China's Pre-Olympic Religious Crackdown

Sept. 14, 2007 — -- Aug. 8, 2008, marks the commencement of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing -- a date circled in red on the Chinese government's calendar.

China considers the Olympics its "coming out party," a chance for the world to witness a new, powerful, modern China poised to lead in the new century.

In preparation, the Chinese are scrambling to upgrade Beijing's appearance, both in billions of investment dollars to revamp the city's facilities and by cracking down on elements it fears will run counter to the central government's rigid agenda while the world watches.

Among those elements are foreign missionaries. Long feared by the communist central government to be a source of instability and opposition in a country with little slack for dissidents, missionaries are finding themselves ushered unceremoniously out of the country.

A State Department report issued Friday said China has "reportedly expelled over one hundred foreign missionaries in the spring of 2007." Some groups allege the mass expunge was "a government-initiated campaign to expel missionaries and tighten control on Christian house churches prior to the 2008 Olympics."

"We're hearing that police and public security forces are attending house church meetings and monitoring them more closely than before," said Jerry Dykstra, a spokesman for Open Doors, a group that works closely with several house churches in China. "It could be another sign that they don't want anyone, including Christians, disrupting the Olympics in any way," he said.

"There are a lot of restrictions in place now on who can travel," Dykstra said, adding that such restrictions on house churches are unusual, leading the group to believe they are tied to religious crackdowns ahead of the Olympics.

According to the department's 2007 Report on International Religious Freedom, "the government also questioned house church leaders about connections with foreigners and plans to disrupt the Olympics."

The annual report rated China's respect for religious freedom as "poor," particularly for groups not registered with the government. China is perennially rated a "country of particular concern" by the State Department for its religious intolerance.