China cracks down on Christians after killing of two missionaries in Quetta

BBC report says kidnapping draws attention to unintended by-product of China’s drive to develop new trading routes

After the killing of a Chinese man and woman in Balochistan by militants, Beijing is at cross-roads. The two, who landed in Pakistan with the aims of teaching Mandarin in Quetta, were actually Christian missionaries aiming to preach Christianity in a predominant Muslim country, according to a report published in the BBC.

The report claimed after the kidnapping and killing of the duo, there have been internal crackdowns on Christians in China. Islamic State announced on June 8 that Meng Lisi and Li Xinheng, who were in their mid-twenties, had been killed. The pair had been kidnapped in Quetta on May 24.

“Their story draws attention to an unintended and often overlooked by-product of China’s aggressive drive to develop new trading routes and carve out influences across Asia, Africa, and the Middle East,” the BBC report stated.



The report elaborates on the presence of ‘underground’ or ‘home’ churches that exist beyond the official authorised protestant churches in the province of Zheijang, where the two had joined these underground churches. Meng Lisi and Li Xinheng,transformed the ways in which Christians were treated in China. Li’s mother who wanted to be named as Mrs Liu told the BBC that she is ‘proud’ of her son if he was ‘proselytising’ there. However, she expressed her dismay and questioned, “Why didn’t the Chinese government tell the Pakistan side to save our children?”

Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, a day after the Islamic State announced the killing, responded to a journalist saying, “You asked about the risk in building of the Belt and Road. I shall say that going global comes with risks.”

Since the incident in June, Christians in China have witnessed multiple crackdowns. “[The government] has detained at least four preachers from church groups in Zheijang as a part of a targeted blitz against house churches connected to overseas missions,” said Bob Fu, whose US-based China Aid group supports Christians in the country.

“They have been released but are not allowed to continue their activities and are banned from giving media interviews,” the report quoted Bob Fu as saying. The report also claimed that China’s Christians have been subjected to “increased scrutiny and harassment” in the last five years. “Crosses were torn down from more than 1,000 churches in Zheijand between 2014 and 2016,” the BBC report added.

“In Quetta, Chinese individuals could occasionally be seen on the streets before the May kidnapping but since then they have vanished,” the report continued. Professor Hasan Askari Rizvi, a Pakistani political and security analyst, said Chinese and Pakistani officials would have robustly discussed the Quetta case behind closed doors. "The likeliest outcome would be a combined set of procedures on both sides to ensure this doesn't happen again," he said. Indeed, China has continued to stress that it and Pakistan are "all-weather strategic partners".

The fact that China has invested more than $55 billion in Pakistan as a key beneficiary of its “grand plan” to connect Asia and Europe with a new Silk Road comes with a plethora of risks. Such major infrastructure projects stemming from China have created difficulties for the locals and Chinese tourists.



In Gwadar, the centrepiece of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, frequent attacks by insurgents have denied Chinese workers the freedom of unguarded movement on the streets, reporters there say. They remain in secure compounds and move under heavy security escort, according to the report.

But Beijing knows that as more and more Chinese missionaries follow the new Silk Road, other cases like this are bound to occur.