Beginning in 1966, something called the Cultural Revolution took place in China. It was led by Chairman Mao, and its main goal was to enforce communism in China and to remove all the old customs, the old culture, the old habits, and the old ideas of China, and to replace them with all things new. Much of what they got rid of, however, was Christianity and Christians.
We see much the same scattering of Christians as we see in the book of Acts. Some managed to leave China, although they didn’t want people to leave. For those who didn’t manage to leave, the church went underground, but they felt they needed to hide their faith — which is still going on today. There was an internal scattering throughout China, especially away from the central areas of persecution.
But then we have Christian leaders in China who chose to stay, who were not scattered, and they paid the consequences. One example is Wang Zhiming, a pastor in Yunnan. Wang did not leave his post, and in 1969 he and his family were arrested. By 1973, Wang was executed in a public stadium in front of 10,000 spectators. He paid the price for his steadfastness.
There is a statue of him on the great West Door of Westminster Abbey because he’s an example of someone who died in the name of Christ in the 20th century — a century marked by the greatest number of martyrdoms in the history of the church. We have to expect no less in the 21st century, or rather, to expect more.
See Asia Harvest. “1973: Wang Zhiming.” Accessed June 2, 2025. https://www.asiaharvest.org/china-resources/yunnan/1973-wang-zhiming.
