Letter From China1 Coming from Mexico where the LDS Church is well established (and as large as the entire Church was during my youth) it was some adjustment to find services being held cottage-meeting style in the home of our Branch President in Beijing. During our initial meetings in mid-1991 there were only some twenty people in attendance on a typical Sunday. Indeed, my first church services in Beijing reminded me of my first meetings in Scotland over forty years earlier where a few faithful Church members often met in private homes to take the Sacrament. And while there is another Branch in Shanghai and a few who meet in Qingdao, they too consist entirely of foreigners -- for reasons which will be explained further on in this letter. Beijing is an enormous, essentially modern city. Without a single downtown business center -- a bit like Los Angeles in that regard -- China's capital stretches for 34 miles or more from east to west and north to south. With its many broad tree-lined avenues, substantial number of lovely parks, and dozens of brand new high-rise hotels, office blocks, and apartments, Beijing is totally unlike anything one might have imagined of traditional China. It also has much more traffic than I'd been led to imagine. Of course, there are still myriad bicyclists, who until recently were held totally innocent from liability in whatever traffic accident occurred. And as in any situation in which there is no incentive to look out for oneself, there are thousands of vehicle accidents a month. Soon after arrival a driver for the American School where I was employed killed a woman on her bicycle. We settled quickly for about US$5,000 -- a fortune by Chinese standards, and certainly enough invested to support her family indefinitely in moderate comfort. Indeed, they almost seemed pleased with their good fortune. Even with the new shared-liability law, cyclists wander in and out of traffic, occupy center lanes at will, drift through red lights without stopping, and generally make life hazardous for drivers. For a first timer, driving in China under these conditions -- unlike any driving experience elsewhere in the world -- was perhaps the greatest adjustment of all. Following initial trips to the Great Wall, the Summer Palace, the Temple of Heaven, the Marco Polo Bridge, and other sites close to Beijing, Lola and I took our first trip into Central China in early September 1990: Our destination Louyang, the capital of China for nearly 2000 years during seven dynasties, the center where peonies were first bred, and for many years the Chinese end of the Silk Route (the Silk Route was later extended further East to Hangzhou, just north of Shanghai). Traveling from Beijing to Henan on the Yellow River restored the mental vision I'd had of China with its peasant misery, formed I suppose from reading Pearl Buck and Lin Yutang. Nowhere else in the world can one see twenty or thirty men working a single ten acre plot, most pulling plow or harrow by rope over their shoulders, while another guides the plow behind. A Brief Overview of Religion in China I studied Chinese History forty years ago under Professor Kallas at the University of Utah, updating myself prior to our arrival in China by reading Spence's well reviewed In Search of Modern China, as well as attending weekly sessions on China in the Foreign Service Institute of. 1. Publshed in Sunstone, 1994 the Department of State. Religion has always been in a very special way of high importance in China, giving flavor and much content to social perspective and social behavior. Before leaving Washington, great stress was laid on the importance of attending a State Department-sponsored seminar at Georgetown University in which a dozen Catholic and Protestant ministers and priests participated. We were reminded that Christianity is no Johnny-come-lately among the great religions of China. Nestorian monks arrived over the Silk Route within a couple of hundred years of the first Buddhist monks who arrived from India in the Sixth Century. And early Christianity flourished in China. Much later, with the arrival of European traders, the era of "unequal treaties", and the seizure of treaty ports, Christianity became associated in Chinese minds -- particularly the minds of the rulers -- with imperialism and foreign culture. Traditionally, Han Chinese have been quite secular in their outlook, and their religions had little in common with Western concepts of exclusive devotion to a particular deity or the afterlife. Taoism (or "The Way'), placed much emphasis on right living to avoid the consequences of bad choices rather as a way of winning rewards in the life to come -- akin in many ways to the LDS scripture telling us that "there is a law irrevocably decreed in Heaven" upon which all human blessings and unhappiness are conditioned. Confucianism is more a moral and ethical code establishing relations between ruler and rules, employer and employee, parent and child, and older brother and younger brother, than it is religion, at least in the Western sense. In traditional China one practiced whatever elements of a given religion one found appealing, without considering oneself, or being considered by others, exclusively, or particularly, a Taoist or Confucian, or (to a considerable extent) a Christian. Indeed, there is even today a good deal of ceremonial borrowing and overlap between Confucian and Taoist worship, as we observed during our trip to Louyang. Jesuit Father Matteo Ricci took advantage of this generosity of spirit to advance his work, maintaining that Confucian and Taoist worship in China were actually forms of civil ceremony which should not interfere with his converts' devotion to Catholic belief. This astute ruling, plus adoption of Mandarin dress to give cover of respectability, to which must be added the Jesuits' success in building a "high-tech" western observatory in Peking from which they were able to forecast eclipses of the sun and moon with far greater