Shortly after Beijing picked John Lee (李家超), a former security chief and political hardliner, as Hong Kong’s new chief executive, Hong Kong police on Wednesday last week arrested Cardinal Joseph Zen (陳日君), a 90-year-old retired bishop, and four other trustees of the 6.12 Humanitarian Relief Fund that has been helping democracy advocates.
The timing of the arrests is carefully calculated, signifying the beginning of a harsh political winter for the Hong Kong Catholic Diocese. Cardinal Zen is the first bishop to be detained in the territory’s history. This brings back memories of mass trials and incarcerations of Christians during the Maoist era.
Bishop Ignatius Kung Min-Pei (龔品梅) of Shanghai and Archbishop Dominic Tang Yee-Ming (鄧以明) of Canton (Guangzhou) were charged as “counterrevolutionaries” and spent more than 20 years in jail. Watchman Nee (倪柝聲), an influential Protestant leader who founded the Local Church movement, was arrested in 1952 and died in a labor camp in 1972.
Since 2020, the National Security Law has given the Hong Kong police an arsenal of extrajudicial measures against political dissent, echoing the Maoist crackdowns on intellectuals, landlords, capitalists and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) officials. Constant surveillance, summonses and arrests, allegations of disloyal behavior and the confiscation of passports have made life miserable for democracy advocates.
Against this political backdrop, the Catholic diocese is vulnerable to the accusation it is unpatriotic — police have accused the former bishop of being a conspirator for foreign malfeasance.
Known to be a principled practitioner of nonviolent activism, Cardinal Zen draws on the Catholic social teachings to articulate demands for democracy, freedom and justice in the public square. He supported the Occupy Central with Love and Peace Campaign in 2014, a civil disobedience movement aimed at bringing Beijing to the negotiating table. His endorsement energized the campaign and inspired Christians to join the “Umbrella movement,” a peaceful occupation of major business districts demanding direct democracy.
Cardinal Zen’s courage contrasts with the political apathy and indifference that has shaped ethical values and norms in Chinese church circles. Under British rule, Hong Kong’s Catholics and Protestants exercised much institutional influence and enjoyed privileges disproportionate to their overall membership. They partnered with colonialists to build a system of medical, educational and social welfare ministries, and became less critical of structural injustice.
During the colonial era, Chinese clergy could decide whether to support the government’s policies or to focus on spiritual matters. Yet, after 1997, new realities have forced Hong Kong Christians to reassess their relationship with the mighty socialist state.
Worrying about the erosion of personal freedoms and the threat of communist interference in their spiritual affairs, some Christians followed in the footsteps of Cardinal Zen and embraced civic engagement as part of the sacred calling to serve God and society, and joined the democracy protests in 2019.
If the Hong Kong government prosecutes an elderly bishop on political grounds, it would deprive local Christians of the limited autonomy to reconcile piety with moderate activism.
The arrest has had a chilling effect on Christians and cast doubt on the efficacy of the Vatican’s quiet diplomacy and rapprochement with China. What is certain is that Cardinal Zen has spent years beating the odds and gaining much respect; he is not expected to give up now.
Joseph Tse-hei Lee is a professor of history at Pace University in New York City.
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