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FM AMCONSUL CHENGDU
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RHEHAAA/NSC WASHINGTON DC
RUEHCN/AMCONSUL CHENGDU 3234

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 CHENGDU 000274 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EAP/CM AND DRL 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL:  11/30/2017 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KIRF SOCI CH
SUBJECT: KUNMING CHURCH FLOURISHES DESPITE RESTRICTIONS 
 
REF: A) CHENGDU 126     B) CHENGDU 272 
 
CHENGDU 00000274  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
CLASSIFIED BY: James A. Boughner, Consul General, U.S. Consulate 
General, Chengdu. 
REASON: 1.4 (d) 
 
¶1.  (C) Summary:  According to the co-pastors of an 
officially-registered church in southwest China, while 
person-to-person proselytizing remains severely restricted, the 
number of Protestants in the city is growing rapidly.  The city 
of Kunming, including subordinate adjacent counties, has 360 
approved religious venues for small groups of Protestants but 
very few churches.  One district committee representative in 
Kunming has called publicly for the city to build more churches 
and highlighted in an official proposal published on a 
government web site the "positive role of religion."  Her 
mention also of how approved churches can help prevent 
"nefarious" foreign missionaries who "infiltrate Yunnan under 
various pretexts" from making inroads in the province, however, 
is more likely to appeal to the local Party leadership.  End 
Summary. 
 
-------------------- 
A Busy Church 
-------------------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU) During a recent Sunday in the Yunnan provincial 
capital of Kunming, Congenoff visited St. John's, a 
non-denominational official Protestant church in the center of 
the city.  The well-appointed church, located at the north end 
of Kunming's Jewelry Street, was renovated in 2006.  Some shops 
are housed on the first floor of the church building (Note: 
Commercial income has likely been a major source of support for 
this construction and upkeep of the fine new building.  One 
indication is a posting on a Chinese Christian internet forum 
denouncing the real estate deal that made the new building 
possible, claiming that many in the congregation opposed it. 
End note). 
 
¶3. (SBU) The church, which has a seating capacity of 1400 
people, has two Sunday services.  In her sermon, the pastor 
discussed such social problems such as the rapidly rising 
divorce rate in central Kunming and as well as the moral support 
that religion can provide.  Many children attended the service 
and the Sunday school on the upper floor of the church.  There 
were many people in their twenties and thirties among the 
congregation.  A new sound system and video projection of the 
Bible and hymn texts enabled the congregation to follow along 
with the service. 
 
------------------------------ 
Parishioners and Pastors 
------------------------------ 
 
¶4.  (C) Congenoff spoke with a man in his thirties holding two 
young boys following the church service.  The man said his 
family, which has been Christian for several generations, lives 
in the countryside.  Now he lives in a Kunming suburb with his 
wife and two children.  Although there is also a church in his 
area, he prefers to come to St. John's since people attending 
services there are generally better educated.  Christians in the 
countryside really don't understand their faith, he said.  He 
noted that since he has a rural household registration, he and 
his wife were allowed to have two children.  He added that the 
two children dispensation for Yunnan people with rural 
registrations will end in three years, apparently a consequence 
of Yunnan's elimination of rural registrations that will take 
effect in January 2008.  The man noted that Christians, as 
idealists in a materialist led society can lose out in the 
workplace, but have to accept some suffering for their faith. 
 
¶5.  (C) When asked the apparently more sensitive question, "Have 
the authorities allowed the founding of new Christian 
congregations in the area?" he looked around before answering. 
He avoided giving a direct answer, saying first that a proposal 
for a new congregation would need the approval of the 
government's religious affairs authorities and, after 
Congenoff's second formulation of the question, "A proposal to 
form a new congregation and build a new church must not conflict 
with the Kunming City government's plan for the city."  (Note: 
Congen in ref A reported on the Protestant underground house 
churches in Kunming earlier this year.  End note). 
 
