The Denunciation Movement (or "Accusation Movement") started on April 19, 1951, as a movement to rid the Christian church in China from foreign influence by denouncing and expelling foreign missionaries. It quickly spread, however, to include the arrest and imprisonment of popular Chinese Christian leaders, particularly evangelicals.[1][2]

Antecedents

The religious policy adopted by the People's Republic of China reflected a centuries-old tradition of attempting to regulate religion and a particular distrust of Christianity as an imported religion with ties to Western powers.[3][4] Historically, Imperial China viewed the Christian faith as a foreign religion and sought to contain its spread. In 1812 the Jiaqing Emperor decreed that leaders among "Europeans" and "Tartars and Chinese" "deputed by Europeans" who engaged in missionary work should be executed or imprisoned and their followers should be exiled.[5] In the mid-19th century, a few missionaries and their overseas supporters endorsed using force to open up China. Some took part in political endeavors, including acting as translators for treaty negotiations arising from the Opium Wars and other imperialist aggressions by Western powers. In these negotiations the missionaries/translators extracted from the government guarantees of protection of missionaries and their activities.[6][7][8][9] As a result, the missionary endeavor became inextricably entwined in public perceptions with gunboat diplomacy and the opium trade.[10] Missionaries were also accused of engaging promoting Western values and customs, a form of cultural imperialism.[11][12] Resentment against Western domination boiled over in the Boxer Rebellion in 1899–1901, during which many missionaries and Chinese Christians were killed. In the 1920s, following the establishment of the Republic of China in 1911, disappointment over the ceding of Shandong Province to the Japanese in Treaty of Versailles following World War I,[13][14] and the ensuing anti-Western nationalistic May 4th Movement,[15][16][17][18] an Anti-Christian Movement revived accusations of missionary participation in imperialism.[19][20]

The immediate precipitating factor of the Denunciation Movement was the entry of China into the Korean War on October 25, 1950. Since some missionaries had favored Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang in the Chinese civil war that brought the Chinese Communist Party to power, missionaries in general were viewed as potential collaborators with the Western powers in the Korean conflict. In March 1951 the Religious Affairs Bureau decreed a priority of eliminating imperialist influences over religious groups in China.

History

The State Administrative Council led by Zhou Enlai called for a conference in Beijing in April 1951 to discuss "Handling of Christian Organizations Receiving Subsidies from the United States of America." That conference had three key outcomes:

  • A "United Declaration" by delegates at the conference calling on churches and other Christian organizations "to thoroughly, permanently and completely sever all relations with the American missions and all other missions, thus realizing self-government, self-support and self-propagation in the Chinese church";[21][22][23]
  • Formation of the Preparatory Committee for the Oppose-America Assist-Korea Three-Self Reform Movement of the Christian Church (TSRM), the precursor of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement, to be part of China's United Front policy; and
  • The start of the Denunciation Movement to purge imperialistic influences from the church in China.

The Denunciation Movement drew on resentments dating back to the Opium Wars in targeting foreign missionaries first.[24] Because the United States took the lead in fighting on South Korea's side, American missionaries were the primary, but not sole, target.[25] They were accused of being agents of imperialism and of committing many heinous crimes and immoral acts. In most cases the charges were pretexts for expelling the missionaries.[26][27][28][29] Church leaders who refused to accuse and demonize foreign missionaries were forced to attend political study sessions aimed at thought reform.[30][31] Large gatherings were convened to denounce the National Christian Council of China, the YMCA, the YWCA, the Christian Literature Society, the Anglicans, the Little Flock, the Seventh-Day Adventists, the Methodists, and the Church of Christ in China. Missionary endeavors, which had begun to withdraw following the establishment of the People's Republic, abandoned their efforts and were mostly gone from China in 1951 and 1952.[32][33][34][35]

The Denunciation Movement had an unexpected side effect of sparking a growth in membership of non-TSRM indigenous churches, whose congregants claimed pride in practicing the three-self formula of self-government, self-propagation, and self-support.[36][37][38] Accusations quickly spread to include influential Chinese Christian leaders and others whose cooperation with the TSRM was deemed inadequate. The Denunciation Movement overlapped with several other campaigns of the Communist Party in the early 1950s, including the Land Reform Campaign, the Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries, the Three-anti and Five-anti Campaigns, and the Withdraw from the Sects Movement. Similar tactics were using including extensive propaganda campaigns leading up to public accusation meetings, or struggle sessions in which the targets were portrayed as counter-revolutionaries.

