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.

Missionaries Find Themselves China's Persona Non Grata

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."

State Department Report: China's Respect for Religious Freedom 'Poor'

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.

The State Department also noted China's repression of the Falun Gong, a group it claims is attempting to subvert the government. "Falun Gong practitioners continued to face arrest, detention, and imprisonment, and there have been credible reports of deaths due to torture and abuse," the report said.

China has long suppressed religious minorities such as Uighur Muslims it accuses of attempting to overthrow the government. The State Department report says Chinese officials have jailed and beaten Uighur leaders in an effort to control their religious activities.

Similarly China has imposed strict rule controlling Tibet. According to the State Department Report in September 2006,"Chinese border guards fatally shot a 17-year-old Tibetan nun while she attempted to cross into Nepal."

China's Olympic Face-Lift

China's Olympic-themed makeover isn't limited to the country's spiritual composition. Traditional hotung neighborhoods are being razed to make way for new arenas, hotels, shopping malls, and roads to accommodate the crowd that will congregate from all over the world to attend the games.

New signs are being installed in English around the city. Old ones with improper grammar are being corrected. The city even banned spitting in public places in an effort to present a cleaner city to the world.