¶6. (C) Later when Congenoff asked one of the church's two 
pastors -- a husband and wife team -- several moderately 
sensitive questions, the pastor too paused and looked around 
before answering.   (Comment:  Despite well-attended services, 
there appear to still be shadows of intimidation at the church. 
End comment).   Both pastors are graduates of the Nanjing 
Theological Seminary, an officially supported non-denominational 
Protestant seminary, with the husband succeeding his father as 
 
CHENGDU 00000274  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
pastor in 1986 shortly after St. John's was returned to its 
congregation following a long closure. 
 
------------------------------------------- 
Protestants, Catholics, Proselytizing 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶7.  (C) According to the pastor Congenoff spoke with, the 
Protestant community in Kunming is growing rapidly but the 
number of Catholics is holding steady or declining slightly.  A 
youth group meets in the church on Thursday nights.  The pastor 
said, "The Catholics are more conservative" and sometimes lose 
priests to marriage.  He also noted he knew several priests who 
had left the priesthood when they married and remarked he has 
cordial relations with several Catholic priests and they 
regularly visit each other's congregations. 
 
¶8.  (C) When Congenoff asked the pastor whether the religious 
authorities objected to the large Sunday School program and the 
many young people in the church, he replied, "That is beyond 
their control" (Tamen guanbuliao).  A young woman in the pew 
next to Congenoff said she had been introduced to St. John's by 
her high school teacher.  With regard to possible foreign 
missionary activity, the pastor noted a South Korean pastor had 
recently been sent home because he would not observe 
restrictions on preaching.  The government recruited another 
pastor for the Koreans who was ordered to limit himself to 
serving Koreans. 
 
¶9. (C) Although he and his wife may not preach outside the 
church or an authorized religious venue, the pastor noted they 
can encourage individuals to attend Church services. 
Distributing religious literature on the street is also 
forbidden.  The pastor told Congenoff that the national and 
local regulations that govern their religious work are available 
online and suggested that Congenoff read them.  (Note.  Ref B 
followed up on the pastor's suggestion by translating and 
analyzing some of the Kunming City and other local religious 
affairs regulations that govern the religious activities of 
local believers and their churches.  End note). 
 
¶10. (SBU) As Congenoff left St. John's, he stopped to listen to 
conversations in the near the church bookstore which offers a 
variety of Chinese translations of books by foreign, especially 
U.S. Christian leaders and histories of 19th century missions in 
China, as well as Chiang Kai-shek's favorite Christian 
inspirational book "Streams in the Desert".  There was a long, 
friendly discussion underway between a visiting Buddhist in his 
twenties and a man in his thirties who described himself as a 
former Buddhist. The two discussed the nature of God in 
Christian and Buddhist texts while an old man looked on smiling 
broadly. 
 
--------------------------------------------- -------------- 
------------------------- 
District People's Consultative Congress Rep Calls for More 
Churches 
--------------------------------------------- -------------- 
------------------------- 
 
¶11.  (U) Given that St. John's services are filled to capacity, 
its enthusiastic congregation, and its busy Sunday School, the 
question arises as to why there are only two official Protestant 
churches in Kunming.  A third, St. Zion {Sheng Xi'an) is in 
disrepair and so is no longer used for services.   Kunming Wuhou 
District PPC representative Yang Meirong, in her January 2007 
submission to the Wuhu District Committee of the National 
People's Consultative Congress argues that Kunming needs more 
churches.  A Congen summary translation of Yang's proposal, 
found on a Kunming City website, follows. 
 
¶12.  (U) Yang Meirong writes: "The number of Protestants in 
Kunming is growing rapidly.  With the development of material 
society, people feel their spiritual needs more urgently, so 
many are turning to religion.  Kunming, however has only three 
churches, all near the city center. ~ In 1949, Kunming had 15 - 
16 churches serving a little over 2000 Chinese citizen 
Protestants.  Now, our conservative estimate is that there are 
30 - 40,000 Christians in the urban district of Kunming City. 
We have two medium size churches - the international church, 
with a capacity of 2000, that opened on December 11, 2004 and 
the rebuilt St. John's with a capacity of 1500 that opened on 
November 11, 2005.  The third church St. Zion  (Sheng Xi'an) has 
been declared a hazardous structure, but there are no firm plans 
yet for its renovation."  Yang as an example points to the 
northern district of Kunming, where there is no church but 
thousands of Protestants.  She writes "Some people register a 
new gathering place, others register a home gathering place, 
while some who oppose registration on principle hold their own 
meeting." 
 