Intense pressure was applied to a target's associates to accuse him in virulent terms, the underlying threat being that unless cooperation was rendered the potential accuser would become in turn an object of accusation and punishment. The accusations followed a common structure: "The general pattern of these denunciation speeches is as follows: First, a general statement of denunciation, usually couched in very strong, not to say violent language; then a list of particulars to susbstantiate the accusation; and finally a demand that the government mete out proper punishment for such betrayal of the Chinese people."[39]

Initially, Christians were reluctant to participate in the movement and early meetings, ordered to start in May, "were not popular or successful."[40] To push the effort forward, the New China News Agency of Shanghai published an article by Liu Liang-mo (刘良模), a YMCA secretary, on May 15 under the title "How to Hold a Successful Accusation Meeting." Liu wrote, "Every church and the city-wide church federation ought to first organize an accusation committee. They should first study whom they want to accuse, and whom to invite to do the accusing." In preliminary accusation meetings the committee was to "discover a few people who accuse with the greatest power and invite them to participate in the large accusation meeting," at the same time correcting any weaknesses in their speaking.[41]

Premier Zhou Enlai issued a decree on July 24, part of which stipulated that churches receiving help from American missions should immediately sever all relations and that American mission boards should cease all activities in China.[42] Because of the widespread failure to induce Christians to participate in the Denunciation Movement, Tian Feng announced in its August 11 issue that the TSRM was suspending establishing local chapters until the Denunciation Movement, which it called the "most important task for Christianity in China," was "done well."[43] Helen Ferris, an American missionary to China, reported that having a successful accusation meeting against at least four of its own members had become a prerequisite for any group to register.[44]

Some Chinese Christian leaders, notably Wang Ming-Dao and Watchman Nee, opposed holding accusation meetings. Wang considered the TSRM's leaders to be modernists who had denied key tenets of the Christian faith and hence were non-believers.[45] After outlining his differences with the writings of Y. T. Wu and K. H. Ting, Wang wrote, "We will not unite in any way with these unbelievers, nor will we join any of their organizations."[46] Wang was vehemently attacked by TSRM leaders, particularly Ting, who accused Wang of "hatred toward the New China."[47] For his stand against TSRM Wang was arrested and charged as a "counter-revolutionary" in August 1955.[48][49]

Nee felt that accusation meetings led by the government and modernists would intrude upon the church's jurisdiction. Liu-Liang Mo was specifically assigned to hold accusation meetings in Shanghai and the denunciation meetings held there were "particularly intense." One Shanghai meeting drew 12,000 attendees.[50] By September 15, 1953, there had been 227 large-scale denunciation meetings in 153 cities.[51] Eventually Liu was able to hold an accusation meeting in the Nanyang Road meeting place of the church in Shanghai, but the meeting fell far below Liu's expectations.[52][53] Nee was subsequently arrested on charges related to the Wu-fan (Five-Anti) Campaign on April 10, 1952, though the propaganda leading up to his trial in 1956 and the TSRM resolution that supported the government's action focused on accusations of "counter-revolutionary" activities.[54]

Other prominent leaders targeted in the Denunciation Movement were Bishop Chen Wen-yuan of the Methodist Episcopal Church;[55] T. C. Chao, dean of the Yanjing School of Religion; Jing Dianying, founder of the Jesus Family; Marcus Cheng, president of the Chongqing Theological Seminary; and Chao Jingsan (Luther Shao), leader of the Disciples' Church. Though the victims of the Denunciation Movement were charged with being counter-revolutionaries, they were often selected "not because they had done or spoken anything unpatriotic, but only because they were, in the eyes of the officials, too influential or too popular."[56]

