Denunciation Movement

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.{{cite book | last=Yu | first=Anthony C. | title=State and Religion in China: Historical and Textual Perspectives | location=Chicago, IL | publisher=Open Court | date=2004 | isbn=9780812695526 | oclc=1026357883 | page=3}}{{cite book | last=Bays | first=Daniel H. | chapter=Chinese Protestant Christianity Today | title=Religion in China Today | editor-last=Overmyer | editor-first=Daniel L. | location = Cambridge, UK | publisher=Cambridge University Press | date=2003 | isbn=9780521538237 | oclc=1040728139 | page=186}} 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.{{cite book | last=Morrison | first=Robert | title=Memoirs of the Life and Labours of Robert Morrison, D.D. | location=London | publisher=Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longmans | date=1839 | pages=335–336 | oclc=877475036 | url=https://archive.org/details/memoirsoflifelab01morr}} 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.{{cite book | last=Latourette | first=Kenneth Scott | title=A History of Christian Missions in China | location=New York | publisher=Macmillan | date=1929 | oclc=462848379 | pages=273–281}}{{cite book | last=Miller | first=Stuart Creighton | chapter=Ends and Means: Missionary Justification of Force in Nineteenth Century China | title=The Missionary Enterprise in China and America | editor-last=Fairbank | editor-first=John K. | location=Cambridge, MA | publisher=Harvard University Press | date=1974 | isbn=9780674576551 | oclc=905258123 | page=[https://archive.org/details/missionaryenterp0000fair/page/262 262] | url=https://archive.org/details/missionaryenterp0000fair/page/262 }}{{cite magazine | last=Mong | first=Ambrose Ih-Ren | title='Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet': Economic imperialism and ecclesiastical imperialism | magazine=Missiology | volume=44 | number=4 | date=October 2016 | pages=388–389, 392–393}}{{cite magazine | last=Rosenkranz | first=D. Gerhardt | title=China To-day: Some Reflections Against the Background of Yesterday | magazine=International Review of Mission | issue=176 | date=October 1955 | page=423}}. Citing {{cite magazine | last=Franke |first=Wolfgang | title=Zur anti-imperialistischen Bewegung in China | magazine=Saeculum | issue=4 | date=1954 | page=345n36}} As a result, the missionary endeavor became inextricably entwined in public perceptions with gunboat diplomacy and the opium trade.{{cite journal | last=Cohen | first=Paul A. | title=The Anti-Christian Tradition in China | journal=The Journal of Asian Studies | volume=20 | number=2 | date=February 1961 | page=169}} Missionaries were also accused of engaging promoting Western values and customs, a form of cultural imperialism.{{cite book | last=Ng | first=Peter Tze Ming | title=Chinese Christianity: An Interplay between Global and Local Perspectives | location=Boston | publisher=Brill | date=2012 | isbn=9789004225749 | oclc=939789319 | pages=183–184}}{{cite book |author1-link=Richard Madsen (sociologist) | last=Madsen | first=Richard | title=China and the American Dream: A Moral Inquiry | location=Berkeley, CA | publisher=University of California Press | date=1995 | isbn=9780520086135 | oclc=849141070 | page=[https://archive.org/details/chinaamericandre00madsrich/page/107 107] | url=https://archive.org/details/chinaamericandre00madsrich/page/107 }} 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,{{cite book| last=Griswold | first=A. Whitney | title=The Far Eastern Policy of the United States | location=New Haven, CT | publisher=Yale University Press | date=1962 | oclc=503589480 | pages=239–268}}{{cite report | last=Reinsch | first=Paul S. | title=The Minister in China (Reinsch) to the Secretary of State | date=September 10, 1919 | url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1919v01/d344}} Document No. 344 in {{cite book | title=Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1919, Volume I | editor-last=Fuller | editor-first=Joseph V. | location=Washington, DC | publisher=United States Government Printing Office | date=1934}} and the ensuing anti-Western nationalistic May 4th Movement,{{cite book | last=Tse-tsung | first=Chow | title=The May Fourth Movement: Intellectual Revolution in Modern China | location=Cambridge, MA | publisher=Harvard University Press | isbn=9780674557505 | oclc=918489428 | date=1974 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/mayfourthmovemen0000zhou }}{{cite book | last=Mitter | first=Rana | title=A Bitter Revolution: China's Struggle with the Modern World | location=Oxford, UK | publisher=Oxford University Press | isbn=9780192803412 | oclc=474236793 | date=2004}}{{cite book | last=Zarrow | first=Peter | title=China in War and Revolution, 1895-1949 | url=https://archive.org/details/chinawarrevoluti00zarr | url-access=limited | location=New York | publisher=Routledge | date=2005 | isbn=9780415364485 | oclc=929663140 | page=[https://archive.org/details/chinawarrevoluti00zarr/page/n175 155]}}{{cite book | last=Macmillan | first=Margaret | title=Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World | url=https://archive.org/details/parissixmonthsth00macm_414 | url-access=limited | location=New York | publisher=Random House | date=2002 | isbn=9780375760525 | oclc=964926007 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/parissixmonthsth00macm_414/page/n391 340]–341}} an Anti-Christian Movement revived accusations of missionary participation in imperialism.{{cite journal | last=Houdos | first=Lewis | title=The Anti-Christian Movement in China | journal=The Journal of Religion | volume=10 | number=4 | date=October 1930 | pages=487–494}}{{cite magazine | last=Yamamoto | first=Tatsuro and Sumiko | title=The Anti-Christian Movement in China, 1922-1927 | magazine=The Far Eastern Quarterly | volume=12 | number=2 | date=February 1953 | pages=133–147}}

