The Politics of Protestant Churches and the Party-State in China

Church and state in contemporary China: securing Christianity

“…It mirrors the discourse of the regime and is accommodationist. Of course, there is often a disconnection between the performed public transcript and what may be occurring in spaces where the party-state is less visible (Scott, 1990, 4;Vala, 2018); however, we suggest that Christian communities are contributing to the official Sinicization transcript in important ways.…”

“…It is also important to consider how scholars and local churches have responded to Xi's calls to Sinicize and the five-year plans. These efforts largely mirror the CCP's narrative on Sinicization as integrating political ideology and support for the CCP into churches and can be understood as reflecting the "public transcript" on Sinicization of Christianity (Scott, 1990, 45;Vala, 2018). The idea here is that the party-state controls, if not dominates, the "public stage" of Christian development in China and Catholics and Protestants learned to speak the language of the party-state or the official transcript (Scott, 1990, 4, 18, 50; also see Kotkin, 1995).…”

Sinicisation or ‘xinicisation’: Regulating religion and religious minorities under Xi Jinping

“…The patriotic associations built to contain religious and minority crowds had become the engine of transnational activism, harbouring underground collaboration and facilitating illegal religious activities. Both underground 'black' groups and legal 'red' congregations were emboldened by the UFWD's inaction and actively engaged in otherwise forbidden evangelism in the post-Reform era (Ma & Li, 2017;Vala, 2017;Wang, 2019). The author's field research indicates that underground churches, sanctioned churches and foreign missionaries formed networks of evangelism that directly violated the 'no foreigners' rule and the other red lines above while local administrators looked the other way.…”

Neither laziness nor workaholism: The Protestant ethic and economic prosperity among young urban Christians in contemporary China

“…My interlocutors were mostly affiliated with 'emerging urban churches' (chengshi xinxing jiaohui) or what scholars often call 'Calvinist' churches (Chow, 2014;Vala, 2017;Wielander, 2013). The emerging urban churches in Beijing can be categorized as unregistered churches that operate outside the direct control of state-sponsored organizations.…”