Wu Yao-tsung (c. 1893-), known as Y. T. Wu, head of the publication department of the YMCA in China in the 1930's and 1940's. Beginning in 1950 he led the so-called Three- Self Reform Movement of Protestantism in the People's Republic of China.

Little is known about Y. T. Wu's family background or early life except that he was born in Canton. From 1908 to 1913 he received his secondary education at the Customs College in Peking. He then was employed for seven years in the Chinese Customs Service at Canton, Newchwang (Yingkow), and Peking.

A major turn in Y. T. Wu's career was made with his conversion to Christianity in 1920. He was baptized by an American missionary, Rowland Cross, at Peking. Wu then began his long career with the Young Men's Christian Association as one of its secretaries assigned to work among students in Peking. At this time, he was also an active member of the Mi-shih Chinese Christian Church, which had been developed by Ch'eng Ching-yi (q.v.) into a strongly independent congregation. The church attracted a large number of Chinese Protestant laymen who preferred association with it rather than with one of the many mission-related churches in Peking. In 1921 Wu was also appointed executive secretary of the Christian Student Work Union.

Y. T. Wu traveled to the United States for study at Union Theological Seminary at New York in the autumn of 1924. In February 1925 he also enrolled as a graduate student in philosophy at Columbia University. He was strongly influenced by the social gospel movement. After the completion of his thesis, which was entitled "William James's Doctrine of Religious Belief," he received the M.A. degree for his combined studies at the two institutions in October 1927. Wu was not ordained a minister, however, and he worked entirely as a layman in later years.

Upon his return to China in 1927, Wu became a secretary of the student division of the YMCA's National Committee, and from 1930 to 1932 he was the student division's executive secretary. In 1932 he was appointed editor in chief of the Association Press, the publication department of the National Committee of the YMCA in Shanghai. The press had been developed by H. L. Zia (Hsieh Hung-lai, q.v.) into one of the most effective publishing houses of the International YMCA, and in China it was the foremost publisher of liberal Protestant Christian literature during a period of steadily increasing demand for translations of Western works as well as for original texts by Chinese leaders. Y. T. Wu was known for his zealous concern for translation of works in English on Christian thought, ethics, social problems, and institutional development. Eugene E. Barnett, for many years the associate general secretary of the YMCA in China, spoke highly of his careful planning in the publication field. By 1940 the Association Press had completed a three-year plan of translation and production and had launched a five-year program for supplying books and pamphlets in translation and for the promotion of books on Christianity. During this period, Wu was also the author or co-author of many articles in Chinese Christian periodicals. He edited a short volume, The Jesus I Know, with contributions by himself and several other Chinese Christians; the Association Press published the Chinese version in 1932, and an English edition was published privately by the Christian leader T. Z. Koo. Wu's volume She-hui fu-yin [the social gospel], published in 1935, reflected his sustained concern with the application of Christianity to rectification of economic and social injustice and his long-range commitment to social progress. During the 1930's Wu was also active as translator of the Autobiography of Gandhi (Kan-ti tzu-chuan, 1933), of Pacifism and Social Reconstruction [Wei-ai chu-i yü she-hui kai-tsao, 1934), and of John Dewey's A Common Faith (ICo-hsueh ti tsung-chiao-kuang, 1936). In the early period of his career with the YMCA, Y. T. Wu was strongly pacifist in outlook. He was an early member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation in China and was for some time chairman of that group and editor of its magazine. But the Japanese invasion of Manchuria beginning in 1931 and continued Japanese aggression in China in later years changed his outlook. In 1937 Wu traveled to England, where he spoke as a representative from China at meetings of three Christian organizations: the World Committee of the YMCA, the executive committee of the World Student Christian Federation, and the Oxford Conference of the World Council of Churches on the Life and Work of the Church. He then went to New York, where he again studied for a period in late 1937 under a mission fellowship at Union Theological Seminary. There Wu was exposed to the political and social activism enunciated by Reinhold Niebuhr, professor of applied Christianity. After his return to China, Wu was a delegate in 1938 to the Madras (India) Conference of the International Missionary Council. During the Sino-Japanese war, Y. T. Wu continued to direct the publication department of the YMCA, which had been moved to Chengtu in Szechwan. Despite wartime stringencies, he succeeded in publishing a large number of books, magazines, and articles, many of them focused on the acute international and social problems of the time. His personal attitude, reflecting deep concern with the inequities which he saw in wartime China, was marked by increased disenchantment with Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang and by growing support of the political and social policies of the Chinese Communist party. Serious interest in Marxism-Leninism led him to attempt to formulate a Christian response to the radical challenges raised by socialist theory. In 1940 he edited Chi-tu-chiao yü hsin Chung-kuo [Christianity and the new China], a symposium in which his own contribution was important. A major statement of Wu's views came with publication of Mei-yu jen k'an-chien-kuo shang-ti [no man hath seen God] in 1943, a significant effort to square Christian precepts and devotion with Marxist understanding of human society and its requirements. Because of his critical and outspoken views, he was placed under surveillance by the National Government security police. After the Japanese surrender and his return to Shanghai, he was a member of a group of delegates from the Shanghai Federation of People's Organizations which was assaulted by a mob in June 1946 as it was traveling to Nanking to protest continuation of the civil war between the Nationalist and Communist forces.

