Christians are playing a major role in the massive protests taking place in Hong Kong in recent days. Millions of people have taken to the streets demanding freedom.

The protests were sparked by the Hong Kong government’s introduction of an extradition bill that would allow the government to extradite people to countries where they committed crimes. The bill was sparked by a Hong Kong man who killed his girl friend while visiting her in Taiwan. The man fled back to Hong Kong and the Taiwanese government asked for his return.

However, if passed this law would also allow China to demand extradition of Hong Kong citizens for prosecution, essentially giving China partial control of Hong Kong’s justice system.

Currently, the people are allowed to freely express their views in Hong Kong, including criticism of China’s communist government. If this extradition law is passed, many believe the Chinese government will trump up charges against anti -communist Hong Kong activists and demand their extradition and begin to slowly weed out opposition in this way.

Many also suspect the Chinese government would even concoct charges against citizens of other countries such as Canada and the US, demand their extradition and then hold them hostage as the communist regime tries to exert pressure on the international stage.

For decades Hong Kong was operated as a British colony but that all changed in 1997 when the British government returned control of the colony to China. But under the agreement, Hong Kong was allowed to operate under a governmental and judicial system developed under Britain. There would be political, economic and religious freedoms in Hong Kong and this would be guaranteed for 50 years following the 1997 agreement.

But China’s recent return to hard line Communism under president Xi Jinping who is now exerting tyrannical control of China and wants to exert more control of the former British colony that include pre-approving candidates running in Hong Kong elections. Carrie Lam, the Chief Executive officer of Hong Kong, is considered little more than a puppet for the Beijing government, and she was instrumental in bringing forward the extradition law.

But in response millions, mostly young people, have taken to the streets opposing the draconian efforts by the Chinese government and it is being reported that Christians are playing a big role in the protests.

One of the key leaders in the movement is a Christian man named Joshua Wong. He has been interviewed several times by the media as he calls for continued freedoms in Hong Kong.

And videos are surfacing of protesters singing “Hallelujah to the Lord” that has become the unofficial anthem of the protest despite only 10% of Hong Kong’s 7.5 million residents identifying as Christian. People are even suggestion that the song seems to even defuse the tension between the people and police when it’s sung.

In 2014, there were similar protests in Hong Kong as its citizens protested the Chinese government’s attempt to break the agreement reached in 1997. It was referred to as the “Umbrella Movement” as people took to the streets with umbrellas as part of the protest that included opposition to Beijing’s desire to pre-screen political candidates in Hong Kong elections.

Even these protests that took place five years earlier had a distinctly Christian flavor to them causing the Wallstreet Journal to describe it as including:

“an undercurrent of another, much older tension: Between Christianity and Communist China.”

After the 2014 protests, several booksellers who had distributed materials criticizing China’s communist government in Hong Kong disappeared and weeks later suddenly appeared in China where state TV showed them denouncing their anti communistic activities.

A survey undertaken by the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2015 found only 8.9% of people living in Hong Kong consider themselves Chinese with 25% of them considering themselves as solely Hong Kongers. The remainder to varying degrees consider themselves as both Hong Kongers and Chinese. Those who have the strongest identification with Chinese fall in an older demographic.  The number of people who identify themselves as solely Chinese has been declining since the university first started polling in 1996.

For now the protests have worked. Carrie Lamb has withdrawn the extradition law, but protests continue as they are now demanding her resignation.

Pray for Hong Kong, in what is increasingly being seen as a battle between good and evil.

“The hellish vapours rise and fill the brain, till I go mad and my heart is utterly changed. See this sword? The prince of darkness sold it to me.” –Karl Marx, founder of Communism, from his poem The Player

Sources:

• BreakPoint: The Hong Kong Protests: It’s Really a Clash of Worldviews: BreakPoint
• Hong Kong Protests: A clash between Christianity and Communism: Christian Post
• Record low number of Hong Kongers call themselves ‘Chinese’: Yahoo News
• Hong Kong protesters sang “Hallelujah to the Lord” as they boldly confronted China: CBN
• Christian leaders react to Hong Kong protests: ‘Christ will stand by us’: Christian Post