Limited Liberty

This morning, I attended the English speaking service at the Weihai Church. The government has always preferred that only foreigners attend this service—they’ve want Chinese attending a separate service if they go to church at all.  Communist Party members may not attend worship of any kind.

 In the past though, lots of Chinese came to the English language service, and nobody seemed to care. Now, it seems clear that the government does, though I still saw some Chinese at the service.

For some reason, the government does not want foreigners and Chinese to worship together. I am told that in Beijing and Shanghai, one must show a passport to be admitted to English religious services, and that Chinese are turned away.