China’s Three Self Churches belong to the Chinese Communist Party-controlled Three Self Patriotic Movement. The three ‘Self’s are self-governance, self-support, self-propagation, and the rejection of foreigners’ influence on church leadership.
Rev. Xu Xiaohong, Chairman of the National Three Self Churches, gave a speech at a session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, which started on March 5.
Xu said, “It must be recognized that the surname of Chinese churches is ‘China,’ not the ‘West.’ The anti-China forces in the West are trying to influence China’s social stability and even subvert China’s political power through (the use of) Christianity. They are doomed to fail. For individual black sheep that participate in the subversion of national security under the banner of Christianity, we firmly support that the state brings them to justice.”
Xu added that on this issue one needs “continuously to eliminate the ‘foreign imprints’ on China’s Christian churches,” and “continuously to carry forward and practice the core values of socialism.”
Estimates have been made that more than half of China’s 60 million Protestants worship in unregistered churches.
In response to Xu comments, Xu Yonghai, an elder of the Divine Love Fellowship of the Beijing Christian House Church, said that since the 1950’s, members of the Three Self Churches have been leading armed police to search for elders and pastors. “In 1995, the authorities arrested me. This was also due to the role of the Three Self Churches.”
Source: Central News Agency, March 12, 2019
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/201903120052.aspx