As Churches Revive, China Lets Christians Run a School

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COMMUNIST Party leaders in this remote township in Guangdong Province had a problem. Two-thirds of the village children could not afford to go to school. Their solution: Return it to the local Christian church.

Consequently, the secular leaders of the region were pleased to recently attend the opening of the new Love of Christ Primary School. The four-story concrete building, easily the most modern in the village, is the first primary school in China returned by the Communists to a church.

How this came about has much to say about China today, not just about the state of religious freedom, but also of a new official pragmatism. After all, it is one thing to let …