Joshua Wong, protest leader in Hong Kong.
Maybe you’ve heard about the massive pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. They led by, among others, a 17-year-old kid named Joshua Wong. Wong, like several other protest leaders, is a Christian, and cites his faith as a motivator for his belief in democracy.
Christianity in China is fascinating, and Hong Kong is no exception. It’s only about 12% Christian, but that’s much higher than mainland China, and Christianity influences Hong Kong education and elite political culture, in remnants of British colonialism.
Meanwhile, mainland China’s Christian population is growing, and tensions are coming with it. China is often called out for its failure to protect religious freedom, and persecution of Christians has been a particular issue since this summer, when there was a wave of church demolitions and arrests of ministers – including minsters for the state-sanctioned denominations. China has also announced its intention to invent its own version of Christianity. (I’m not sure how this will differ from current state-approved versions of Protestantism and Catholicism.)
All of this obviously gives Christians in Hong Kong good reason to worry about greater influence from Beijing.
I don’t really have any insightful further details to add to this – religion doesn’t seem to have come up as a flashpoint for the protestors’ demands, so it’s more of a side issue. But as a casual observer of Christianity in China I’ll be very interested to see what happens next.