Reflections from Pastor John Cao is a series of poetry and writings from the recently released Chinese Christian prisoner of conscience exclusively published by ChinaAid. The piece below was written on May 14, 2024 and has been minimally edited for clarity. To read more of Pastor John Cao’s poetry, one can purchase the collection written while he was imprisoned, Living Lyrics: Poems from Prison.
Some people may say after reading the title, “I might be interested in reading about your stories of persecution, but you want to talk about China’s economy as a house church pastor? Are you running a high fever?” And to talk about the reasons for China’s economic downturn, a question that no one understands, you must be seriously ill.
Today, let me, an outsider, enlighten the insiders in a few words.
The fundamental reason for China’s economic downturn is that the government spends too much manpower and resources to crack down on house churches, which has led to today’s economic decline in China.
In 1958, the Chinese government launched the “Anti-Rightist Campaign” and attacked 550,000 intellectuals, followed by a three-year economic depression. During those three years, corpses were everywhere. Some data say that 10 million people starved to death, while other data say 30 million. It took four to five years for China’s economy to get back on track. From 1966 to 1978, China launched the Cultural Revolution. During those ten years, the economy stagnated and regressed, and people could barely survive. No need to elaborate.
Looking at these historical lessons, the inevitable result of launching campaigns to target people is an economic downturn.
The government’s crackdown on people actually consumes countless resources. In order to deal with Christian house churches, the government mobilizes the National Security Bureau, the Public Security Bureau, the Religious Affairs Bureau, local community workers, and so on. To hold a trial for a Christian case, hundreds of special police are deployed outside the courtroom, and the courtroom is filled with bought-off people. If even a small portion of these human resources were allocated for the right path, it would drive China’s economy. For example, every year, telecom fraud causes Chinese people to lose hundreds of billions of yuan. This money flows overseas and benefits overseas criminals. The phones of our house church pastors are monitored every day. If some of the police force used to monitor the phones of house church pastors were used to monitor telecom fraud criminals, wouldn’t it be easy to catch these real criminals? Another example is that the Evergrande Group owes nearly 700,000 Chinese people debts as high as 2.7 trillion yuan. Xu Jiayin, the head of the group, sat in a detention center for a few days, was fined 40 million yuan, and then came out to continue living a luxurious life. There are many people like Xu Jiayins all over the country, and countless illegal fundraising, with total losses far exceeding 3 trillion yuan. Just these few items together account for a loss of over 6 trillion yuan. China’s economic aggregate is 100 trillion, so this loss accounts for 6% of GDP. If even a very small portion of the police force used to crack down on house church pastors were used to supervise people like Xu Jiayin in various places, this huge loss could be avoided, and the 6 trillion yuan could be guided to invest in profitable production projects, and China’s economic situation would immediately improve a lot.
I only mentioned using a small part of the police force to supervise real potential dangers, rather than the imaginary enemy of Christian house churches, and the social benefits would be amazing. If the government used all the police force used to crack down on house churches to combat real criminals, not only would a large amount of funds be released in Chinese society, but society would also be much more stable and harmonious. The Chinese government spends tens of billions of yuan every year on anti-drug efforts. If churches were also allowed to participate in anti-drug efforts, the effect would be incredibly good. The relapse rate of drug addicts coming out of government-run drug rehabilitation centers is 100%. The relapse rate of drug addicts coming out of church-run drug rehabilitation centers is only 20%. There is also gambling, with hundreds of billions flowing overseas every year. In fact, China has enough police force to deal with crime, but these police forces are not doing the right things. The police don’t do the right things, and then report that there is not enough police force, so all the police stations, detention centers, and prisons recruit a large number of auxiliary police. The number of auxiliary police accounts for one-fifth of the total number of police officers.
The police don’t do the right things, but instead pick on defenseless people – house churches. The fines collected from house church pastors across the country are not even enough to satisfy a police chief. Moreover, this gives the impression to onlookers that Chinese police can only bully the weak, while real criminals go unpunished. At the same time, it also leaves a signal that it is difficult to live in China, so many people start to rely on information from TikTok videos to emigrate. On the one hand, the government wants to lead the way, but on the other hand, many Chinese people want to leave. In 2023, as many as more than 20,000 Chinese people emigrated to the United States. It is said that the lowest cost of emigration is 10,000 US dollars, and sometimes as high as 50,000 US dollars. Most of the people who emigrate are young and strong, taking away funds and potential Chinese descendants. China’s population growth is already not optimistic, and now another group is leaving, isn’t this making the situation worse? Doesn’t all of this have an impact on China’s economy?
Of course it does. Many foreign investments are withdrawing from China because the Chinese government is creating the impression that it is difficult for people to live and work in peace.
The result of cracking down on house churches is the beginning of the collapse of social morality. If house churches have indeed broken any laws, it is completely necessary to punish them. However, from every case of house churches announced by the authorities, the members of house churches are all innocent. Many house church pastors are convicted of fraud, which makes people laugh their heads off. It can be said that every church case is a case of injustice and political persecution. After I was released, some non-Christians who learned about my case said, “Who would dare to do good deeds in the future?” If people don’t dare to do good deeds, they will inevitably do bad deeds.
There is a phenomenon that I can only know as an insider, and now I might as well make this secret public. Before I went to prison, Chinese house churches were praying every day for the Chinese government, Chinese officials, and the prosperity of China. Seven years later, when I came out, I found that now house churches are praying every day for the Chinese government not to persecute house churches and for the arrested pastors and preachers. In other words, the focus of the prayers of house churches is no longer to bless the Chinese regime and people’s livelihood. Chinese people believe that man proposes, but God disposes. Without the blessing of God, even if the Chinese government’s plans are excellent, they may not achieve the desired results. Once, an official routinely came to question me, and I told him, “Don’t tear down the crosses anymore. Any high-rise building in any city has a lightning rod. Without a lightning rod, any solid building is vulnerable to lightning. Chinese churches and the crosses on the churches are China’s lightning rods. Without these lightning rods, China will directly face God’s wrath. With the church’s lightning rod, God’s wrath can be avoided. Just as if a city has 50 righteous people, the existence of these righteous people can save the city that is about to be punished. Now that you have torn down the crosses and arrested the pastors, what will you do when God’s wrath comes?” Atheist readers may say that I am playing tricks after reading this paragraph. Okay, let me end this article by citing the words of a great economist.
The father of modern economics, Adam Smith, once said, “Every moral decision has its economic consequences.” This means that a decision that looks moral may not have an immediate economic effect, but one day its economic potential will definitely manifest. The “Anti-Rightist Campaign” and the “Cultural Revolution” both looked like political decisions, but their negative economic effects have been revealed more clearly than ever. I have cited historical lessons, specific economic data, and the words of the father of economics. If you still don’t believe that today’s economic downturn in China is the result of the government’s suppression of Christian house churches, then I can’t do anything about you. You don’t believe it, but I do.
