CHINA: China's largest bible factory expands in a country where religious freedom is tightly restricted

Record ID: 608252

  • Title: CHINA: China's largest bible factory expands in a country where religious freedom is tightly restricted
  • Date: 24th February 2008
  • Summary: (L!WE) NANJING, JIANGSU PROVINCE, CHINA (RECENT) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF NANJING AMITY BIBLE PRINTING FACTORY SIGN OF NANJING AMITY BIBLE PRINTING FACTORY UNITED BIBLE SOCIETY AND CHINESE NATIONAL FLAGS PAPER BEING FED INTO PRINTING MACHINE WORKERS STACKING UP PRINTED PAGES OF BIBLES PRINTED PAGES COMING OUT FROM PRINTING MACHINE WORKERS STACKING PAGES TOGETHER WORKER PAGES
  • Embargoed: 10th March 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: China
  • Country: China
  • Topics: Religion
  • Reuters ID: LVAADOUOZFGB8QMWW6RP8WLX4TWL
  • Story Text: China is a country where people caught smuggling religious texts or organising illicit services can face years in jail. Yet the country is about to become home to the world's biggest Bible factory, producing a staggering one million copies a month.
    Nestled away in the outskirts of the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing lies a 20-year-old factory called Amity Printing.
    With its plain and outdated frontage, it is hard to guess that this is the China's largest Bible-printing factory.
    Inside, well-oiled machines mix with an experienced workforce to tailor-make the Chinese Bibles which are sent to the officially-sanctioned churches across the country.
    First set up in 1988, Amity Printing is a joint venture between the Chinese Christian charity, the Amity Foundation, and the United Bible Societies, a global Bible printing network.
    It is in this space that China first permitted the official mass production of Bibles in a country that has seen religion being suppressed under the rule of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong.
    Up till 1979, Bibles and other religious texts were effectively banned by former ruler Mao Zedong in the officially atheist China.
    The Communist Party used to attack home-grown religions as superstition and foreign ones as subversive, but is now encouraging religion to play a positive role in society.
    With an initial output of more than 500,000 Bibles in its first year of production in 1988, Amity now prints more than 6 million Bibles a year, supplying not just China but also the rest of the world.
    The company says it is now using its spare capacity to print and export Bibles as well as Christian books in 90 languages to sell them as far as the United States and Europe.

    "For us, the Chinese people, living in a socialist society, we are free to believe in Christianity or other religions. So there is nothing strange about it. For Christians, they need to have a Bible to read, so there must be a factory to print these Bibles. Therefore, there is a need for such a facility, even if we are not around, there will be others coming in to fill the void and print Bibles. So if we are able to print Bibles for China, why can't we also print Bibles for the rest of the world?" said Li Chunnong (pron: lee-choon-nong), general manager of Amity Printing.
    The number of Chinese believers in major religions such as Buddhism, Taoism and Christianity have been on the rise in recent years but there is still a sense of tight control on religion.
    Amity says the official text for the Chinese Bible is sent to them from Chinese religious authorities and their task is simply to print them in bulk.
    The authorities do not allow the Bible to be sold in ordinary bookstores and are only making them available through official churches.
    The officially atheist Communists, who have run China since 1949, say religious freedom is enshrined in the constitution and citizens are free to attend ceremonies at churches, mosques and temples under state control.
    But international rights groups have accused China of jailing Catholic priests and Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns for remaining loyal to the Pope and the Dalai Lama, respectively, and also cracking down on unofficial churches across the country.
    Citing the success of Amity Printing, New Zealander Peter Dean, a consultant to the factory and its only foreigner employee, says religious freedoms can only be expanded in the country by gaining the trust of the Chinese government.

    "Basically, what's happened is, in 1979, the government extended trust to the church to assemble, worship, and print their own materials.
    That's been an open door to do that. What they did was that they extended a level of trust, and trust can be built upon. And that is what's been happened in China over the last 25-odd years," Dean said.
    First built up from a vast piece of farmland in the outskirts of Nanjing, Amity Printing now boasts state-of-the-art equipment that would be the envy of any printing company, as well as a workforce of more than 600 people.
    The company will also be moving to its new and sprawling 85,000 square metres premises in an industrial park in Nanjing by the first half of this year as it seeks to expand its production capacity.
    Workers here speak with pride as they witness the company's success and the globalisation of its products.

    "Ever since I started working here till today, we have witnessed how our company has developed. We have continuously tried to upgrade ourselves, both in terms of production capacity as well as the quality of our products," said 38-year-old factory supervisor, Zhao Ling.
    The factory houses a mix of Christian and non-Christian workers and they have seen the change of how the government has dealt with the issue of religion through the years.
    The ruling Communist Party has sought to stifle religion, denouncing it as "opium" of the masses as it became fearful of Western influence and had sought to remould citizens with Marxist ideology in the decades after the 1949 revolution.
    Major religions suffered a setback during the chaotic 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution when clergy and layman alike were persecuted, publicly mocked, jailed and even killed.
    Till this day, Beijing is still wary of religious and other groups that could challenge its grip. But in recent years it has relaxed some controls on Christians -- provided they register and accept official surveillance.
    In the factory, workers who were previously reluctant to admit their faith, now feel more comfortable talking about it.

    "I feel quite blessed because I am a Christian. So I feel very honoured being able to work here and be involved in the printing of Bibles," said 39-year-old factory worker, Xie Aihong (pron: hsieh-eye-hong).
    Market reforms introduced in the late 1970s have transformed China into an economic powerhouse and shattered Communist values, spawning corruption, eroded ethics, social vices and mistrust.
    The reforms also brought about the starting up of Amity Printing here in a previous farming district where its first staff were farmers who were trained from scratch to become printing workers.
    Official figures showed the number of Christians in China had risen to 16 million from 10 million in the past six years, but unofficial estimates put the figure at between 40 to 100 million.
    And this stunning growth has also contributed to the humble beginnings and the quiet success of Amity Printing here in Nanjing.
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