The Chinese Communist Party barely mentioned the death of Pope Francis, with whom it negotiated for years, and failed to send a representative to his funeral as a “brutal message” to repressed Christians at home, one of the world’s top experts on Christian persecution told Breitbart News this week.
Under genocidal dictator Xi Jinping, in China, “there’s only room for one ‘pope’ — and he sits in Beijing, not Rome,” Jeff King, the president of the global human rights organization International Christian Concern (ICC), explained in remarks to Breitbart News on Wednesday. King warned that the atheist communist government’s active suppression and persecution of Christianity has increased dramatically under Xi and continues to escalate as reports indicate that the Christian population of China is growing.
King estimated the number of Christians, both Catholic and Protestant, in China today to be between 70 million to as high as 130 million Christians. Some estimates have suggested for over a decade that China is home to as many as 100 million Christians, more than the number of card-carrying members of the Communist Party. The true number of Christians in the country is difficult to ascertain as the regime actively discourages worship of Jesus Christ.
China allows only five religions to exist legally: the Chinese Catholic Church, controlled by Beijing; the “Three-Self Patriotic Church,” the regime’s substitute for Protestantism; regime-controlled Islam; regime-controlled Buddhism; and Taoism, an indigenous Chinese tradition with no global organized structure. Children are banned from all religious services to prevent faith in anything beyond the Communist Party from spreading. More recently, in May, the regime implemented laws essentially outlawing any missionary activity by demanding government “approval” for anything that can be interpreted as “missionary” work.
The Chinese government’s cold response to the recent passing of Pope Francis, who died on April 21 after a bout with respiratory illness, surprised many observers, as the pope had prioritized attempting to negotiate with Beijing to incorporate its Communist “Catholic” church, with bishops appointed by the Communist Party and previously excommunicated, into the fold of the Roman Catholic Church.
“China expresses condolences over the passing of Pope Francis,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told reporters shortly after the pontiff’s death. “In recent years, China and the Vatican have maintained constructive engagement and conducted useful exchanges. China stands ready to work with the Vatican for continued improvement of China-Vatican ties.”
The Foreign Ministry replied to multiple journalist inquiries about being represented at the pope’s funeral by insisting it had “no information” on any such representation and ultimately did not send any public representative to honor his legacy.
In life, Pope Francis had insisted that his relationship with the Chinese Communist Party was “very respectful” and refused to refer to China, one of the world’s most repressive states, as “undemocratic,” claiming the situation was “complex.”
King, the ICC president, explained to Breitbart News that the distant public statements on Pope Francis are meant to keep Chinese Christians uncomfortable about their identity but also belie a deep fear of the Vatican on the part of the regime.
“I’ve watched Beijing’s dance with the Vatican for years, and their muted response to Pope Francis’s death lays bare what’s really at stake,” King said. “The CCP’s refusal to send officials to his funeral — despite Francis bending over backward to build bridges — tells you everything about how Xi views religious authority.”
“This isn’t just some knee-jerk dislike of Christianity. God knows I’ve seen enough persecution to recognize the difference. No, this is about raw power,” he continued. “The Vatican threatens something the Party can’t tolerate — a competing claim on Chinese hearts and minds.”
“When Beijing refuses to honor Francis in death, they’re sending a brutal message to every Chinese Catholic: your ultimate loyalty belongs to the Party, not some foreign pope,” King explained, adding, “The Vatican terrifies Xi precisely because it offers what the Party cannot — moral authority that transcends borders and outlasts regimes.”
“I’ve seen the fear in officials’ eyes when discussing the underground church. They know that some Chinese citizens kneel before an authority the Party can’t control,” he added.
In addition to its years of suppressing independent Christian prayer by forcing Christians to replace crosses in their homes with pictures of Xi Jinping and displays of the Ten Commandments with meaningless Xi Jinping quotes, the regime announced in April that, as of May 1, missionary work was essentially outlawed. In a series of new directives, the regime essentially made it impossible for any foreigners to engage in religious activity when Chinese nationals are present.
“Collective religious activities organized by foreigners in China are restricted to foreign participants only,” one of the new rules stated.
The Global Times, an English-language Chinese state propaganda outlet, explained that the new rules were supposedly necessary because “some foreigners have engaged in illegal preaching and religious activities, affecting religious harmony and social stability.” Beijing considers any deviation from total worship of Xi Jinping and communist atheism as a threat to “social stability.”
Foreign nationals, it went on, are “prohibited from using religion to undermine China’s national interests, public welfare, citizens’ legal rights, or social norms.”
“The revised rules reaffirm China’s respect for foreigners’ religious freedom and the legal protection of their religious activities,” the Global Times claimed.
King emphasized that requiring government approval for any religious activity means “nothing” for the protection of that activity.
“China’s new requirement that all missionary activity receive government approval effectively amounts to a ban on authentic missionary work,” he told Breitbart News. “The approval process (for missionary groups/churches) is essentially a facade. Any missionary work identified would be either killed off or compromised by CCP control.”
He called the new laws “laughable,” as Christianity has grown widely popular regardless — or perhaps because of — persecution.
“For some reason, the CCP (and Xi as its latest head) can’t seem to figure out that their very repression has caused the church to explode from 4 million (at the time of the CCP takeover) to perhaps 150 million today,” he noted.
“Despite all efforts and all persecution, the church thrives and will not be defeated. When the CCP took over, the church had under 5 million members,” he asserted. “Today, the church (Protestant and Catholic) numbers between 70-130 million.”
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