success than traditional Chinese astronomers, brought access to the Court of the Emperor and great success in their proselyting efforts. This astute ruling was later overruled by Rome at the instigation of the Jesuits' arch-enemies the Dominican's, who were apparently more interested in undercutting the successes of their rivals for the approval of the Vatican than they were in advancing Christian missionary efforts in China. The Dominicans reported to Rome that Father Ricci was tolerating "ancestor worship" among his converts, and Rome sent instructions strictly forbidding, this practice. This caused all sorts of problems for Catholic missionaries at the Court of the Emperor Kanxi, who banned them thenceforth from Court and from wearing Mandarin dress, significantly impeding the progress of Catholic Christianity from that point on. Indeed, the resulting soured attitude of Chinese authorities also negatively affected the work of the much later Protestant missionary work in China. Rome's decision was doubly unfortunate, because it was based on the deliberately misconstrued reports of the Dominicans. The Chinese, contrary to the widespread opinion growing out of this incident, never "worshipped" ancestors. They revere and honor them, and report family problems and progress to them through prayer and the burning of written messages (not unlike Catholic prayer to a special saint, or perhaps Latter-day Saint belief in Guardian Angels consisting of pre-deceased family members). But the importance of this mischievously engineered misunderstanding cannot be overstated in terms of Christianity's lost influence in Dynastic China. For a period, however, Catholicism under Father Ricci enjoyed great prestige at Court. Mandarin dress had given the Jesuits the appearance of being a prestigious native movement (as was the result when some early Christian leaders in Roman times adopted Roman Court dress -- still preserved in the garb of the Pope and Cardinals) -- to make themselves and their religion more acceptable to secular authorities. And Jesuit priests became advisors to the throne, teachers in some of the great universities, and participants in a number of the notable observatories and scientific establishment of the later Ming Dynasty. By the time the great North American and European Protestant missionary movement got underway, Christianity had been largely discredited as a "foreign religion" and its appeal was less to the well-favored and well-established than to the dispossessed and disadvantaged.* Nevertheless, by reason of the many schools, hospitals, orphanages and other charitable institutions run by Catholic and Protestant mission groups in China, by the time of the overthrow of Chang Kai-shek's Kuomintang government in 1949, it is estimated that there were approximately three million Catholic and two million Protestant converts in China. Mormonism in China There are anecdotal stories of Mormon sailors and missionaries stopping, more incidentally than otherwise, in Canton (Guangzhou) and Shanghai as part of the effort to spread word of the Restoration to Asia and the Pacific during the latter part of the Nineteenth Century. However it was not until Apostle David O. McKay arrived in Peking during his round-the-world trip in 1921 that China was formally dedicated to the preaching of the Restored Gospel. According to his journal, Elder McKay carried out the dedication in a quiet garden of the Forbidden City. The exact site of the dedication is not known positively, but members of the Church in China today have a pretty good idea where the prayer was pronounced, based on the description given in the McKay journal. Unfortunately, within seven years of the dedication, and before any substantial LDS proselyting efforts could be undertaken, civil war broke out in Ching-dynasty China, leading to the overthrow of the regime and the establishment of the never-firmly-in-the-saddle Kuomintang government under Sun Yat-sen, succeeded after his death by Chang Kai-shek. Gifted by hindsight, there are those who see this revolution, leading eventually to the displacement of the Kuomintang by the present Communist government, as part of the Lord's plan for eventually re-opening the door to China. Neither foreigners (particularly Americans) nor foreign religion carries the opprobrium formerly attached to them when they appeared the instruments of foreign imperialism and repression. After forty years of the worst type of domestic repression, things foreign (and especially things American) no longer look so bad. Indeed, there is widespread admiration of the United States, the English language, Free Market economics, and the Christian religion in post-Mao China. * Paradoxically, in today's China it is the educated intellectual who constitutes the dispossesed and disadvantaged class. The Effects of Communism on Chinese Religion With the Kuomintang weakened by the Second World War, Japanese invasion, and even more so by its wide-spread corruption, which discredited it in the eyes of the people. Mao Tse-tung and his communist movement succeeded in driving Chang and his forces from the Mainland to the island province of Taiwan. One of Mao's first moves in his effort to consolidate power was to compel all foreign missionaries and businessmen to leave China. The Catholic Church, as the largest and most hierarchically organized of the Christian groups, was obliged to give up its relationship with Rome and reorganize itself into the so-called Patriotic Catholic Church of China, its priests and bishops all being required to renounce allegiance to the Pole and all new church officials being subject to approval by Communist authorities. Support for traditional Buddhist, Taoist, and Confucian religion was assumed by the State, with priests of these (and complying Christian) churches becoming employees of the State. Policy was not dissimilar towards the Protestants. While Christian churches were permitted to continue meeting (with all the attendant