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"I am a Christian in the interior of China. I have served in many China inland provinces and south-west minority areas. I want to convey my heartfelt thanks to the brothers and sisters who had made such an effort to supply spiritual food for Chinese Christians. I myself have been on the receiving end of your loving service from 1988 to 2008. On behalf of other Chinese Christians, I would like to thank you for your hard work. God sees your labour and it is not in vain. All you sisters and brothers who have worked so hard to bring the Word to China will be rewarded by God when the day comes. All glory to God and his son Jesus Christ, amen!

You have heard it said that now the interior regions of China no longer need your bibles that are brought into China from the outside, because the Chinese government and the Three Self Patriotic Christian organizations ( “三自” “两会”) have already published enough Bibles to meet the demand in the interior of China. Or you may have heard that China has religion freedom, so you do not need waste resources or to provide Bibles for inland China. But these statements do not reflect the state of the China mainland churches. These things are said only for the purposes of government statistics and diplomatic propaganda.

Below, I will share with you my personal experiences and what I have seen of the actuality of the church in mainland China to demonstrate that Chinese Christian churches, especially the house churches, still need many more Bibles.

1.You have heard it said that the Chinese government has already published enough Bibles for the people; and that they print Bibles everyday. This was proclaimed widely about that at the Chinese Bible printing and publishing exhibition. However, the truth is we were not allowed to buy more than 5 bibles once from some churches in Kunming city; some churches in Yunnan charge one more Yuan on the marked price; and it is difficult to buy large number of bibles. I experienced this situation in Yunnan province from the year 2000 until 2007. Moreover, many minority areas lack of Chinese Bibles, not to mention the Bibles in local dialect. I tried to obtain Bibles in Pinyin, the Romanization of Mandarin, so that minority people could read it, but this was extremely difficult. I mentioned this insufficiency to the patriotic Christian organization, but no one took the situation seriously. Even some Hong Kong Bible associations have no intent to work meeting the need for Pinyin Bibles for Minority groups. My question is, when will they get enough of these special Pinyin Bibles? The younger generations of the many minority groups are only taught the Mandarin Chinese language at school. Many of them not well educated. The Pinyin Bible is the only way they can read the Word of God. But no one is paying pay attention to this vital need.

2.A Chinese-Korean – Chinese Pin Yin Bible has already been published, but not by an ‘official’ printing house, and the price is over RMB 200 for one (USD$30). And it is not easy to obtain even I was able to pay that kind of price. I know the overseas churches sent the New Testament with Chinese Pin Yin to China, but very few made it to the countryside or the minority villages. I have been in Yunnan for seven years. In all this time, I have seen barely 20 Pinyin Bibles. I know many Christians who have a huge need for Pinyin bibles – the demand is far beyond the imagination of the people who say China has religion freedom! Some of the Hong Kong Bible printing companies have said they will lose out if they try to print the Chinese Pinyin Bible or Chinese-minority local dialect bible, because there is no market for them, and they will fail and lose money. This reasoning strikes me as a real departure from the original motivation of the Bible associations – which was to supply the Word of God to those who do not have it. Surely this must include the Minority groups and particularly their younger generations who can only read the Pinyin Romanization Bibles. I was so disappointed to be told this.

3.More than half of Chinese Christians live in the countryside, in remote villages and in Minority areas. I myself am from the interior. The local Government-controlled Three Self Christian organization did not trust me as a good local Christian during the time I served in south-west minority areas. Once, because I carried less than 5 bibles to give to a minority village Christian, I was detained and questioned for 6 hours. Once I was detained for 10 days and another time, I was investigated for more than more than 6 months. I had security police covering my every move. Some of my co-workers have had the same experience. So is true that China has religious freedom? I don’t think so. One Christian friend on mine in north-western Christian was sentenced to jail because he distributed Bibles; one Beijing Christian was sentenced and fined because he printed Bibles; one Anhui Christian was sentenced and his property confiscated because he printed Bibles; the same thing happened to some Hubei Christians. They have been kept in the prisons for 2, 10 or more than 10 years. So is it true that China has religious freedom? Is it true that Chinese Christians can get enough Bibles? I have been in Shanghai, Zhengzhou, Xi’an and other cities – everywhere I go, many brothers and sisters are still looking forward to obtaining Bibles, they are still asking for large numbers of Bibles. These people who say China no longer needs Bibles – have they talked to such people?

4.You may have heard it said that China now prints and publishes Bibles. I know of some Shan Dong publishers who made big money by printing very poor qualities Bibles. Pages were missing, some pages were out of order, the paper quality was very poor, the bindings were weak, and there were even many mistakes in the proof-reading. I also know of some Christians in Guangzhou who supply Bibles, but I don’t know how sincere these people are, as they smoke and have other vices. I bought the new Chinese Bibles and Original bibles with translations from Shan Dong, the former costs 20 Yuan for one and the latter 50 Yuan for one. That is a lot for such poor quality books.

5.In recent years, the cost of Bibles has increased. This makes it even harder for the low-income countryside believers to access the Word of God. When the optimists say China no longer needs Bibles supplied by overseas sources, they should think about the West-central areas and the other interior regions, where the people are so poor.

- Brother S, south west China, January 2008