1973 - Wang Zhiming

December 29, 1973

Wuding, Yunnan

Two of Wang Zhiming’s sons became pastors after his death: Wang Zhonglin (left) and Wang Zisheng.

The village of Sapushan is located just two kilometres from the town of Wuding in northern Yunnan Province. In the past Sapushan was surrounded by large trees, but during the Great Leap Forward in the late 1950s the trees were cut down and now the area is barren. Arthur G. Nicholls from Australia first brought the gospel to Sapushan between 1908 and 1911. Other China Inland Mission workers joined him and Sapushan was chosen as the headquarters for Christian outreach among the Miao minority group in the whole of Yunnan Province. Sapushan itself was a village filled with A-Hmao, one of the dozens of subgroups of the Miao.

After all foreign missionaries were expelled in 1952, Wang Zhiming was elected president of the work at Sapushan. Born at Changchong village in 1908, Wang spent ten years teaching school before his call to Christian ministry. He attended seminary in Kunming and was ordained in 1951. One account says, “Brother Wang was highly respected among the Miao and other nationalities because of his love for God and men.”[1] Instead of trying to destroy Wang by force, the government attempted to “rehabilitate” him. By 1955 it was impossible for him to continue in the ministry, and he was sent to Beijing where he met Mao Zedong and was exposed to the Communist ideals in the hope he would renounce his faith and join the Party.

Wang, however, was a slave of Jesus Christ and wanted nothing more than to see God’s kingdom come among all people. He continued to boldly preach the gospel, and throughout the 1960s he increasingly became an irritation to the Communist Party. In 1969 he was condemned as a counter-revolutionary and sent to prison, after being opposed by Elder Long, a backslidden pastor who gave in to government pressure and declared himself an atheist. One account says that Elder Long’s defection from the faith

“was more destructive than the government’s interference. With his intimate knowledge of the Bible, he could often pervert the faith by copious quotation of verses which were incomprehensible to ordinary believers…. In 1966, when the so-called Cultural Revolution started, Elder Long immediately joined ‘the rebel group’ of the red guards. In 1969 he fanned the flame in the arrest of Wang Zhiming, the zealous pastor of Sapushan church, who had for years continually laboured in combating Long’s apostatic words and deeds.”[2]

For the next four years little was heard of Wang Zhiming’s whereabouts. It is safe to assume that like most prisoners at the time, he underwent horrific torture and inhumane treatment. Still unwilling to denounce his faith, in 1973 Wang was condemned and rearrested. Sapushan was renamed the ‘Anti-Imperialism village’. An ‘open trial’ was held for four days following Christmas 1973, in front of more than 10,000 spectators forced to go to the Wuding sports stadium. A death sentence was announced, and Wang was immediately shot dead. The dire spectacle produced

“the opposite result of that intended. The converts did not manifest the slightest fear of the ruthless suppression. Right after the barbarous murder was committed, a group of Miao churchwomen, disregarding the consequences, rushed to the stand where Elder Long was sitting together with the public security officers and where he uttered his speech of denunciation, crying indignantly against the odious backslider, ‘Dire Satan, you previously preached the gospel. Now you are committing a heinous crime in opposition to it. Dare you come down!’ This courageous protest…suddenly threw the whole stadium into turmoil.”[3]

Following Wang’s martyrdom “the other leaders of the Miao churches, 34 in all, were also arrested and sentenced to reform through labour…. Wang Zisheng, son of the late Rev. Wang…was one of the 34 leaders who were arrested.”[4] In the late 1970s and early 1980s Wang Zisheng was opposed by some of the Christians in Wuding and called a Judas and a disgrace to his father’s name because of his involvement with the Three-Self Church. Another of Wang Zhiming’s sons, Wang Zhonglin, also became a pastor.

In 1980 the government decided they had made a mistake in killing Wang Zhiming and they “rehabilitated” him. A sum of 1,300 Yuan (about US$250) was paid to his family as compensation. Later, in 1995, a stone memorial tablet was erected at Changchong. The inscription not only gives a good summary of Wang’s life and death, but provides a stark confession of wrongdoing by the government. It reads:

“Wang Zhiming was educated in Christian schools from childhood, and had deep feelings for the faith, and a love and desire to serve the Lord…. In peace and with a clear sense of calling, Pastor Wang gave himself throughout his life. Learning from the shining example of Jesus Christ, glorifying God and bringing benefit to the people was his life’s work. He loved his country and was dedicated to the Church, although he endured many storms.

In spite of all kinds of setbacks he kept on fighting. Calmly and courageously, he learned to contribute everything to the Church. Unfortunately the Gang of Four emerged in China and brought cruelty, evil and inhumanity to the nation. Wang Zhiming was unjustly arrested on May 11, 1969. Fabricated evidence led to his conviction and he was martyred in Wuding on December 29, 1973. He died at the age of 66. As Scripture says of the Saints, ‘They will rest from their labours, for their deeds follow them.’”[5]

Wang Zhiming has not only been honoured in his homeland, but a statue of him stands in the western façade of London’s Westminster Abbey, one of ten statues honouring 20th century martyrs. The Communist’s plan to obliterate Christianity from Wuding County has backfired spectacularly. From a total of 2,795 Christians in the county in the mid-1960s,[6] the church in Wuding has grown and now numbers around 60,000,[7] of whom 30,000 are ethnic Miao people.[8]

1. Kwok Sheng, “‘Big Stream’ and ‘Small Stream’ Churches in Wuding,” Bridge (No.23, May-June 1987), 14.
2. Tien, Peaks of Faith, 95.
3. Tien, Peaks of Faith, 95-96.
4. Kwok, “‘Big Stream’ and ‘Small Stream’ Churches,” 14.
5. “Grave of Christian Martyr of Cultural Revolution erected in Yunnan,” Amity News Service (May-June 1996).
6. Intercessory Insight: The Hmong (December 25, 2002).
7. There were 26,000 believers in Wuding in 1985, and 28,000 in 1989, according to Yang Xuezhang (ed.), The History of Religion in Yunnan (Kunming: Religious Affairs Institute of the Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences, 1999), cited in China Insight (May-June 2001). Amity News Service (May-June 1999) estimated 25,000 believers in Wuding.
8. Pray for China (September 1995).