The Christian exodus from China
By William Huang, Mercator.
“Run” (润) has been one of the hottest words in the Chinese language since 2021. A clever wordplay on both the Chinese pronunciation and English meaning of the word, “run” refers to the recent trend of emigrating from an increasingly restrictive and authoritarian China for greener pastures overseas.
This emigration wave, which began shortly after Xi Jinping amended the Constitution in 2018 to abolish term limits, took off during Covid and has only accelerated since. This can be reflected in the surge of illegal Chinese immigrants arriving at the US-Mexican border. In the 2023 fiscal year alone, US Border Patrol has apprehended 24,000 Chinese migrants at the Southern border, up 1,115% (i.e., 11.5 times more) than the previous fiscal year. Chinese migrants crossing the Darien Gap on their way to the US has become a common sight, with both English and Chinese-language media offering extensive coverage of this new phenomenon.
Amongst the first of these Chinese illegal migrants is a man named Dong Zhao, who lived all his life as a member of an underground Christian house church in Henan Province, which is known to have a large network of house churches and home to many Christians. Dong claimed asylum in the US after a long and arduous trek across jungles and cartel territory; he eventually found refuge in Texas and linked up with local churches there.
Dong is far from alone in his story or journey. Ever since Xi Jinping tightened his control on Chinese society and launched crackdowns on civil society and especially organised religion in China, Chinese house church Christians have faced imprisonment, church closures and state coercion to join the officially sanctioned Three-Self Patriotic Movement. That is nothing new. What is very new, however, is that for the first time in recent history, there are high-profile cases of Chinese Christians, even an entire congregation, leaving the country to seek religious freedom.
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