References

  1. ↑ Wangzhi, Gao (1996). "Y. T. Wu: A Christian Leader Under Communism". In Bays, Daniel H. (ed.). Christianity in China: From the Eighteenth Century to the Present. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. p. 349. ISBN 9780804736510. OCLC 185860197.
  2. ↑ Yip, Francis Ching-Wah (2008). "Protestant Christianity in Contemporary China". In Miller, James (ed.). Chinese Religiosities in Contemporary Societies. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. p. 181. ISBN 9780520098640. OCLC 690135490.
  3. ↑ Yu, Anthony C. (2004). State and Religion in China: Historical and Textual Perspectives. Chicago, IL: Open Court. p. 3. ISBN 9780812695526. OCLC 1026357883.
  4. ↑ Bays, Daniel H. (2003). "Chinese Protestant Christianity Today". In Overmyer, Daniel L. (ed.). Religion in China Today. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 186. ISBN 9780521538237. OCLC 1040728139.
  5. ↑ Morrison, Robert (1839). Memoirs of the Life and Labours of Robert Morrison, D.D. London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longmans. pp. 335–336. OCLC 877475036.
  6. ↑ Latourette, Kenneth Scott (1929). A History of Christian Missions in China. New York: Macmillan. pp. 273–281. OCLC 462848379.
  7. ↑ Miller, Stuart Creighton (1974). "Ends and Means: Missionary Justification of Force in Nineteenth Century China". In Fairbank, John K. (ed.). The Missionary Enterprise in China and America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. p. 262. ISBN 9780674576551. OCLC 905258123.
  8. ↑ Mong, Ambrose Ih-Ren (October 2016). "'Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet': Economic imperialism and ecclesiastical imperialism". Missiology. Vol. 44, no. 4. pp. 388–389, 392–393.
  9. ↑ Rosenkranz, D. Gerhardt (October 1955). "China To-day: Some Reflections Against the Background of Yesterday". International Review of Mission. No. 176. p. 423.. Citing Franke, Wolfgang (1954). "Zur anti-imperialistischen Bewegung in China". Saeculum. No. 4. p. 345n36.
  10. ↑ Cohen, Paul A. (February 1961). "The Anti-Christian Tradition in China". The Journal of Asian Studies. 20 (2): 169.
  11. ↑ Ng, Peter Tze Ming (2012). Chinese Christianity: An Interplay between Global and Local Perspectives. Boston: Brill. pp. 183–184. ISBN 9789004225749. OCLC 939789319.
  12. ↑ Madsen, Richard (1995). China and the American Dream: A Moral Inquiry. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. p. 107. ISBN 9780520086135. OCLC 849141070.
  13. ↑ Griswold, A. Whitney (1962). The Far Eastern Policy of the United States. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. pp. 239–268. OCLC 503589480.
  14. ↑ Reinsch, Paul S. (September 10, 1919). The Minister in China (Reinsch) to the Secretary of State (Report). Document No. 344 in Fuller, Joseph V., ed. (1934). Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1919, Volume I. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office.
  15. ↑ Tse-tsung, Chow (1974). The May Fourth Movement: Intellectual Revolution in Modern China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674557505. OCLC 918489428.
  16. ↑ Mitter, Rana (2004). A Bitter Revolution: China's Struggle with the Modern World. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780192803412. OCLC 474236793.
  17. ↑ Zarrow, Peter (2005). China in War and Revolution, 1895-1949. New York: Routledge. p. 155. ISBN 9780415364485. OCLC 929663140.
  18. ↑ Macmillan, Margaret (2002). Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World. New York: Random House. pp. 340–341. ISBN 9780375760525. OCLC 964926007.
  19. ↑ Houdos, Lewis (October 1930). "The Anti-Christian Movement in China". The Journal of Religion. 10 (4): 487–494.
  20. ↑ Yamamoto, Tatsuro and Sumiko (February 1953). "The Anti-Christian Movement in China, 1922-1927". The Far Eastern Quarterly. Vol. 12, no. 2. pp. 133–147.
  21. ↑ Jones, Francis Price, ed. (1963). "The United Declaration". Documents of the Three-Self Movement. New York: National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. pp. 41–43. OCLC 250351943.
  22. ↑ Ferris, Helen (1956). The Christian Church in Communist China in 1952. Montgomery, AL: Air Force Personnel and Training Research Center. p. 42. OCLC 17082868.
  23. ↑ Ling, Oi Ki (1999). The Changing Role of the British Protestant Missionaries in China, 1945-1952. London: Associated University Presses. pp. 167–168. ISBN 9780838637760. OCLC 477238602.
