China is in the midst of an ‘ambitious new effort’ to lessen or even eradicate the influence of Christianity and religion from the country, according to an investigation by the Associated Press.
More than 10 officials from various government departments, including the local religious affairs committee, raided Gusui Church in China’s central Henan province on May 22. The government agents forcibly removed several congregants and the lecturer for that day’s talk on laws.
It feels like every day we are hearing more news about China increasing persecution on the Christian community.
Two house churches in Beijing reported that authorities in the past week have investigated churches and pressured landlords to cancel the leases on houses of worship.
A pastor of a now-closed house church in the capital of China’s inland Guizhou province was found guilty of ‘intentionally disclosing state secrets’ at a trial on April 26, but the announcement of the verdict was delayed.
Christians have been detained, and churches shut down or destroyed in China in the month before revised Regulations on Religious Affairs are due to come into effect on 1 February.
A Chinese house church pastor, her daughter, and her young grandson have been arrested, weeks after being accused of overstepping the country’s newly tightened religious restrictions.
Provoked by the mission work of a local house church, officials detained a pastor and her daughter on Sept. 22, taking the daughter’s three-year-old son into custody as well.
An organization with ties to the Chinese Communist Party has unveiled new plans on how the government can enforce its restrictions on churches, including forced registration with state-run Christian institutions.
Believers with Muslim and Buddhist backgrounds are the most persecuted Christian groups in China, according to a watchdog organization. And those Christians are in urgent need of Bibles in their own languages.
China has tightened its ‘choke-hold’ on churches across the country in recent weeks, according to the rights and religious freedom group China Aid.
The growth of the Christian faith in China continues its remarkable rise, with one pastor reporting as many as 100,000 new followers of Christ per year, despite the worsening human rights abuses and crackdown by Communist authorities.
The greater the persecution, the greater the revival. It’s a phrase Chinese Christians are using these days, and with good reason.
Chinese authorities in Zhejiang province have postponed the trial of five Christians who have been detained for defending their rights.
Last month local police detained three Christians in China’s Guangdong province for possessing religious materials, including a Bible.
The pastor of a state-run church in China’s Zhejiang province was recently released after eight months in detention.
Authorities in China’s Zhejiang province demolished a three-story church building in April after declaring that the elevation of its cross was too high.
The wife of a church leader in China’s Henan province was buried alive with her husband under the rubble of their demolished church where she suffocated and died on April 14.
The pastor of an official church in Zhejiang Province was sentenced after he dared to criticize Communist authorities about China’s ongoing demolition of church crosses.
Authorities have been harassing unofficial house churches in the Chinese province of Guangdong that haven’t submitted to the Communist Party’s Three-Self Association program.