Y. T. Wu was a member of the Chinese delegation to the World Conference of Christian Youth held at Oslo, Norway, in July 1947, and in August of that year he attended the YMCA's World Alliance meeting at Edinburgh, Scotland. Upon his return to China, Wu wrote an article in which he charged that a world-wide revolution was developing in religion as well as in economics. This article, "The Present-Day Tragedy of Christianity," appeared in the 10 April 1948 issue of the well-known Chinese Christian periodical T'ien-feng, of which Wu was editor. In it he equated the downfall of capitalism with that of Protestantism. "Historically speaking," he wrote, "the religious and the industrial revolutions are just two expressions of the same society. The religious revolution created Protestantism, and the industrial revolution created capitalism . . . ." Because the two institutions are so intimately related, Wu argued, contemporary Protestantism is in effect a crusade to uphold capitalism, and the United States, as the foremost capitalist nation, is the leading force behind Protestantism. Wu's article aroused such widespread indignation, particularly from the Christian Literature Society, which was one of the sponsoring institutions of T'ien-feng, that Wu was forced to resign his position.

When the People's Republic of China was established in October 1949, Y. T. Wu, as one of China's foremost activist Christians, enthusiastically welcomed the new regime. He participated in the establishment of the Central People's Government and held a number of posts in the new political structure: member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the political and legal affairs committee of the Government Administration Council, the East China Military and Administrative Committee, and the executive committee of the Sino- Soviet Friendship Association. During the 1950's he frequently traveled to Europe and other parts of Asia for meetings of the World Peace Council. At various times he was also an official of the Chinese People's Relief Administration and the Chinese People's Association for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries. He was a delegate to the National People's Congress after 1954.

By far the most important role of Y. T. Wu in the People's Republic of China, however, was as a dominant figure in the institutional realignment of the Protestant Church. In a sense, his 1948 article on "The Present-Day Tragedy of Christianity" foreshadowed the pattern of change after the consolidation of Communist authority in China. In July 1949, at the request of the editors of the Ta Kung Pao, he produced a three-part article, "The Reformation of Christianity: On the Awakening of Christians," designed to give more definite form to criticism of Christianity and Christian missions which that newspaper had received in letters from readers. In this article, Wu alleged a close connection between missionary work and imperialism in China and charged that American and British imperialism had utilized the Chinese Christian Church to further their political purposes. As society progressed from feudalism to capitalism to socialism, Wu argued, so must the Christian Church pass through the stages of Roman Catholicism and Protestantism to become a reformed socialist body. To achieve this third stage, the church must disassociate itself from the capitalist and imperialist order. "Protestantism today," Wu wrote, "is still living on capitalism, and separation from it will spell the death of Protestantism economically and materially. But this death is precisely its rebirth." Beginning in 1950 Y. T. Wu became the leading Chinese Christian in the major development affecting Protestantism in China under Communism, the so-called Three-Self Reform Movement. That movement officially began in July 1950 with the proclamation of a "Christian Manifesto," a document prepared largely by Wu and signed by 40 prominent Chinese Christian leaders. The manifesto, entitled "Direction of Endeavor for Chinese Christians in the Construction of the New China," had as its principal objective the cooperative participation of Christian organizations in the Chinese Communist program for national development. Chinese Christian churches were to develop three definite characteristics: self-propagation, selfgovernment, and self-support. These objectives had long been promoted by many Westerners in the missionary enterprise, but they now were enforced in nationalist and Communist definitions. Christian leaders were thus to help the Communist party liquidate the missionary enterprise in China, cut off the dependence of Chinese churches upon foreign funds and foreign personnel, and set up a new central organization designed to link support of the new regime with patriotism. It was later reported that the 1950 manifesto had gained more than 400,000 Protestant Christian signatures in China as a result of a mass campaign for public endorsement.

