SAN JOSE, CA (EP) – Popular Chinese evangelist and missionary leader Nora Lam believes that the election of George Bush as U.S. President will be beneficial for the Church and missions in China.

“Reaction to Bush has been good in China,” she explains. “George Bush was the only candidate who has lived and worked in China as a diplomat, and Chinese authorities know and understand his viewpoints quite well.” Bush previously served in China as a U.S. diplomat.

Lam added, “This victory vote has increased Chinese hope for more friendship between our peoples, and that is good for Chinese believers because it will help ensure the continuation of trends to lift restrictions on the freedom of all Christians – but especially Evangelicals.”

Lam’s private endorsement during the campaign, and photos of Lam with candidate Bush, were used in the Chinese mass media over the last few weeks. Her friendship with Bush has become widely known in China.

Photos of Lam with Bush are being distributed to pastors of unregistered house churches in China, where they are often prominently displayed. In China, where friendship is revered as “the source of all progress,” Lam’s past connections with the Reagan White House have been a source of courage and confidence for local pastors. Having friendships abroad is valued by leaders of both the official and unregistered churches of China, and strengthens their bargaining position with local communist leaders.

Lam is identified with the China’s evangelical community and house church movement. She travels in the U.S. as a banquet speaker, and has led over 4,000 Americans on missionary tours of China and the Orient since she fled religious persecution in her homeland during the Mao Tse Tung era.