For all this Christians out here, this is what China is doing to your Christian brothers and sisters. Why do they do such things?
Religious organizations have to be "registered" in China and are supposed to be under te juristiction of government controlled organisations. The Chinese do not have "freedom of religion" in the western sense as under Communist legal systems (see "
socialist law") "freedom of religion" originates from the state and is not an intrinsic or natural right of the individual. This conception of the state is actually written into the Chinese Constitution (Artile 25):
The state strengthens the building of socialist spiritual civilization by promoting education in high ideals, ethics, general knowledge, discipline and legality, and by promoting the formulation and observance of rules of conduct and common pledges by various sections of the people in urban and rural areas.
The state advocates the civic virtues of love for the motherland, for the people, for labor, for science and for socialism. It conducts education among the people in patriotism and collectivism, in internationalism and communism and in dialectical and historical materialism, to combat capitalist, feudalist and other decadent ideas.
Historically, Communist systems go through periods of periods of anti-religious campigns and then by periods of
relative liberalisation (but never to a point where freedom of religion is unconditional). China has had a period of tolerance since the market reforms were introduced in the late 1970's after the end of the Cultural Revolution, to the point where there have been increasing tolerance of unregistered/"underground" churches. So the Churches that were demolished were "under the pretense that it had been constructed illegally" so that
probably means they were not registered Churches with the government. However, it should be kept in mind that "socialist law" is deliberately partisan in defending
the collective rights of the government as the emobidment of the people as is a political weapon against the enemies of the state. So the use of laws in a Socialist Legal system is best described as "rule by law" rather than "rule of law" because the law is treated as an instrument of the state to secure power and not as a way for individuals to assert their rights.
The answer is obvious: Because for many Chinese, the Christian faith can give them a measure of freedom and happiness. The Communist Party does not want them to be happy but to be miserable. Miserable people can be tricked into being angry, can be tricked into blaming scapegoats. An angry, poor population is good for the CPC regime's power and hence why they want to suppress Christianity.
Actually, the
reverse is probably true. The Chinese government don't want an angry population because of the weakness of Marxist-Leninist-Maoist ideology as the basis for legitimacy of the Communist Party of China. The
exact extent to which this is true is
highly debatable but the threat of "counter-revolution" is recognised as a problem to the extent that
the collapse of Chinese Communism is debated in Party Schools. The CPC has had to resort to appeals to nationalism or even appeals to anti-democratic themes in Confucianism. It is important to keep in mind that China considers itslef a "People's Democracy" as opposed to a "Western Democracy" based on multi-party elections. (see deatils
here).
Under Mao, the campign "Criticise Lin, Criticise Confucius" (through the period 1973 to 1976), their assessment of Confucius was that "Confucius harbored a fierce hatred of the social changes of the time," and that he intended "to make all slaves China obedient and submissive." The existence of Private Schools based on Confucious was denounced as "reactionary political line in the field of education". So it should be clear that the weakness of Communist ideology in China is such that they could not control or direct public expressions of anger as in the days of the Cultural Revolution and it would be directed at them.
On the subject of economic growth, this quote from Deng Xiaopeng in 1990 is revealing:
Why do people support us? Because over the last ten years our economy has been developing ... If the economy stagnated for five years or developed at only a slow rate – for example, at 4 or 5 percent, or even 2 or 3 percent—what effects would be produced? This would be not only an economic problem but also a political one.
The long-term security of China's political system hinges on it's ability to deliver economic growth and an improving standard of living to the Chinese population. If anything, the Communist Party of China would probably want to create a population that is affluent enough not to care about human rights and democracy.