A second important event in the evolution of the Three-Self Movement was the April 1951 meeting in Peking of Chinese Christian leaders with Chou En-lai (q.v.), premier of the Central People's Government and high-ranking official of the Chinese Communist party. Y. T. Wu became head of a 25-member preparatory council which was to direct the work of the movement until a national conference of Christians could organize a new governing body. This national conference, with Wu as chairman, met in Peking in July 1954. At that time Wu made a report emphasizing that though so-called imperialist influences still remained in Chinese Protestantism, the churches were demonstrating a new spirit of "Lovecountry Love-church." The national Three- Self Reform Committee, headed by Wu, was established. This committee, which ostensibly received authority through a mandate from the Chinese churches, became the organization, responsible to the government authorities at Peking, for policy formulation and executive control of Protestant churches in the People's Republic of China. In March 1956 an enlarged meeting of the Three-Self Committee was held at Peking. Two years later worship in all Protestant denominations was unified. In 1961 Wu again presided over the National Conference of Christian Churches in China. In addition to responsibilities as chairman of the Three-Self Committee, Wu also held other posts in the religious field: president of the board of directors of the Nanking Theological Seminary, and moderator of the Church of Christ in China, the largest of the Protestant groups. His sustained effort to relate Christian doctrine with Marxist presuppositions was reflected in his Chi-tu-chiao chiang-hua [talks on the Christian faith], a volume including 11 earlier articles from T'ien-feng, published in 1950, and in other works dealing with dialectical materialism and with the Christian reform movement.

The publication department of the YMCA, in which Wu continued to serve as chief editor of the Association Press, took part in the Three- Self Movement by issuing a series of publications entitled "Books for the New Age." After 1950 Wu continued to produce many articles dealing with both religious and political topics. Three of these, linked by the theme of "freedom through truth," appeared in T'ien-feng in 1954 and dealt with faith and works, the death of Jesus, and God as the source of all good. In a later article, "My Recognition of the Communist Party," which appeared in T'ien-feng on 30 June 1958, Wu emphasized that the Chinese Communist party "does not believe in religion, but it protects religion and respects religious faith." In later articles, some appearing in the official Jen-min jih-pao [people's daily] in the early 1960's, he continued his vigorous attacks on the alleged imperialist aspects ofthe American Protestant missionary movement in China. Because of Y. T. Wu's sustained effort to relaje Christianity to practical social problems and to Marxism, he was a controversial figure in the eyes of Westerners in the YMCA and the Protestant mission effort in China. Most, however, respected his Christian faith and personal sincerity. Frank W. Price, a veteran American missionary, commented in his book China: Twilight or Dawn? of 1948, that "Y. T. Wu is like an Old Testament prophet; his soul is seared by the social sins and injustices that he sees around him, and his words, though quietly spoken and written, lash and cut. He has made a thorough study of socialist and communist theories and seeks a truly Christian answer to their challenge; some, therefore, think of him as a radical. But he is also mystical and a man of prayer." Y. T. Wu and his wife, Yang Su-lan, a physician, were known to have two children, a son and a daughter.