Washington — A China expert says the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre caused many Chinese intellectuals to lose faith in communism and become Christians.
Loyola University of Maryland Professor Carsten Vala says Christianity has become influential among Chinese scholars and other elites 25 years after the crackdown on pro-democracy protesters that left hundreds and perhaps thousands dead.
At a Brookings Institution forum on Christianity in China, Vala and University of California-San Diego Professor Richard Madsen said Chinese officials are now frightened that the faith’s explosive growth threatens their hold on power.
The Rev. Zhang Boli, a former student leader in Tiananmen Square who now pastors a church in Virginia, said Christianity in China has “grown in the midst of persecutions.” And he said, “The stronger the persecution, the purer the church will become.”