Converting Muslim – Missionary movement of Chinese Protestant House Church

Jie Kang

Chinese Protestant Christianity has grown exponentially in the last few decades. China has moreover become a missionary-sending country at the same time as its political and economic importance in the world has grown. Many Chinese Christians believe that God has been calling them to undertake the great mission of converting Muslims to Christianity. The series of political decisions made by President Xi Jinping aimed at increasing the power and status of China are regarded as signs of God’s work for China, especially the “One Belt and One Road policy”. The project attempts to explore the following questions. What are the unintended consequences of China’s political-economic expansion for the international religious landscape in general, and Christianity in particular. How does the China-led missionary movement to convert Muslims transform the dynamics of church-state interaction? How are the geopolitics of China and its neighboring countries affected by the dynamics of Christianity as a world religion in this new global evangelism?  How do Chinese Christians perceive and act towards international Christianity in the context of globalization? How is “Otherness” conceptualized, especially in the form of Islamophobia, which may be expressed through Chinese Christian unity in opposition to Islam as “the common enemy”.

The project is supported by a grant from the University of Hong Kong as part of the project “Infrastructures of Faith: Religious Mobilities on the Belt and Road” (https://brinfaith.weebly.com/) headed by Professor David Palmer.