Dashed Hopes to New Life

Posted on 22 May 2010.

Twenty-one years ago this month, millions of people around the world followed in horror as the Chinese authorities sent the army into Tiananmen Square to quash student demonstrations.

The hopes of young people across China were dashed as hundreds were killed and the main student leaders either fled overseas or were imprisoned.

One of the leaders smuggled out of China was 23-year-old Chai Ling. She was on the list of the twenty-one most wanted students because of her involvement in the demonstrations, but managed to escape from China, eventually settling in the USA. She went on to earn an MBA from Harvard Business School and to build up a large software company with her American husband.

"I stumbled on this idea that if only I could become a very successful entrepreneur, like Bill Gates, I could make lots of money and set up a giant foundation, then I could once for all overcome and free China," Chai Ling said. She has already used her success to support orphanages and humanitarian efforts in China. However, she gradually came to feel that her efforts were too small. "How could I, a humble individual, go against an entire regime that has enormous resources and networks?" she asked herself.

Over the years, many people had shared the Gospel with her, but her heart was truly opened when she heard of the traumas of a Chinese woman who had undergone a forced abortion. "If there is anyone who could stop this brutality, it has to be God, and it could only be God. Because I have tried and God knows how hard I have tried, and we did not succeed," she thought. This Easter Chai Ling was baptised. She believes God's plan for her is to bring God's love to China. [Above quotes from China Aid.]

Over the last twenty years, quite a number of the student leaders from 1989 have put their trust in the Lord. Many still have a heart to serve their country and long to bring real hope to the people of China. God is indeed at work, both in and through these people.

Praise God for Chai Ling's conversion and for the many other students of 1989 who have put their trust in the Lord.

Pray that each one might grow in the faith and continually be transformed into God's likeness.

Pray that these former student leaders who are now believers might use their skills and experience to bring the Good News to the land of their birth.

Pray that many others in China who have lost hope might find renewed strength and meaning through the truths of the Gospel. Remember particularly those who experienced the trauma of the June 1989 events.