control tightens, we step back a little; when it loosens, we try to move forward. Whenever things loosen, we try to gather more and meet in small groups in person.
A Period of Maintenance
Tan Jianli: The biggest change is that it’s harder to earn money. Everyone feels that; it’s a shared experience.
In the church, the biggest change is we’ve gone from a period of growth to a period of hard maintenance. We’ve lost many members – maybe three-quarters of the congregation – because of persecution. There’s also a loss of that sacred, solemn feeling we had when we were able to meet together in the big hall. Now, so much is online. That’s the biggest change.
How Did Christianity Enter China?
China’s Boxer Rebellion
Ryan: One of the biggest sufferings and trials for Christian missionaries at the end of the 19th century and in the early 20th century was the Boxer Rebellion. The gentry class in China resented and hated Christians, especially foreign missionaries. That resentment toward eventually grew into a local movement that turned violent.
The Boxers were a group of people who practiced martial arts, therefore named Boxers. They ended up wanting to destroy some of the churches and temples, and then went around killing missionaries and some local Christians. Eventually, that erupted into a wider rebellion, known as the Boxer Rebellion, in northern China. This started about 1899, and grew throughout the region until it expanded to the capital. The Boxers targeted Western missionaries, Western establishments, and also local Chinese Christians. About 204 missionaries were killed, and about 32,000 Chinese believers.
Western powers asked the Qing court to suppress the rebellion. But the Dowager Empress saw this as an opportunity to get rid of the Westerners, so the court inflamed the rebellion to do more. The rebellion spread across northern China, and a lot of missionaries were killed. Eventually, some of the missionaries, soldiers, and diplomats came under siege in the foreign legation quarter in Beijing. There was a period of several months where a bunch of foreigners, missionaries, and some local Chinese believers were under siege there.
Then eight nations, including the British, French, Germans, and Americans, formed an alliance together to invade Beijing and northern China to bread that siege. That became known as the Eight-Nation Alliance, and it was successful. They crushed the Chinese army and occupied Beijing for many months, but they also looted many palaces, and even burned one of the biggest ones. The Eight-Nation Alliance freed the missionaries, diplomats, and Westerners under siege, but it also capped off a whole century of humiliation in China. Today, the Eight-Nation Alliance is still referred to as the biggest national shame in Chinese history, because that showed how weak the Chinese government and military were.
The Boxer Rebellion got a lot of attention because of how much it affected the Western missionaries. But through it all, God used the suppression of the rebellion. Now that the Westerners occupied China, they opened up China even more to carve it out for colonization – but that also allowed more missionaries and other Westerners to move in.
Christianity and Colonization
Beth: So, colonization and missions are marching arm in arm. It’s very interesting and sobering to think about, because the Lord used it for good – but there’s also a lot of pain and hurt that still has echoes down into today.
After the Boxer Rebellion was defeated, China opened up, and more new missionaries started arriving in China. Something interesting happened around this time. In the West, at the time in the church, there was a big split between more liberal Christianity and more fundamentalist, conservative Christianity. The missionaries of the 1800s were definitely spiritual descendants of the Puritans: they were very focused on Christ, crucified, and sharing him with the people of China. After the rebellion, a lot of those older missionaries who had lived in China for decades were martyred or ended up leaving the country.
As the new generation of missionaries came in, most of the new missionaries ended up not being directly involved in evangelism and church planting. Instead, a lot of them focused on how faith influences society. They did things like build hospitals, schools, and other social institutions. Mercy ministry had always been a part of missionary work in China. There were great needs, and life was very, very hard for the common people. The missionaries had always come bringing medical care and education – especially for girls – and meeting the needs of the people. But as these newer missionaries came in, a change started to happen.
Pastor Wang Yi has a series on this. He says there was a switch between the missionaries of the 1800s, who were focused on “China for Christ,” to newer missionaries, who had an attitude of “Christ for China.” The newer missionaries looked at missionary work as mostly about helping people, not about preaching Christ crucified. Some of them also came in with political goals and ideology. They didn’t just focus on teaching people about Jesus, but on helping to build what they believed would be a better, free, democratic, independent country, not just the gospel. So, this split between the more liberal and more conservative missionaries ended up filtering down into the church.
About one-third of Chinese Christians at the time were killed in the Boxer Rebellion. And this wasn’t just any third! The people who were targeted were the Chinese leaders of the church. The Boxers would kill a pastor before they’d kill a regular churchgoer. So, for a while, the Chinese church didn’t have strong leadership. That had to be raised up again. And as this new generation of Chinese Christian leaders was rising, it would come to mirror the liberal-conservative split in the church.
Eventually, these theological differences laid the groundwork for the split between the house churches and the government churches. This split would be overseen by the Communist Party, following the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.
Editor’s note: Fuyang is a city of about 9 million people in Anhui Province in eastern China. Fuyang has a relatively large number of believers, but the last few years have been a time of trial for the churches, as they have experienced intense persecution. But house church leaders say God has been with them through the storm, and his presence sustains them.
Fuyang: With God in the Storm
China Partnership: How has Fuyang changed in the last five years? How has your church changed in that time?