social, moral, and political pressures against religion experienced in all Marxist regimes), they were particularly obliged to operate under the provisions of the so-called Three Selfs : Self-government (no foreigners in leadership positions); Self-support (no foreign financial assistance); and Self-propagation (no foreign missionaries). In the case of Catholics, to be sure, there has continued alongside the Patriotic Church, an Underground Church, whose leaders and members continue their allegiance to the Pope and to Rome. But they are subject to cruel punishment if detected. As may be known, the Pope from time to time creates new Cardinals without naming them publicly in order to protect them from persecuting regimes, and it is believed that there are one or more "Cardinals of the Heart" among the leaders of the Underground Catholic Church in China today. It was instructive to hear a Jesuit Priest at the Georgetown seminar explain that the Pope had been careful to avoid excommunicating those who'd chosen to participate in the Patriotic Church, taking into account the personal difficulties of life in post-1949 China. The priest took time to explain that during its long relationship with various regimes and governments over the centuries, the Catholic Church has developed a useful doctrinal distinction between illegal and heretical churches. And while the Patriotic Catholic Church is illegal it is not considered heretical. Of course, the LDS Church doesn't have the flexibility of non-revelatory churches to alter doctrine to conform to exigencies, but it has occurred to me that taking into account the reintegration of the Convention Movement in Mexico, under which Apostle George Albert Smith found that the original excommunication of the members and leadership of the Convention had been improperly carried out -- reintegrating them into the Church without rebaptism -- that something along these lines might be explored during this era of warmer relations with our RLDS cousins. Of course with the passage of a hundred and fifty years and the changes of doctrine adopted by the RLDS, it may well prove impossible to apply the "Mexican Convention" solution to the RLDS situation. Current Status of Christianity in China -- With a Comment on the Position of Mormonism During the Georgetown seminar a great deal of speculation was expressed about the present number of Christians in the Peoples Republic of China. While it was agreed that no one can speak with authority, the Catholic consensus seemed to be that even without financial or proselyting support from abroad, the number of Catholics (both brands) has increased during the past forty years from some 3 million to something approaching 30 million! Protestant ministers who had visited and traveled in China since its reopening to the West were of the opinion that the number of Protestants has risen from some 2 million to nearly 20 million. Mormonism has traditionally found most success in preaching the Book of Mormon as a "Second Witness for Christ" and the Restoration as "the time of refreshing" after the Great Apostasy Its appeal has thus been more to already believing Christians than to pagans or adherents to the other great world religions. But with 50 million Christians in today's China, the PRC clearly presents as great a field for missionary work as any of the great nations of Europe. Nor does this take into account the fact that after forty years of repression, may of the remaining 970 million non-Christian Chinese seeking a better way of life could find powerful appeal in the Restoration. Where then does the LDS Church stand in China today? Well, truth to be told, never having gotten much beyond ground zero, it still hasn't proceeded much further. There are however a small number of Chinese nationals, believed to number perhaps a couple of hundred, who joined the Church while living or studying abroad. And it is these nationals who must be the hope in China until such time as missionary work may be permitted. While, according to both Catholic and Protestant participants in the Georgetown seminar, there is currently no formal government pressure against Christians in the PRC, overzealous local officials still crack down on individuals whose profile may get too high. A case in point is an LDS guest teacher in a provincial town who, being invited to present a talk on his religion before a school group, was unwise enough to return for a second engagement and almost got thrown out of the country for illegal "proselytization". It should perhaps moreover be recorded that every compound in which foreigners are compelled to live, is controlled by a Chinese policeman on duty at each gate. Any Chinese without a special pass (technicians, house cleaners) is not permitted to enter. So when a dinner or reception, even for a Chinese official is given, a foreigner with a pass must be at the gate to gain entry for his guests. And the writer is aware from personal knowlege that when local LDS members attended the periodic socials permitted in theory under existing law, some were called in for interview the following week, instilling in some a fear to attend future. So attendance at Church socials is always on a voluntary basis. Some are brave enough to come. Some prefer to stay away. As a result, for the present our Chinese LDS brethren and sisters are not encouraged to participate in Church Services. First,because the number of foreigners so outnumber them that the "watchers" might be led to see their attendance as sinister. Second, because jobs are still insecure in the PRC for anyone seen, or believed, to consort too frequently with foreigners. It was fascinating during a Sacrament Meeting not long ago, to have the Branch President, who was presiding that day, interrupt his comments to pick up the ringing telephone, carry on a brief conversation in Chinese, then continue his announcement by saying he'd just been talking with Brother X who sent greetings to all assembled for worship