In 2015, I visited China’s Beatitudes (Bafu) Public School, an unregistered church-run school in the outskirts of Beijing, and was impressed by its level of professionalism: Bright crafts hung on the classroom walls, and a reading nook was fashioned with draped pink cloth, bookshelves, and cushions. During Monday morning chapel, students in uniforms sang worship songs and then lined up to place their offerings into a tithe box. Outside, kids chased each other during recess, playing on the wooden play set next to a garden they tended as part of their science class.
But today, the students no longer have a school to attend. Authorities pressured the site’s landlord to evict the elementary school in January. Then last week, 40 public security guards in riot gear barricaded the gate to the separate Beatitudes Kindergarten, preventing teachers and parents from entering, even though the school’s lease...
E. A. Johnston | 10/6/2012
