AUSTRALIA (ANS) -- As noted in RLP 458 (12 Dec 2007), the plan of China's ruling Communist Party (CCP) has been to use the 2008 Olympics to market China to the world. To ensure 'subversive' elements or 'reactionary' forces do not spoil the show, the government has been cracking down on all potential sources of embarrassing dissent. Numerous 'subversives' -- including writers, human rights lawyers and house-church leaders -- have been intimidated and imprisoned in China's vast Mao-era 'laogai', a network of more than 1000 'reform-through-labour' prison camps.

However none of this has saved China from embarrassment, for the intensive media focus is presenting every disgruntled, repressed, persecuted or just plain rebellious element with a window of opportunity through which they can exert leverage over a government desperate to portray itself to the world as modern, progressive and open for business.

The issues with Tibet and Xinjiang are complex. Decades of brutal ethnic, religious and cultural repression have given rise to deep-rooted mistrust and grievance. Most Tibetans (traditionally Buddhists) and Uighurs in Xinjiang (traditionally Muslims) simply want autonomy and the right to preserve their culture and freely practise their religion in peace. However there are also violent and separatist elements in those provinces: separatists and al-Qaeda-trained jihadists amongst the Uighurs as well as violent, racist separatists amongst the Tibetans. The most belligerent elements are commonly driven more by self-serving megalomania and hatred than any real concern for the people -- their agendas are generally either short-sighted or perverse and their methods are counterproductive. The threat to China from terrorism and violent separatism is real and not fake, as the Western media frequently claim. What is needed is real peace-making, real reform, real trust-building, real grace and really wise leadership.

Whilst most of China's problems are self-made, modern China is seeking a new path that will lead to 'harmonious society'. In previous decades the CCP has promoted economic development as the path, and now the CCP is learning the hard way that money is not the key to harmony. For while people do desire development, their hearts yearn for freedom, human rights and equity.

Now things are starting to change again. Over recent years some leading Chinese economists have been equating religious liberty and specifically the presence of churches with successful -- as distinct from destructively corrupt and amoral -- capitalism. Senior CCP figures have been appealing for greater academic and press freedoms, and some are openly advocating religious liberty on the grounds that religion is imperative for 'harmonious society'. In early March, China's top political advisor, Jia Qinglin, gave a keynote speech in which he promoted religious freedom and acknowledged that religious leaders could play a 'positive role in promoting social harmony' and 'social development'.

China's house-churches have long been repressed and cruelly persecuted, yet they are not separatist nor hateful and violent. In fact the Chinese Church is passionately patriotic, keen to demonstrate grace and desiring only to be a blessing to the nation, even to the present government. House-church Christians commonly meet before dawn to pray blessings upon China. There is now a growing current of hope that 2008 may prove to be pivotal and that the CCP might awaken to the reality of the church actually being not part of the problem but integral to the solution.

Meeting recently in Zurich, religious liberty bodies issued a call for the worldwide Christian community to make China a focus for concerted prayer during this Summer Olympics year. For a press release regarding this initiative, see:
Religious Liberty Organizations Call for Global Prayer for China
http://www.worldevangelicals.org/news/view.htm?id=1741
AND
Zurich Statement on the Church in China
Issued by the Religious Liberty Partnership
http://chinaaid.org/2008/03/28/zurich-statement-on-the-church-in-china/ 

PLEASE PRAY:

• for God, who is sovereign over all 'kings', to use the Beijing Olympics for his purposes. 'Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.'(Proverbs 19:21 ESV)
  
  
• for the Church in China to be filled with the Spirit of grace and love to advance Christian unity and sacrificial love for their country, and be blessed with divine wisdom and courage to advance powerful, godly witness and servant-leadership.
  
  
• that all who have been unjustly imprisoned for their beliefs and peaceful expressions will be released; may the Mao-era laogai be exposed and this 'iron-curtain' removed. May these labour-camps be transformed into legitimate industries, removing one of China's most shameful stains and instruments of persecution.
  
  
• for religious liberty to become a reality in China so the church that Christ has long been building may fully manifest her faith and be a blessing to the nation and the whole world.

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FOCUS ON CONCERTED PRAYER FOR CHINA IN OLYMPICS YEAR

China's ruling Communist Party has long been planning to use the Beijing Olympics to market China to the world. In Chinese folk lore the number 8 is the luckiest number and its character rhymes with the Chinese character for wealth. So the games are scheduled to open on 8-8-08 at 8.08pm. While China struggles to contain internal strife and deflect criticism, our prayer for China is not for luck or wealth, but that God in his generous and gracious mercy and providence will make 2008 the year the Chinese government awakens to the reality of the church being not one of its problems but integral to the solution. In solidarity with the Chinese Church, religious liberty groups have jointly called for global concerted prayer for China leading up to the Olympics, that 2008 might be a year of great spiritual blessing for the Chinese Church and for China.

Elizabeth Kendal is the Principal Researcher and Writer for the World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission (WEA RLC) http://www.worldevangelicals.org/. This article was initially written for the WEA RLP(Religious Liberty Prayer) mailing list.