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.

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:

{{bulleted list | 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";{{cite book | author= | chapter=The United Declaration | title=Documents of the Three-Self Movement | editor-last=Jones | editor-first=Francis Price | location=New York | publisher=National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA | date=1963 | oclc=250351943 | pages=41–43}}{{cite book | last=Ferris | first=Helen | title=The Christian Church in Communist China in 1952 | location=Montgomery, AL | publisher=Air Force Personnel and Training Research Center | oclc=17082868 | date=1956 | page=42}}{{cite book | last=Ling | first=Oi Ki | title=The Changing Role of the British Protestant Missionaries in China, 1945-1952 | location=London | publisher=Associated University Presses | date=1999 | isbn=9780838637760 | oclc=477238602 | pages=167–168}} | 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.{{cite magazine | last=MacInnis | first=Donald E. | title=A Chinese Communist View of Christian Missions in the Nineteenth Century | magazine=Occasional Bulletin of Missionary Research | volume=2 | number=2 | date=April 1976 | pages=49–53}} Because the United States took the lead in fighting on South Korea's side, American missionaries were the primary, but not sole, target.{{cite book | last=Wickeri | first=Philip | title=Seeking the Common Ground: Protestant Christianity, the Three-Self Movement, and China's United Front | location=Maryknoll, NY | publisher=Orbis Books | date=1988 | isbn=9780883444412 | oclc=906517129 | page=312n64}} 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.{{cite book | last=Dikötter | first=Frank | title=The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of the Chinese Revolution, 1945-57 | location=London | publisher=Bloomsbury Press | date=2013 | isbn=9781408837573 | oclc=864558974 | pages=115–120}}Ling 1999, p. 170.{{cite magazine | last=Ballou | first=Earle H. | title=The Protestant Church in Red China | magazine=Christianity and Crisis | volume=20 | number=12 | date=July 11, 1960 | page=107}}{{cite magazine | last=Thomas | first=Winburn | title=Report Reign of Terror in China | magazine=The Christian Century | volume=68 | number=27 | date=July 4, 1951 | page=803}} Church leaders who refused to accuse and demonize foreign missionaries were forced to attend political study sessions aimed at thought reform.{{cite journal | last=Lee | first=Joseph Tse-Hei | title=Christianity in Contemporary China | journal=Journal of Church and State | volume=49 | number=2 | date=April 2007 | page=286}}Yip 2006, 181. 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.{{cite magazine | last=Lacy | first=Creighton | title=The Missionary Exodus from China | magazine=Pacific Affairs | volume=28 | number=4 | date=December 1955 | pages=301–314}}{{cite book | last=Whyte | first=Bob | title=Unfinished Encounter: China and Christianity | location=London | publisher=Fount Paperbacks | date=1988 | isbn=9780006271420 | oclc=610935919 | pages=219–227}}Ling 1999, pp. 174-180.{{cite book | last=Thompson | first=Phyllis | title=China: The Reluctant Exodus | location=Sevenoaks, UK | publisher=Hodder and Stoughton | isbn=9780340241837 | oclc=7998258 | date=1979}}

