1933 - Bei Jinzhen & Zheng Xiangpu

January 1933

Hami, Xinjiang

The town of Hami, at the north-eastern end of the massive Taklimakan Desert in Xinjiang, was the location of the martyrdom of two Seventh-Day Adventist evangelists in 1933. That year witnessed an anti-Christian persecution in many parts of the Muslim-dominated region—a persecution that setback the advance of the gospel among Xinjiang’s many Islamic groups.

The SDA mission first thought seriously about sending workers to Xinjiang in 1931. Bei Jinzhen had been an earnest and effective colporteur for the gospel in Henan Province. He was the first to volunteer to go to Xinjiang, and started to make plans in April 1930. A missionary said, “Brother Bei was recognized as one whose contacts with others left a good impression, and he led many a purchaser of our literature to study further concerning the truths of Scripture.”[1] About the same time, an ordained preacher named Zheng Xiangpu, from Hunan Province, offered to fill the gap left by Bei Jinzhen’s departure for Xinjiang. As Zheng prepared for the move to Henan Province a change of plan occurred, and it was decided the two should join together and travel to Xinjiang as a team.

The initial strategy for Bei and Zheng was to ‘spy out the land’. Commencing in February 1931 they travelled over 1,000 miles (1,620 km) through the Gansu Corridor into the eastern parts of Xinjiang, looking for future ministry opportunities and getting a feel for the kind of worker that would be needed for such a difficult place. The SDA mission was determined to make their work in Xinjiang self-supporting from the start, so that no foreign money or control would be provided. The Chinese Church would have to trust God to provide all their needs. Both Bei and Zheng were married, and their wives and children remained at home while they travelled to Xinjiang. The local churches agreed to provide money and food for the evangelists’ families to live on while the men were gone. Just to get from Central China to Urumqi—the capital of Xinjiang—took 100 days of gruelling travel. From Urumqi to Kashgar, on the opposite side of the desert yet still within Xinjiang, took another 56 days. To support their trip, Bei and Zheng had to sell gospel booklets and live off the proceeds. Thousands of booklets were mailed to post offices along their projected route, where the preachers intended to pick them up as they travelled. In the 1930s this was no easy task. They soon found that

“One shipment that had been sent from Shanghai…direct to Urumqi, Xinjiang, by Chinese post, was lodged for upwards of a year at one of the frontier posts a few miles east of the borders of Xinjiang. But even this was finally sent through. Meanwhile, further shipments were made by other routes.”[2]

One evangelist rode on a horse and the other a mule, while they hired a man to accompany them with his horse and cart, carrying the literature. They successfully established relationships in many of the major towns along the ancient Silk Road. In order to cross the huge desert, Bei and Zheng sold their horse and mule and purchased hardy camels for the exhaustive journey. They met many Mongols en route who showed an interest in Christianity, but the Muslims showed much less interest, and occasionally threatened to kill the two evangelists.

After almost two years had passed, Bei and Zheng started to head home, with thoughts of seeing their families uttermost in their minds. It took them 18 days to cross the desert from Urumqi to the town of Hami in eastern Xinjiang, the last major stop before the Great Wall. The preachers did not know that the Muslims of Hami were planning to massacre every Han Chinese person residing in the city. Two days after Bei and Zheng arrived, 1,700 Chinese were horribly slaughtered, with not a single man, woman or child left alive.

Bei Jinzhen and Zheng Xiangpu were never heard from again, and it was presumed they were among those massacred at Hami. The two young evangelists could easily have remained in the safety of their homes with their loving families, but for the sake of the kingdom of God they had sacrificed their personal comfort and placed themselves in danger. Once it became apparent the two men were not coming back from their journey, the Division Executive Committee of the Seventh-Day Adventists issued the following tribute:

“We wish to express our deep solicitude in behalf of the two colporteur evangelists, Brethren Zheng Xiangpu and Bei Jinzhen, who, after two years of most earnest and devoted labour throughout the Northwest, they having touched at some of the most distant points, including Kashgar, were returning joyously to their families, from whom they had been separated so long…. May the worthy example of these noble pioneers of the Northwest lead us to greater consecration of life and effort, to the hastening of the day of final deliverance.”[3]

1. Crisler, China’s Borderlands and Beyond, 321.
2. Crisler, China’s Borderlands and Beyond, 324-325.
3. Crisler, China’s Borderlands and Beyond, 330.