that morning. The way is of course formally open to organize local members in their own Branch with their own leadership and supported by their own contributions. so far the Brethren, though they are keeping a close eye on developments in China, have not chosen that route -- presumably because (a) they don't want to force the pace of developments in a manner which might prove adverse, (b) because local members have no leadership experience and absent the possibility of close support from more experienced Church leaders (prohibited by law) this could be asking for problems, and (c) because, despite the rising prosperity of Deng Xiao-ping China, the average monthly income is still only about US$100 a month, and the cost of supporting their own activities without supplementary support would be prohibitive spread over so few heads. What is the Church doing while it marks time? Cautiously seeing local members in well-attended monthly socials -- which are allowed under existing guidelines. Demonstrating love, fellowship, interest, and support to the degree permitted by government strictures. Irregularly scheduling dinners for Chinese members in the home of the Branch President. What more can or ought to be done? Sad as it seems, probably nothing. The situation remains highly unstable in China, as can be seen from the arrests preceding the arrival of Secretary of State Christopher, despite cautioning that such action could threaten renewal of American Most Favored Nation trade treatment. China has a long and tragic relationship with Christianity and the West which prejudices many Chinese, not just the government, against both Christians and Europeans. And events in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union in which Marxists tenets and control have been overturned, have threatened the control as well as the egos of China's ruling gerentocracy, at least some of whom are survivors of Mao's "Long March". Tiananmen Square was evidence of the outlashing of these old men -- threatened in their very sense of being by young students rejecting the meaning and philosophy which brought about the Long March, the Great Struggle, the Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution. The rest of the world has come to realize that the economics of Marxism don't work and that the forms of government controls of Leninism lead not to the freedom of the masses, but to domination by "The New Class". But until the last half dozen leaves on the tree of the Long March fall, traditional Chinese respect for age is likely to leave Deng and his cohorts precariously maneuvering to protect the accomplishments of their youth and their lifelong dedication to moving forward what is elsewhere not a dead movement. Chinese abandonment of doctrinaire Marxism will happen -- indeed, it happening -- but for the time being the established leadership is dangerously clinging to authority . While this is so, it would be dangerously premature -- and futile -- for the LDS Church to try to force the pace. The present overwhelming problem with regard to LDS Church operations in China is as has been seen the PRC law presenting the Three No's Regarding Religion. There can be no foreign religious leadership There can be no foreign financing There can be no foreign proselyting Prohibition #1 has also been a major problem for Rome. As with the LDS Church, Rome insists on the right to choose leaders and to maintain leadership contact with them. This is seen by the government of China as in conflict with "no" number 1. The solution for Rome, as noted, has been a) to foster an underground church, and b) to accept the "illegal" Patriotic Catholic Church. Both these solutions are unacceptable to the LDS Church. As for Prohibition #2, LDS Church Headquarters customarily subsidizes mission operations until local churches get on their own feet. The modest incomes of the couple of hundred local Chinese members would render impossible any reasonable self-financed operations. So "no" number 2 poses enormous problems for the LDS Church. And without outside missionary support (No #3) it would be virtually useless to expect our 200 some odd local members to expand Church membership through their own efforts. Taking a sanguine view of things, it would appear that if the PRC honors the commitments undertaken in the treaty of reaccession negotiated with Great Britain to respect established practices in Hong Kong for the nest 50 years after reassociation in 1997, most or all of these problems will be resolved. The LDS Church now has several stakes and thousands of members in Hong Kong. With this reservoir of trusted and experienced Priesthood leadership it should be possible to call leaders from Hong Kong to oversee Church operations in Mainland China, avoiding conflict with the prohibition on non-Chinese leadership. Chinese members in Hong Kong, while not especially wealthy, are well-to-do indeed by comparison with the few Mainland members. From Hong Kong tithes and offerings alone it should be possible to finance Mainland Church operations in full compliance with prohibition #2. And, finally, with dozens and dozens of young Hong Kong members now serving missions in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and elsewhere, it should be possible after reaccession for them to serve proselyting missions in Mainland China without contravening prohibition #3. Everything will of course depend on the PRC's full compliance with the undertakings of the reaccession Treaty. Apostles Dallin Oaks and Neal Maxwell have demonstrated impressive skills and Church diplomats and as supervising Authorities for the PRC. As an observer on the spot, a professional diplomat myself, who has been impressed by the skill and wisdom of the Brethren in successfully opening work in post-Franco Spain and Eastern Europe, I think even the most rash and eager among us should be happy to rely on their judgement as to when and in what manner current Church policy in China might be modified.