  24. ↑ MacInnis, Donald E. (April 1976). "A Chinese Communist View of Christian Missions in the Nineteenth Century". Occasional Bulletin of Missionary Research. Vol. 2, no. 2. pp. 49–53.
  25. ↑ Wickeri, Philip (1988). Seeking the Common Ground: Protestant Christianity, the Three-Self Movement, and China's United Front. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books. p. 312n64. ISBN 9780883444412. OCLC 906517129.
  26. ↑ Dikötter, Frank (2013). The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of the Chinese Revolution, 1945-57. London: Bloomsbury Press. pp. 115–120. ISBN 9781408837573. OCLC 864558974.
  27. ↑ Ling 1999, p. 170.
  28. ↑ Ballou, Earle H. (July 11, 1960). "The Protestant Church in Red China". Christianity and Crisis. Vol. 20, no. 12. p. 107.
  29. ↑ Thomas, Winburn (July 4, 1951). "Report Reign of Terror in China". The Christian Century. Vol. 68, no. 27. p. 803.
  30. ↑ Lee, Joseph Tse-Hei (April 2007). "Christianity in Contemporary China". Journal of Church and State. 49 (2): 286.
  31. ↑ Yip 2006, 181.
  32. ↑ Lacy, Creighton (December 1955). "The Missionary Exodus from China". Pacific Affairs. Vol. 28, no. 4. pp. 301–314.
  33. ↑ Whyte, Bob (1988). Unfinished Encounter: China and Christianity. London: Fount Paperbacks. pp. 219–227. ISBN 9780006271420. OCLC 610935919.
  34. ↑ Ling 1999, pp. 174-180.
  35. ↑ Thompson, Phyllis (1979). China: The Reluctant Exodus. Sevenoaks, UK: Hodder and Stoughton. ISBN 9780340241837. OCLC 7998258.
  36. ↑ Vala, Carsten Timothy (2008). Failing to Contain Religion: The Emergence of a Protestant Movement in Contemporary China (PhD). Berkeley, CA: University of California, Berkeley. pp. 42–43. OCLC 547151833.
  37. ↑ Patterson, George N. (1969). Christianity in Communist China. Waco, TX: Word Books. p. 73. OCLC 11903.
  38. ↑ Lee, Joseph Tse-Hei (October 2008). "Política y fe: patrones de las relaciones iglesia-estado en la China Maoísta (1949-1976)". Historia Actual Online (17): 131–132.
  39. ↑ Jones, Francis Price (1962). The Church in Communist China. New York: Friendship Press. p. 66. OCLC 1100288463.
  40. ↑ Ferris 1956, p. 10.
  41. ↑ {Liang-mo, Liu "How to Hold a Successful Accusation Meeting," in Jones 1963, pp. 49-50.
  42. ↑ Enlai, Zhou, "Regulations of the Administrative Yuan on the Method of Controlling Christian Organizations That Have Received Financial Help from America," in Jones 1963, pp. 27-28
  43. ↑ "A Notice to Christian Churches and Groups throughout the Country: Local Chapters Setup Being Suspended [通知: 全國各地基督教教會與團體: 暫緩成立分會]". Tian Feng. No. 276. August 11, 1951. p. 2.
  44. ↑ Ferris 1956, p. 11.
  45. ↑ Marsh, Christopher (2011). Religion and the State in Russia and China: Suppression, Survival, and Revival. New York: Continuum. p. 189. ISBN 9781441102294. OCLC 800547264.
  46. ↑ Mingdao, Wang, "We, Because of Faith," in Jones 1963, p. 113
  47. ↑ Marsh 2011, 191.
  48. ↑ Wickeri 1988, p. 165.
  49. ↑ Whyte 1988, pp. 243-244.
  50. ↑ Wickeri, Philip (2007). Reconstructing Christianity in China : K.H. Ting and the Chinese church. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis. p. 99. ISBN 9781608333660. OCLC 1050565570.
  51. ↑ Tian Feng 382-383, September 24, 1953, p. 533.
  52. ↑ Wei-zun, Wu (2005). Epaphras in China—Wu Weizhen's Testimony and Anthology [中國的以巴弗—吳維僔見證及文集], volume 3. Streamwood, IL: Christian Life Press. pp. 23–25. ISBN 9780971901629. OCLC 432357924.
  53. ↑ Zhang, Xi-kang (張錫康) (2012). 張錫康回憶錄 [The Memoirs of Zhang Xi-kang]. Hong Kong: Guang Rong Press. p. 178.
  54. ↑ "Another Giant Victory in the Struggle to Eliminate Counter-revolutionaries: Uncovering the Counter-revolutionary Group of Watchman Nee within Christianity" ["上海人民肅清反革命分子鬥爭的又一巨大勝利,"]; "The Shanghai Political Bureau Decides Unanimously to Support the Arrest of the Counter-revolutionary Group of Watchman Nee" ["政協上海市委員會昨舉行座談會，一致擁護政府逮捕倪柝聲反革命集團分子,"]; and "2500 Christians Gather in the City to Uncover the Crimes of the Counter-revolutionary Group of Watchman Nee" ["本市二千五百基督徒集會，揭露倪柝聲反革命集團罪行,"]; all in Daily News (新聞日報), February 1, 1956. "Christian Three-Self Patriotic Committee Expands Its Meeting and Passes Resolution Concerning Watchman Nee's Counter-revolutionary Group" "基督教三自愛國運動委員會擴大會議，通過肅清倪柝聲反革命集團的決議," Daily News, February 3, 1956).
  55. ↑ MacInnis, Donald E. (1999). "Chen, Wen-Yuan". In Anderson, Gerald H. (ed.). Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans. pp. 129–130. ISBN 9780802846808. OCLC 246124408.
  56. ↑ Wangzhi 1996, p. 349.
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