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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 SHENYANG 000013 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR DRL, EAP/CM, EAP/K 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/24/2018 
TAGS: KIRF PHUM PGOV PINR SOCI PREF KN KS CH
SUBJECT: PRC: RELIGIOUS FREEDOM A MIXED PICTURE IN YANBIAN 
KOREAN PREFECTURE 
 
Classified By: CONSUL GENERAL STEPHEN B. WICKMAN. 
REASONS: 1.4(b)/(d) 
 
¶1. (C) SUMMARY: Religious freedom is enjoying modest 
improvement in a key ethnic minority enclave of Jilin 
Province, near the PRC-DPRK border.  Christianity is making 
inroads among local Chinese, migrant workers, and North 
Korean border-crossers.  "House churches," many with links 
to official churches, are popular, and Religious Affairs 
Bureau (RAB) officials are in some cases easing their 
interference with some officially-registered congregations. 
Complaints persist, however, about RAB registration 
procedures, official intimidation of house churches and 
their clergy, and restrictions on foreigners proselytizing 
to Chinese nationals.  Falun Gong adherents remain active 
in Yanbian, but with decreased visibility compared to years 
past.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (C) This is the first in a series of cables on trends in 
religious freedom in northeast China.  A case study, it 
draws on site visits throughout Jilin Province's Yanbian 
Korean Autonomous Prefecture and interviews there with 
official/unofficial religious leaders, adherents, and 
Religious Affairs Bureau (RAB) officials over the course of 
the past fifteen months. 
 
CHRISTIANITY MAKING INROADS, OFFICIALLY AND UNOFFICIALLY 
--------------------------------------------- ----------- 
¶3. (C) Christianity is a growth industry in Yanbian and has 
made considerable inroads in recent years, both among Han 
Chinese and the many ethnic Koreans that populate the 
economically-struggling prefecture, whose fortunes are tied 
as much to Seoul as Beijing.  The heart of the increasingly 
vibrant religious scene is Yanji, Yanbian's administrative 
seat, where the official Catholic Church counts over 2000 
members (eighty percent ethnic Korean, the remainder Han), 
roughly 500 of whom attend services on a regular basis, 
according to Father LIAN Changyuan (STRICTLY PROTECT). 
Father Lian pointed to steady growth in his congregation, 
especially among the younger generations.  Yanji also 
counts 28 officially registered Protestant congregations, 
up from 21 in 2001, according to Pastor JIN (STRICTLY 
PROTECT), who runs the small, 100-person-strong, 
predominantly ethnic Korean, Ping'an Church, just outside 
of town.  Similar trends prevail even in Yanbian's more 
remote parts, officials say.  In Helong, a ninety-minute 
drive south of Yanji, two percent of the city's 230,000 
residents are registered believers (mostly Protestant), and 
the numbers are growing every year, according to REN 
Longquan, Director of the city's RAB.  Unofficial estimates 
put the actual number of believers in Helong and similarly- 
sized Yanbian cities far higher. 
 
¶4. (C) Christianity's inroads go beyond Yanbian's permanent 
residents.  An elder at the Chaoyang Church, one of only 
two predominantly Han Chinese congregations in Yanji, told 
Poloff of a new phenomenon at her congregation, situated in 
one of the city's poorest sections: growing numbers of 
migrant workers (mostly from Shandong, Anhui and Henan) 
turning toward Christianity against the backdrop of their 
hardscrabble existences.  Another Yanji congregation, the 
Korea Church, caters solely to South Korean expats--mostly 
students, businessmen and long-term residents--and counts 
roughly 200 congregants, according to staff there.  Some 
North Korean border-crossers are also becoming new coverts, 
steered toward Christianity by some of the religiously- 
minded Chinese and/or foreigners who discreetly offer them 
aid in various parts of Yanbian. 
 
¶5. (C) Numerous contacts, both Catholic and Protestant, 
described large numbers of popular, unofficial Protestant, 
"house churches" throughout Yanbian, though none could 
offer reliable estimates.  Pastor Jin of the Ping'an 
Church, who himself used to head an underground, house 
church until he registered his congregation in 2001, 
regularly keeps in touch with many unofficial churches in 
Yanji and surrounding parts of Yanbian.  A staffer at 
Yanji's Chaoyang Church described close, informal links 
between official churches (such as hers) and networks of 
house churches--some as small as a single family, others 
larger--throughout town, a point highlighted by a number of 
other local Chinese, as well as knowledgeable longtime 
American expats in Yanji. 
 
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IMPROVING IN SOME CASES... 
-------------------------------------------- 
¶6. (C) On balance, our Yanbian contacts spoke of growing 
improvements in religious freedom, despite ongoing 
 
SHENYANG 00000013  002 OF 003 
 
 
frustrations.  Pastor Jin, the frank ethnic Korean who 
heads the Ping'an Church, for instance, voiced no major 
complaints about government interference with his church of 
late.  He pointed out how far policy had come since the 
late 1980s and declared himself optimistic about the long- 
term trajectory of religion freedom in the PRC, 
difficulties notwithstanding.  Like others Poloff 
encountered, Jin felt that "normalizing" his unofficial 
church in 2001 brought with it important benefits (e.g., an 
end to the "psychological burden" of fearing a clampdown on 
his illegal church, a sense of legitimacy, and the ability 
to openly erect a cross) which he perceived as outweighing 
the costs of official RAB supervision. 
 
