Word: henan
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...real enough and is beginning to shape ways of thinking among educated Chinese. American teachers of English in China report a thirst among their students for discussions of moral and philosophical topics. Christianity has made substantial inroads: in Kaifeng (pop. 600,000), the second largest city in Henan province, officials say that 10% of the population is now Christian. In 1949 it was less than...
...first reports of trouble were confined to Henan. Foreign visitors to that central China province said that more than 200 Protestants had been arrested last year by the national police. The victims were leaders of so-called house churches: unauthorized gatherings, usually in private homes, of Christians. Some of those arrested were released within days, but others are still being held...
Since the Henan arrests, similar accounts of persecution have begun to spill out from nearly half of China's provinces, as well as Shanghai, its largest city. The operator of a small retail business tells a foreigner on a train in central China that several dozen house-church leaders are under arrest in the city of Xian. Says the businessman: "All we can do is pray and weep for them." A Protestant writes a letter telling of public notices posted in Fuyang, west of Shanghai, ordering Christians not to share their faith beyond that city or to listen...
Asked about the arrests of underground Christians, Ding contends it is "false" that noncooperation (with the T.S.P.M.) is treated as a crime. Despite that assertion, an arrest warrant posted last year in Henan province lists just that charge against a house-church Christian. The warrant also provides a rare glimpse into the work of a single house-church evangelist. The warrant says the evangelist "deceived" 400 people into converting to Christianity, 100 of them in a single evening, and on another occasion "disturbed the social order" with a rally at a sports field. Such documents show that evangelism...
...agricultural production grew at a steady annual rate of 7.5%, while the average annual income for peasants doubled from $65 to $135. In South China some households are now bringing in more than $5,000 a year. Best of all, the new prosperity has produced a new resourcefulness. In Henan province, several groups of peasants banded together earlier this year to do what had long seemed unthinkable: buy their own ultralight aircraft for crop spraying. Buoyed by such success stories, the party Central Committee has promised that households may continue enjoying the fruits of the "responsibility system" until...