IN 1981 A MEMORIAL was erected in Wuding County, in the Yunnan
region of China. It is the only monument known to commemorate a
Christian killed in the Cultural Revolution. At its foot may be
found the words, 'As the Scripture says of the Saints, "They will
rest from their labours for their deeds follow them." '
Christian missionaries first settled in Yunnan towards the end
of the nineteenth century, and came to Wuding County in 1906.
After the Communist revolution the missionaries were expelled:
Christianity was identified with imperialism. But the religion
endured, despite the pressures of political campaigns and public
discouragements. Christians who sought to reconcile the demands
of their faith with the political requirements of their new state
could find the experience harsh and taxing.
Between 1966 and 1976 the Cultural Revolution brought an
onslaught against all that was ancient or venerated in Chinese
life. The young Red Guards who led the campaign sought to break
free of the past and to create a revolutionary society that was
utterly new. Religion must be destroyed. Churches were closed and
Christians were forced to meet secretly.
In the mid 1960s there were 2,795 Christians in Wuding county.
Wang Zhiming lived among them as a pastor. Little is known of
him. As a child he was educated in mission schools, and then he
taught as a member of staff in one of them for ten years. In 1944
he was elected chairman of the Sapushan Church Council in Wuding.
In 1951 he was ordained. Wang showed his loyalty to the state.
But he also refused to participate in denunciation meetings held
to humiliate landlords or foment hatred against foreign
powers.
Between 1969 and 1973 at least twenty-one Christian leaders in
Wuding were interned. Some were intellectuals, other workers.
Some were senior party officials. Many were sent to camps, were
denounced or beaten. Muslims in the county were also persecuted.
Wang Zhiming was known to be a critic of the atheistic campaigns
of local Red Guards. In May 1969 he and other members of his
family were arrested. Four years later he was condemned to death.
He was by then an old man of sixty-six.
Wang Zhiming was executed on 29 December 1973 at a mass rally
of more than 10,000 people. Immediately afterwards the crowd
broke into confusion and the prosecuting official was assaulted
by furious Christians there. The tumult is still widely
remembered.
Wang's wife was imprisoned for three years; two of his sons
for nine years; a third reportedly took his own life while under
detention. The policy to destroy religion was seen to fail, and
was abandoned. In October 1980 Wang Zhiming was 'rehabilitated'
by party officials, and his family offered compensation. Today
Wang is remembered reverently in the churches of Wuding, where
there are around 30,000 Christians, and more than 100 places of
worship.