CHENGDU 00000274  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
 
¶13.  (U) Yang points out that the people leading the services 
are untrained and so the meetings are open to "unsavory 
influences" from outside.  Many "foreign missionary groups use 
business, travel, culture, education, and medical services to 
penetrate Chinese Christian groups and are a serious challenge 
to the Chinese Three Selfs (Self-governing, Self-financing and 
Self-propagating) Protestant churches just after it comes to its 
feet after a long difficult period."  Yang suggests the District 
Party Committee and District government allocate land for 
establishing new churches.  She points to the examples of 
Beijing and Shanghai as well as Hangzhou's plan to build the 
largest church in the Chinese-speaking world.  It will seat 7000 
people. 
 
¶14. (U) Yang writes she believes in the saying, "Build one more 
church, build one less prison."  She cites the example of 
Yunnan's Fugong County in Nujiang Prefecture, "the only county 
in the area without a drug problem." Yang argues this is because 
Protestants are a large majority of the population.  She notes 
that the situation is similar in Funnan County where 70,000 of 
the population of 80,000 people are Protestants. 
 
------------ 
Comment 
------------ 
 
¶15. (C) The CPCC (Chinese People's Consultative Congress) of 
which Yang is a district committee member includes many people 
from outside the Communist Party, so it is not surprising that a 
committee member made this potentially politically incorrect 
proposal that highlights the positive role that religion can 
play in society.  Yang's argument on the positive role of 
religion in society of course contradicts Chinese Communist 
Party doctrine that religion will gradually fade as people 
become more educated and society advances.  Her warning that 
Christians without churches will be more exposed to "nefarious" 
outside missionaries, however, may well attract local Party 
support to her proposal to build more churches in Kunming. 
(Reference note:  Proposal to the Fifth Session of Sixth Kunming 
Wuhou District Committee of the Chinese People's Consultative 
Congress  "On increasing the number of Protestant churches and 
religious venues in the Wuhua District" dated January 21, 2007 
from Yang Meirong.   From the Kunming City Wuhua District 
website, 
URL abbreviation:  .  End 
reference note). 
 
------------------------------ 
St. John's Church History 
------------------------------- 
 
¶16.  (U) Begin excerpted text Congenoff was given of a brief 
history of St. John's Church:  "St. John's Christian Church in 
Kunming is located in the downtown area of the Spring City. The 
historic church was originally a Chinese Anglican Church first 
built in 1915 and then reconstructed three times, from the 
original earthwork structure to the current concrete building. 
The current St. John's building was begun in 1944 and completed 
in 1945.  That was at the dawn of victory of the Second 
Anti-Fascist World War.  Under the leadership of General 
Chennault, the American Flying Tigers came to China for help. 
~In the interception of the Japanese air force, seventeen pilots 
died. Two of them were English, one was Swedish and the other 
fourteen were Americans. ~To commemorate these pilots~. A 
monument was erected.  Packs containing the ashes of seventeen 
pilots were hung on the inside walls of the church. In 1948, 
when the American Consulate in Kunming withdrew, the ashes were 
taken as well.  ~ In 1949, the PRC was founded. After 1958 the 
worship of Kunming Protestants was united [into a 
non-denominational Protestant church].  St. John's stopped 
worship during the Cultural Revolution~ With the Open Door 
policy in China, freedom of religion was adopted~. In 1986~ the 
site was returned to the church by the Municipal Vehicle 
Industrial Corporation.  In previous years the numbers of 
brothers and sisters attending worship services was about 300, 
but now (2001) it is over 2000. 
 
End Text. 
BOUGHNER