Hong Kong’s church leaders fear crackdown on civil liberties

Hong Kong’s churches fear they are being swept up in the ongoing crackdown on the city’s freedoms by the Chinese Communist Party.

Their concern has been heightened by the plight of Pastor Roy Chan, 39, and his wife and three young children, who arrived in the UK for a sabbatical in October, but who are now left “living with an empty wallet” after Hong Kong authorities ordered HSBC to freeze their bank accounts in early December.

Shortly afterwards, the pastor’s Good Neighbour North District church was raided by officers from the city’s financial investigations and narcotics bureau, and the police said a probe into money laundering and fraud was under way. The church accounts were also blocked, putting its homeless shelters at risk.

Pastor Chan said he was in turmoil over the bank’s actions and being unable to comfort his congregation at Christmas time. He denied any wrongdoing and said all accounts were in order.

“Maybe there has been some sort of misunderstanding,” he suggested.

Previously his church alleged “an act of political retaliation”, feeding existing concerns that Hong Kong’s churches, especially those deemed to be sympathetic to the pro-democracy movement, could soon be hit with repressive state restrictions like those imposed on mainland Christians.

During the protests that convulsed the Asian financial hub last year, members of its congregation ran the “Protect the Children” group, offering humanitarian aid on the front lines. They were regularly seen lining up quietly as a buffer between protesters and riot officers and trying to play a mediating role.

Chan said the group’s primary aim had been pastoral care for both sides. “We didn’t want anyone to get hurt. We were thinking. . . love is more important and we can have a dialogue,” he said.

He did not draw a link between the blocked accounts and the group’s activities but acknowledged it had stoked anxieties within a church community on edge over the broadly worded new security law introduced in June.

The law, which punishes secession, subversion, terrorism and colluding with foreign forces, was intended to crush the huge and often violent anti-government protests. Authorities deny it will curb religious freedoms, but few seem reassured after recent arrests of politicians and democracy activists.

“Churches are tense,” said Chan. “We think about what we are saying, about whether we are touching the red lines.” Some pastors had become despondent, he admitted.

“They told me there is no future in Hong Kong, that this is the end game. They say it sadly. They want to escape.”

Their gloom reflects a gnawing fear that the former British colony is no longer a safe haven for faiths, which have until now been spared the oppression commonly inflicted by China’s atheist leadership on religious groups. Attempts to control the spread of Christianity have intensified Under Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, in a campaign that also seeks to rewrite the Bible in the Communist party’s image.

In Hong Kong, while some church figures have publicly supported the government and national security law, others took a prominent place on the front lines of citywide protests last year. Such actions have prompted greater police surveillance and criticism in the pro-Beijing press. Many Christian leaders now see the writing on the wall.