Communist China has earned praise in the past few years for a perceived thaw in its strict opposition to religious observance\u201d\u201dparticularly Christianity. A visitor to China will see Christian churches out in the open; a printing facility in Nanjing is the largest Bible publisher in the world. There is the appearance, at least, of a faith that is free and tolerated.<\/p>\n
This helps explain some of the shock over a series of brutal crackdowns that have come as startling departures. Over Easter, Chinese authorities escalated their campaign against a Protestant \u201chouse church,\u201d\u009d Shouwang, detaining dozens of believers and placing hundreds more under house arrest for the \u201ccrime\u201d\u009d of worshipping in a public square. And late last month, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released its annual report, which flagged several incidents of horrific abuses of Christians in China\u201d\u2039\u201d\u201d\u201d\u2039including \u201cdisappearances,\u201d\u009d beatings, the destruction of churches, and forced \u201cre-education through labor.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
But these two trends are not in fact contradictory. The \u201cthaw\u201d\u009d in China\u2019s treatment of Christians was nothing more than a savvy and sophisticated new twist on its longstanding assault on religious freedom….<\/p>\n