China+Detains+Church+Members+over+Public+Praying

Title: China Detains Church Members Over Public Praying Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/10/world/asia/10china.html?ref=asia Date: April 10, 2011



This article is about how the decision by the Chinese government to detain members of the underground Protestant church does to these churches and church members. Originally, these Protestant church members had a place to pray, and did not have to do this publicly. However, because the Chinese government decided to pressure the landlords to not rent or sell places for the Protestant church for them to pray, the Protestant church spent 27 million RMB in 2009 to buy a space for them to pray. But the government decided they do not want the church to get this space, therefore pressured the original owners not to hand the keys to the church. Currently, the church members started praying in public because they have no space to pray privately. This government interference caused the supply of space for churches to use to go down, therefore causing the price to go up, as well as the quantity decreasing.

Vocabulary - Supply - the curve set by a range of numbers stating the quantity that suppliers are willing to produce for each price - Demand - the curve set by a range of numbers stating the quantity that consumers are willing to buy for each price - Government Interference - when the government gets involved with the market

I think not letting the church rent or buy space for them to pray is a horrible decision for everyone. First of all, the church needs a place to use, and if the Chinese government does not let them use any of the private spaces, they will have to use a public space. And this is not what the churches want. Secondly, this is also bad for the Chinese government. The reason the Chinese government does not want church influence in China is because they do not want Chinese people converting to Christianity. When the government keeps pressuring landlords to not rent or sell spaces to the Protestant church, they are forced to pray out in the opens, and this will cause more influence on Chinese citizens. And that is completely against the original intentions of the Chinese government. Finally, this causes the prices of the spaces to go up, because many suppliers give in to the Chinese government and do not sell or rent to the churches, causing the supply to go down.