Christianity’s success among these populations has been spectacular. This does not please the CCP. On September 16 popular Pastor Wang Shunping has been formally arrested.
by Li Xiaosi
Since it started publication in 2018, Bitter Winter has reported about the “activism” of the Public Security Bureau and Religious Affairs Bureau in Fugong county of Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture in the southwestern province of Yunnan, which carried out a series of raids targeting house churches.
There is a reason why house churches are treated more harshly than elsewhere in Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture. It is an area of China where Han Chinese are a minority. 52% of the population belongs to the Lisu and Nu ethnic minorities. Both speak Tibeto-Burman languages.
The CCP has a real obsession about religion playing a key role in helping ethnic minorities who resist Sinicization and affirm their rights. In the case of Lisu, this obsession is magnified by the fact that the majority of Lisu in China are Christian. Estimates of Christian Lisu in Yunnan vary from the official figure of 300,000 to 700,000, a number often quoted by the Christians themselves.
The Nu are a much smaller ethnic group, and despite attempts at Christian evangelization dating back to the 19th century, most of them still practice their traditional faith. However, even among the Nu, Christianity has made significant inroads in recent years. One interesting phenomenon is that, while Lisu and Nu had been traditionally enemies of each other, in many Christian churches in Yunnan Nu and Lisu worship together.
This is particularly true in Fugong county where, to fuel the suspicions of the CCP, several house churches stubbornly refuse to join the government-controlled Three-Self Church, which resulted in demolitions of churches in 2019, before the COVID-19 crisis.
At the end of August, the Christian Reformed Church of Dashanli, in Fugong county, sent a prayer request for Pastor Wang Shunping (a Nu) and another four Christians (Lisu and Nu) who had been detained and accused of “organizing and financing illegal gatherings.” Wang is a graduate of Yunnan Theological Seminary. It seems one of the reasons he was detained is that he is also a musician and was popular in the area since he taught both Christian and non-Christian pupils for free.
On September 16, 2022, Pastor Wang has been formally arrested. It remains detained in the Fugong County Detention Center in Nujiang Prefecture.
Eradicating the Lisu and Nu Christianity is now impossible. Its numbers are simply too high. However, the CCP’s strategy is to crack down on popular pastors and force house churches to join the Three-Self Church—or else.