UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE Quiet Confrontations: Transnational Advocacy Networks, Local Churches, and the Pursuit of Religious Freedoms in China A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science by Yun Wang June 2013 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Juliann Allison, Co-Chairperson Dr. Bronwyn Leebaw, Co-Chairperson Dr. Yuhki Tajima Copyright by Yun Wang 2013 The Dissertation of Yun Wang is approved: Committee Co-Chairperson Committee Co-Chairperson University of California, Riverside DEDICATION For my friends and people who fight for their beliefs and freedoms in the United States, Taiwan, China and everywhere. For my families, my mom and my love who supported me all these years. iv ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Quiet Confrontations: Transnational Advocacy Networks, Local Churches, and the Pursuit of Religious Freedoms in China by Yun Wang Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Program in Political Science University of California, Riverside, June 2013 Dr. Juliann Allison, Co-Chairperson Dr. Bronwyn Leebaw, Co-Chairperson My dissertation project explores the question of how activist networks operate in a highly repressive country when outside intervention is restrained. People have seen how effectively the Chinese Communist Party has cracked down on transnational religious activisms sponsored by Falun Gong, the exiled Tibetan government, and the Catholic Church. Nevertheless, Protestant advocacy groups from the United States and elsewhere enter China each year, despite the fact that the Party has stated that no Chinese church is allowed to receive any form of foreign support. I argue that understanding this variation in the success of transnational religious networks sheds light on the significance of an approach to transnational collaboration that is quite different from the “naming and shaming” strategy that dominates the literature on advocacy networks. I tested this strategic alliance argument with a mixed-methods research design, including face-to-face interviews, participant observations in four major cities, and a cross-provincial phone survey in randomly selected prefectures. v This project makes notable corrections to previous understanding about protecting minority groups in authoritarian states. First, it addresses the neglect of religion and religious activists in the scholarship on transnational social movements and activism. Second, the strategic collaboration that is demonstrated by religious activists and advocates provides an alternative to the "naming and shaming" strategy of conventional transnational activism that more or less relies on powerful Western states and the United Nations. Third, the project identifies two commonly overlooked causal mechanisms between effective activism and its networks: the alliance strategy of foreign advocates and the leverage provided by government-sponsored social entities. The role of government-sponsored social organizations has been largely ignored in the existing literature. Members from legal entities often help fragile advocacy networks by providing information, legal protection, and connections, while brokering acquiescence from pragmatic local officials. In return, the advocacy networks provide funding, services and, most importantly, necessary legitimacy from globally recognized norms and standards. This unique benefit makes local leaders who ally with the advocacy networks seem more legitimate in the eyes of their own constituency. vi Table of Contents Title ........................................................................................................................................ i Copyright .............................................................................................................................. ii Signiture ............................................................................................................................... iii Dedication ............................................................................................................................ iv Abstract ................................................................................................................................. v Table of Contents ................................................................................................................ vii List of Figures ....................................................................................................................... x List of Figures ...................................................................................................................... xi Chapter 1: Introduction ......................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Argument ................................................................................................................. 5 1.21 “Market” a Transnational Advocacy Network ................................................ 9 1.22 The Latent Source of Restraint: Tacit Consent from the Establishment ....... 11 1.23 Religious NGOs: Registered and Unregistered Churches ............................ 17 1.2 Exploring the Mechanisms .................................................................................... 22 1.3 Implications ........................................................................................................... 26 1.4 Approach to the topic ............................................................................................. 33 Chapter 2: Facilitating Activism: A Transnational Framework.......................................... 37 2.1 The Secret Handshake in a High-Capacity Authoritarian State............................... 41 2.2 Network Spiral and Opportunity Spiral: The Debates ............................................. 52 2.21 Network Spiral: The TAN Paradigm .............................................................. 53 2.22 Who is the brave soul ..................................................................................... 56 2.23 Opportunity Spiral: The TSM Paradigm ......................................................... 58 2.24 Without Civil Society? ..................................................................................... 62 2.3 Internal Spiral: Mechanisms of Marketing Transnational Religious Activism ....... 64 2.31 Internal Spiral with Limited Externalization .................................................. 68 2.32 Involvement of Registered Groups ................................................................. 74 2.32 Why Taking the Risk? The Incentives for Participation ................................. 77 2.32 Unregistered Groups: There is Nothing to Lose ............................................. 79 vii 2.33 Government's Threat Becomes "Cheap Talk" ................................................. 80 2.4 Competing Explanations .......................................................................................... 84 2.41 Secularism Promoted by Western Powers? ..................................................... 86 2.42 Other National Determinants .......................................................................... 90 2.43 Christianity as a Possible Factor ..................................................................... 92 2.44 Corruption and Personal Favoritism ............................................................... 94 Chapter 3 Religious Freedom Policy and the Registration Issues of Protestant Groups .... 96 3.1 Religious Freedom Policy: The Changed and the Unchanged ............................... 99 3.11 The Conflicting Trends ............................................................................... 104 3.2 TSPM and CPPCC-TSPM framework in the 1950s to 1979 ............................... 108 3.21 From Hierarchical Establishments to Grassroots Networks ....................... 126 3.22 The Failure of TSPM-CCPCC: When Co-optation is not Enough ............. 131 3.3 The Reform and the Religious Freedom Doctrines in the Reform Era ................ 134 3.31 The Institutional Source of Rigidity: Religious Management System ........ 142 3.32 The Source of Flexibility: the Discourse of Religious Freedom Policy ..... 152 3.4 When Jesus Meets Law: The Registration Issues ................................................ 163 3.41 Growing Numbers of Resistance, Rising Costs of Repression ................... 163 3.42 Protestant Activism against the Registration System .................................. 165 Chapter 4 Protestant Activism in the Heartland of China ................................................. 172 4.1 Protestant Activism in Two Directions ................................................................ 174 4.2 Religious Repression and Protestant activism in 4 Cities: An Overview ............ 179 4.3 City H: From Building Churches to "Outdoor Worship" ..................................... 190 4.31 Outdoor Worship: A Network of Disobedience .......................................... 192 4.32 An Movement for Public Space: Congress of World Evangelism .............. 198 4.33 "Failed" Outdoor Worship in City H ........................................................... 200 4.4 City W: TSPM and Backdoor Listing .................................................................. 206 4.41 Incomplete Boomerang ............................................................................... 211 Chapter 5 Pursuit of Religious Freedom without Basic Human Rights ........................... 215 5.1 The Formula of