Growth of Christianity

In spite of this clampdown, Christianity has continued to flourish in China. According to the BBC, obtaining reliable statistics about the number of Christians in China is notoriously difficult. Estimates vary between 40 and 70 million Protestants, only 10 million of whom are registered members of government churches.  A figure leaked by a government official this year put the number of Christians in China at 130 million, says Aikman, but the statistic he uses, and people are generally comfortable with, is 70 to 80 million.

Aikman says Christianity is growing at all levels of Chinese society, but particularly at the professional and intellectual levels. A big difference in the three years between the first edition of Jesus in Beijing, published in 2003, and the 2006 edition is that far more intellectuals have become Christians, “including a striking number of dissidents, political oppositionists and others – many of them in exile.” 

He says he stands by a projection he made in the book that within 20 to 30 years, about 20 to 30 percent of Chinese will be Christians. “By that measurement, China will, in fact, be Christianized. To be Christianized, a country doesn't have to have a majority of its citizens Christian. It just needs such a large minority that they are holding influential positions in government, education, culture, media, politics and so on.”

Aikman attributes the growth, in part, to persecution itself: “Persecution has always nurtured church growth throughout Christian history. The Chinese Church was very brutally persecuted during the Cultural Revolution of 1966 to 1976 – a time when enormous growth began to take root. “

Then, when the Leftists who ran the Cultural Revolution were arrested in 1976, China had an unprecedented period of religious freedom from 1977-78 to 1982, “when nobody knew what the rules were, because there weren't any rules,” Aikman explains. “There was massive evangelism during that time period.”

One reason Aikman thinks Chinese are attracted to Christianity is that they have been completely disillusioned with Communism. “They saw Communism in its purest most streamlined form in the Cultural Revolution and they said, ‘Thanks, but no thanks. We don't like this.’”

Another factor has been disillusionment with corruption. “The rapid rise in income disparity since China started going down the Capitalist Road,” says Aikman, “has thrust people suddenly into a world of multiple choices with no real reliable guidelines and very few role models. Everybody knows someone who is on the take. Corruption in China is almost endemic.”

So, Aikman adds, when Christians come along and say, "We don't believe in this. We have a different standard,” it is very attractive to people.