Anyone who has lived in communist china,is it really illegal to own a bible?

Question

or is this a bunch of hyped bs? What speciifcally would the police do if you are reading a bible at a public coffee shop?
What about reading the bible on the internet? Are those site filtered out like alot of ther sites? Can you REALLY go to jail for this sort of thing? I would like to hear from sum1 with firstshand info, thanks

Answer 1

No, that is hogwash.

I teach English in the PRC and I have students that carry bibles to class.

What is illegal is for people to openly hand out bibles, or any religious items, or political literature. The government could care less what people think or do, as long as it is within the law and doesn't hurt anyone.

Falon Gong got in trouble and was banned because they wanted to change the government into something that it had never been and were very open about that. Consider this, in the USA, if a religious organization attempted to do that, the government would yank tax exempt status and force them to pay taxes on their income. If they don't comply, they can throw them in jail.

There is a growing small Christian population in China. I think, around 30 million.

Officially the government said for decades that religious people only accounted for about 10% of the people (I believe) now a recent independent study found it is about 30%, that being reported in state as well as independent newspapers.

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Finally, China is communist in name only. That is the opposite of capitalism. Arguably, China is the most capitalistic country on the planet. Even Henry Kissinger, the cold warriors warrior agrees that China is communist in name only. If one argues that it must be communist because of the name, then N Korea must be democratic because it has that in its name.
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Signed, an ex pat from the USA who lives in the heart of China

Peace

Jim

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Answer 2

For the benefit of Moonflower Unicorn, a few answerers before me, you can indeed own a Bible in Iraq. As a matter of fact, Hussien's foreign minister was a Christian.

I have never lived in China, but I have been there. I know a lot of people who have lived there, including missionaries.

There are Christian churches in China, although the government wanted to appoint the RC bishops instead of letting the church do it.
There are international churches, but you have to have a foreign passport to be allowed in. You can have a religion if you want, any religion, but it is illegal to persuade anyone else to become religious.

Even though I have not lived in China, I hope that I have answered your question.

Answer 3

I read discussion lists for English teachers in China. Recently there was a long discussion about the use of the Bible in English teaching. About 20 people participated, giving different opinions about the usefulness of the bible, but nobody said that there would be a problem in giving one to each student, (what he proposed) though many thought he might be thought to be not teaching English but Evangelising .i.e. not doing his job.
So it does not seem that it is illegal now to own one.
I agree with the reply about the name of China now - I'd say caling China "Communist" now because the communist party is the name of the people in charge is like calling Australia "Liberal" because that is the nameof the ruling party.

Answer 4

My parents just moved away from China (Xi'an, to be exact), and I visited them several times while they were living there. They lived in a large hotel with a lot of other Western ex-pats.

Religion is weird there. In general, fervent practice of any religion discouraged - quite heavily. Foreign missionaries are tolerated, but only barely. If you don't look Asian, though, you get a lot of special consideration, because the Chinese government is truly trying to uphold the appearance of being very welcoming of Westerners - especially with the Olympic games coming up.

There are Christian churches all throughout metropolitan areas in China, but they are "approved" by the government. The biggest thing is that the Chinese government is not fond of people thinking of any form of government (even spiritual - Jesus King of Kings, Lord of Lords, language doesn't go over well in China) as superseding their authority.

My parents went to a large Easter celebration in a hotel in central Xi'an. There were probably 400 people there, and they were all ex-pats. It was just like any megachurch service in the U.S., except the minister was German - though the service was conducted in English. The weird bit was that everyone had to bring their passports, and their passports were checked at the door. No Chinese citizens were allowed in, unless they were married to one of the ex-pats.

Simply, as of today, you may own and distribute Bibles throughout China, but distribution should be done with care, because if you appear to be rallying the masses, you're likely to get booted out of the country.

The Great Firewall of China is a real phenomenon, but we didn't experience it so much with Biblical matters. In particular, anything of a sexual nature or about Chinese government with a Western slant was not to be found in a Google search from China. What was really weird was looking up Tiananmen Square anywhere in China. There is absolutely no mention of the 1989 uprising. In fact, children born shortly before or since that time don't even know that the event occurred. It has been shushed out of the Chinese mindset.

Answer 5

I went to China in 1984 for 2 months. I was allowed to have 1 Bible for myself. I was told I was not allowed to give it to anyone, and they checked to see if I still had it in my possession when I left the country. They even questioned me about what I had done with a copy of "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" that I had given to one of our interpretors. I did not ever see a Bible in Chinese hands, even when I went to a Sunday morning service in one of the state sanctioned churches. That was 23 years ago, and things may have changed.

Answer 6

I've been to china, I think its a lie...if it is the communists are not best friends with the Christians I can tell you that... anyway, no one is going to stop you from reading a book written in English especially if you look like a westerner.
I am Chinese and can tell you the PRC is an oppressive government. You weren't (and possibly still aren't) allowed to be Jewish in China

Answer 7

I've been in borderline countries or sections not so secure, but for the most part, yes, Bibles in the 80's had to be smuggled into the country due to their "state religion"
In the 90's there were still people disappearing in the night and being tortured for being Christian in not all together being imprisoned.
To my knowledge, there have been less ruthless behaviour in the 21st century, unless you have a large following, make yourself a pain in the Government's side or openly protest, they may leave you alone...But...then again, its a communist nation. Just becaues the reports have gone drastically down in these previously used techniques, it doesn't necessarily mean they have stopped. They are by in large still Communists and controlled by Government / military force.

Answer 8

i am a missionaries daughter born and raised in Japan.. when i was young my best Friend Laurie Benson's parents went to china and got arrested for handing bibles out to the folks..... after allot of phone calls and pleading and praying.. they were let go and told never to come back.... yes you can get arrested and there have been some that do get killed for it........as far as the Internet goes well some rural folks don't even have electricity or know how to use computer so that's out of the question

Answer 9

this is ridiculous.
it is toally legal in China. Even protests are legal in China now.The site fiiltering is true but nobody goes to jail for that sort of thing.

Answer 10

I think it is not illegal.May b that is communist China,nowadays they do not conflict the other religions.So u don't go to the jail.Internet?They like it.So u can read anything from net in China.