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.{{cite thesis | last=Vala | first=Carsten Timothy | title=Failing to Contain Religion: The Emergence of a Protestant Movement in Contemporary China | type=PhD | location=Berkeley, CA | publisher=University of California, Berkeley | date=2008 | oclc=547151833 | pages=42-43}}{{cite book | last=Patterson | first=George N. | title=Christianity in Communist China | location=Waco, TX | publisher=Word Books | date=1969 | oclc=11903 | page=73}}{{cite journal | last=Lee | first=Joseph Tse-Hei | title=Política y fe: patrones de las relaciones iglesia-estado en la China Maoísta (1949-1976) | journal=Historia Actual Online | issue=17 | date=October 2008 | url=https://www.historia-actual.org/Publicaciones/index.php/hao/article/view/273/261 | pages=131–132}} 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."{{cite book | last=Jones | first=Francis Price | title=The Church in Communist China | location=New York | publisher=Friendship Press | date=1962 | oclc=1100288463 | page=66}}

Initially, Christians were reluctant to participate in the movement and early meetings, ordered to start in May, "were not popular or successful."Ferris 1956, p. 10. 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.{Liang-mo, Liu "How to Hold a Successful Accusation Meeting," in Jones 1963, pp. 49-50.

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.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 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."{{cite magazine | author= | title=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] | magazine=Tian Feng | issue=276 | date=August 11, 1951 | page=2}} 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.Ferris 1956, p. 11.

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.{{cite book | last=Marsh | first=Christopher | title=Religion and the State in Russia and China: Suppression, Survival, and Revival | url=https://archive.org/details/religionstaterus00mars | url-access=limited | location=New York | publisher=Continuum | date=2011 | isbn=9781441102294 | oclc=800547264 | page=[https://archive.org/details/religionstaterus00mars/page/n199 189]}} 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."Mingdao, Wang, "We, Because of Faith," in Jones 1963, p. 113 Wang was vehemently attacked by TSRM leaders, particularly Ting, who accused Wang of "hatred toward the New China."Marsh 2011, 191. For his stand against TSRM Wang was arrested and charged as a "counter-revolutionary" in August 1955.Wickeri 1988, p. 165.Whyte 1988, pp. 243-244.

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.{{cite book | last=Wickeri | first= Philip | title=Reconstructing Christianity in China : K.H. Ting and the Chinese church | location=Maryknoll, NY | publisher=Orbis | date=2007 | isbn=9781608333660 | oclc=1050565570 | page=99}} By September 15, 1953, there had been 227 large-scale denunciation meetings in 153 cities.Tian Feng 382-383, September 24, 1953, p. 533. 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.{{cite book | last=Wei-zun | first=Wu | title=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 | location=Streamwood, IL | publisher=Christian Life Press | isbn=9780971901629 | oclc=432357924 | date=2005 | pages=23–25}}{{cite book | last=Zhang | first=Xi-kang (張錫康) | title=張錫康回憶錄 [The Memoirs of Zhang Xi-kang] | location=Hong Kong | publisher=Guang Rong Press | date=2012 | page=178}} 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."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).

Other prominent leaders targeted in the Denunciation Movement were Bishop Chen Wen-yuan of the Methodist Episcopal Church;{{cite book | last=MacInnis | first=Donald E. | chapter=Chen, Wen-Yuan | title=Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions | editor-last=Anderson | editor-first=Gerald H. | location=Grand Rapids, MI | publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans | date=1999 | isbn=9780802846808 | oclc=246124408 | pages=129–130}} 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."Wangzhi 1996, p. 349.

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Category:Christianity in China