All Churches Are Being Watched
Song Xile: Fuyang has changed a lot over the last five years. The city’s economy is changing; material conditions and economic situations have gotten better. Geographically and environmentally, Fuyang is becoming more modern.
Politically, we are more sensitive. Locals used to joke, “There’s no Communist Party in Fuyang.” The culture was rough, and there were gangsters everywhere. Now we clearly feel a strong tightening on religion, especially Christianity. Police track how many believers there are, and locate churches. Control is very strict. Under current national leadership, there’s more ideological indoctrination; the atmosphere is very thick. I’ve never before experienced what I’ve seen the last few years: every single level is penetrated by political and ideological messaging. There’s no escape.
Culturally, education levels are rising. But although there has been cultural improvement, that’s not necessarily good, since culture and politics are intertwined and cannot be separated.
As for faith, the biggest change is that we have become a target of persecution. The tightening on education is another. Government officials are deeply worried that children in our Christian schools aren’t in public schools. Children who ought to be “Communist successors” are instead becoming “Christian successors.” Every local school keeps checking which children aren’t enrolled there. We’ve had many incidents and raids in the past five years; some big, some small.
Some churches have it worse than others. But all the churches are being watched.
Persecution Is More Severe
Zhang Ping: In Fuyang, Covid was a clear turning point. More and more high-rises went up, and the city visibly changed. But after Covid, the economic bubble started to deflate. Housing prices are lower, jobs are harder to find, businesses are struggling. It’s harder for both migrant workers and business owners.
In the church, right now the most important thing is understanding the overall structure. The government tells people to worship in the Three-Self church. Those churches are under government control. People outside of China might not understand how tight the government’s grip is: minors under 18 are not allowed to enter churches, and children aren’t permitted to hold the faith.
Then there are house churches. House churches are scattered, and not formally structured. They have a lot of people, but they are loosely organized, with weak accountability, weak commitment, and no real theology of church membership or sacramental life. People go wherever they feel like, and their attitude is that no one can tell them what to do.
But as more and more Reformed churches have been established, people have realized that even though these churches look stricter and more structured, this is actually a form of protection for believers. We need a genuine theology of commitment to church and submission to leadership, where every member has rights, the congregation has responsibilities, and the pastors have shepherding responsibilities. When persecution comes, this kind of church holds steadier, and doesn’t just scatter in an instant. Of course, people are still frightened and shaken, but when commitment is strong, things go much better. Even if the pastors are gone [i.e. imprisoned], we are still a church, with Christ the head and shepherd.
Persecution cases in Fuyang have grown more severe in the last five years. Before, people might just get called in for a talk. Back in the Cultural Revolution, people used to be arrested and imprisoned. Then, after the revival of the 80s, things were relatively calm. But now we are seeing repeated detentions: being held for 15 days, a dozen days, months, possibly even years.
That’s outside. Inside, gatherings are still fairly normal. Online gathering works, although it’s not the same as in person. We try to come together in person, meeting in small groups combined with Zoom. That helps with community life.
God’s Presence in the Storm
Hu Laiyang: I’ve noticed more technology in the city and in homes. You often see people riding e-bikes and scrolling their phones at the same time – and that is only going to get worse. Economic pressure is real, and it’s harder to earn money. Many rural families have come into the city, which makes competition for education extremely intense. Overall, Fuyang’s economy keeps pressing forward, but there’s weariness running through it all.
In our church, the first change started with becoming smaller. Our church used to have large gatherings, with more than a hundred people in one place. Later, we split into small groups, then even smaller groups, and then into gathering at home online. There’s been a steady reduction in space, in the number of times we could meet together.
And yet – when we started, we had only about 20 people. Since then, we’ve planted and sent out another church. There has been growth in numbers and in faith. We’ve also seen more and more children being sent to our Christian school.
But persecution has also gotten more and more intense. First there were talks, then penalties, and then criminal charges. There has been growth and refining fire. It has not been easy – these years have genuinely been like a refining furnace. Those of us who are sitting here and those brothers who are now in prison have all walked through deep and painful darkness, scattering, and fear. But God has brought us back. Our faith has been tested in the storm, and we have experienced God’s presence through it.
Push-and-Pull Dynamic
Wu Huizhi: Although the economy in Fuyang has gotten better in the last years, at the same time, the gap between Fuyang and bigger cities has also gotten wider. Fuyang is still relatively small, and the development pace lags behind.
After Covid, we feel the government has greater capacity to control and manage society: there are more cameras, more community-level government workers, and very strict social management.
Our church planted a new congregation several years ago. But although we planned to plant again, that has stalled because the external environment became very harsh. We used to meet in a worship hall, but now our church has become more and more scattered. Again and again we’ve been split apart by pressure.
There’s been a push-and-pull dynamic with the government over these years. When control tightens, we step back a little; when it loosens, we try to move forward. Whenever things loosen, we try to gather more and meet in small groups in person.
A Period of Maintenance
Tan Jianli: The biggest change is that it’s harder to earn money. Everyone feels that; it’s a shared experience.
In the church, the biggest change is we’ve gone from a period of growth to a period of hard maintenance. We’ve lost many members – maybe three-quarters of the congregation – because of persecution. There’s also a loss of that sacred, solemn feeling we had when we were able to meet together in the big hall. Now, so much is online. That’s the biggest change.
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