¶7. (C) Jin also pointed to a subtle easing of Yanbian RAB 
regulations, which he pinpointed to late 2005.  For many 
years, he explained, RAB officials typically insisted on 
inspecting his operation four or five times per year: once 
at year-end to scrutinize the church's financial "books"; 
once for a pre-Christmas safety inspection; once for 
Chinese New Year; and twice for fire-safety checks.  But 
starting in December 2005, RAB officials suddenly stopped 
requiring the end-of-year meeting to scrutinize his 
"books."  When Jin inquired whether policy had changed, he 
said RAB officials only smiled coyly in response, 
implicitly acknowledging the shift. 
 
¶8. (C) Clergy members generally reported maintaining decent 
relations with RAB officials.  Father Lian of Yanji's 
Catholic Church described relatively smooth working 
relations with Yanbian RAB officials; he still maintains a 
friendship of sorts with RAB contacts from the 
Helong/Longjing area of Yanbian where he previously worked 
for many years.  Father Lian, Pastor Jin and others all 
noted, unsolicited, RAB officials gradually acquiring a 
better substantive understanding of the religions they 
supervise.  All agreed this was a welcome development and 
in stark contrast to the wholly ignorant religious-affairs 
officials of the 1980s.  Clergy members reported that they 
openly maintain relationships with American and South 
Korean religious groups--in some cases periodically 
traveling abroad to interact with them--without 
interference from RAB officials.  Some RAB officials Poloff 
encountered, like Director Ren in Helong, themselves 
maintain ties with overseas religious groups, occasionally 
traveling to the U.S. and the ROK at their invitation. 
 
...THOUGH PROBLEMS PERSIST 
-------------------------- 
¶9. (C) Improvements notwithstanding, familiar frustrations 
from the past remain.  Some contacts complained that RAB 
registration requirements are still too "complicated."  In 
the Yanji area, a number of sources reported that despite 
the apparent benign neglect of some known house churches, 
the authorities periodically clamp down on other 
unregistered, house churches.  In Helong, RAB Director Ren 
painted a real mixed picture.  On the one hand, he claimed 
his office tolerates "small groups" gathering for Bible 
study and worship, provided they do not erect crosses or 
use donation boxes.  On the other hand, he emphasized that 
part of his remit fundamentally involves "combating illegal 
Protestant churches," many of which he said enter Yanbian 
from South Korea because of their "common language" with 
the people of Yanbian.  In Tumen, a border locality an 
hour's drive northeast of Yanji, two knowledgeable long- 
term expats having close contacts in the small religious 
community there told Poloff that RAB and security officials 
keep a close watch on the clergy--a departure from the 
comparatively more permissive environment of Yanji. 
 
¶10. (C) Other expats in Yanbian noted continuing 
restrictions on proselytizing.  Yanji's foreigner-only 
Korea Church, for one, reported strict prohibitions on 
ministering to Chinese, including ethnic Korean Chinese. 
And while staff there said they enjoyed a largely hands-off 
policy from the RAB (who conduct one annual, inspection 
visit), they explained that officials still prohibit them 
from erecting a cross on the church's edifice (an act they 
said the authorities would construe as "advertising"). 
They additionally lamented that the airport authorities 
sometimes confiscate large numbers of bibles that the 
congregants attempt to hand-carry from South Korea, 
limiting each passenger to one bible. 
 
¶11. (C) Official restrictions on proselytizing and 
procuring foreign bibles, however, proved relatively easy 
to overcome in practice, many said.  Pastor Jin noted that 
visiting South Koreans (mostly church groups) can 
 
SHENYANG 00000013  003 OF 003 
 
 
periodically participate in his services and, provided they 
do not preach, do so without incurring problems from the 
RAB.  Other ethnic Korean Chinese clergy members reported 
that visiting South Korean groups regularly delivered 
Korean-language bibles to them without difficulty.  Yanji 
itself hosts an entire university--the Yanbian University 
of Science and Technology (YUST)--managed and staffed by 
evangelical Christians, primarily from the United States, 
South Korea and Europe, that seek to convert some of their 
Chinese students.  YUST's missionary activity, quietly 
tolerated by Yanbian authorities, is not limited to Chinese 
alone.  School administrators concede they seek to convert 
some of the North Korean border-crossers who occasionally 
come to the institution for assistance. 
 
FALUN GONG STILL ACTIVE IN YANBIAN 
---------------------------------- 
¶12. (C) Falun Gong adherents continue their activities in 
Yanbian, but a range of contacts reported decreased 
visibility compared to years past.  The numbers of 
adherents are thought to be small, though no one Poloff 
encountered offered even a best guess.  Officials like 
Helong RAB Director Ren unsurprisingly offered the standard 
official critique of the Falun Gong, noting that he and his 
RAB counterparts elsewhere in Yanbian actively oppose the 
group and its activities.  Pastor Jin noted that while 
Falun Gong adherents operated in the Yanji area, most 
believers were Han Chinese--not ethnic Korean--and that 
mainstream Protestant and Catholic groups have little 
contact with Falun Gong adherents.  Other mainstream 
religious believers said that they also steer clear of 
South Korean sects like the Unification Church, as well as 
some of the homegrown Protestant-offshoot groups that 
operate throughout northeast China. 
WICKMAN