Having relaxed its COVID-19 restrictions, in April the Chinese government resumed and intensified its crack-down on churches, the Christian Post reports. At least 48 Three-Self churches and meeting places were reportedly shut down in Yugan County in the province of Jiangxi from April 18 to 30. Over 10 percent of the more than 1 million residents of Yugan County are Protestants attending some 300 official Three-Self churches.
New footage has emerged of an ongoing crackdown by China’s government against devoted Christians, including the removal of crosses and disbandment of churches.
Video footage of a violent police raid on a church in the Fujian province of China was posted by Christian watchdog group ChinaAid this week. Broadcast by Fox News, the 11-second video shows members of the Xingguang Church blocking police officers who were forcibly entering the premises and a member being dragged out of the door.
Christians in south-eastern China were recovering of serious injuries Tuesday after suffering attacks during a Sunday service amid a government crackdown on unregistered churches, rights activists told Worthy News. Church properties were also damaged in the May 3 violence against Xingguang Church in Xiamen city in China’s Fujian province, added advocacy group Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW).
The wife of a pastor imprisoned by Chinese authorities has said her husband was arrested for re-posting messages about the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports. Zhang Xinghong said she was told by Chinese authorities that her husband Pastor Zhao Huaiguo has been charged with inciting subversion of state power because of these posts.
The online Easter meeting of an unregistered house church in China was disrupted and six of its members arrested, with the government warning the church of severer measures if it continued to meet.
A pastor in the Hunan province of China was arrested on April 2 for suspected subversion of state power. Persecution watchdog International Christian Concern (ICC) reports that the pastor was arrested after his church refused to join a government-approved religious organization.
The Chinese government has continued its campaign of removing crosses from churches in recent months, citing bizarre reasons in support of the “sinicization” of religion begun by President Xi Jinping.
China’s Communist government has halted online church services despite the coronavirus pandemic forcing many Christians to stay at home this Easter, Worthy News learned Saturday. The online religious rights watchdog Bitter Winter and local Christians said only groups holding state-issued licenses could stream religious services online in China. “We can’t get together because of the pandemic,” an underground house church pastor in the province of Jiangxi told Bitter Winter.
Concerns remained Thursday over the whereabouts of a jailed Christian in China after authorities prevented his wife from sending him money and clothes, Christian activists say. Jiang Zhanchun was arrested in China’s capital Beijing last year when he and his wife discussed opportunities to be baptized with Christian leaders of a Beijing house church, according to the letter seen by Worthy News.
Christians in China have reported ongoing harassment from government authorities during the coronavirus crisis. China is ranked as one of the world’s worst countries in the persecution of Christians, according to the Open Doors USA’s World Watch List.
A Christian watchdog group in the UK published a new report this week on the erosion of religious freedom in China under President Xi Jinping, whose ‘sinicization’ campaign has set out to absorb faith into the Chinese socialist system.
China is using the widespread coronavirus outbreak within its borders as an opportunity to attack Christian faith, with the communist government demolishing churches or removing their crosses over the month of March.
A church in China formerly part of the government-recognized Three-self branch of churches was shut down, propelling around 200 believers to begin to meet in secret.
A church in Wuhan, China recently testified to God’s grace in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak that has infected 90,000 people and killed 3,100 people worldwide.
Xia Baolong, former deputy and adviser to Xi Xinping and a hardliner against underground churches in China, has just been appointed the new director of the Hong Kong and Macau affairs office.
Christians in Wuhan, China are attempting to grapple with the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, which has forced believers to meet online due to government regulations forbidding physical meetings.
Bibles have become a target of government raids in China, where the communist regime is now attempting to eliminate all ‘pornography and illegal publications,’ forcing some believers to consider hiding stashes of Bibles in the mountains.
Christians in China are sharing their faith by risking death to give out protective facemasks to the citizens of Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak that has killed over 900 people so far and of which there are now more than 40,000 confirmed cases.
A pastor in Wuhan, China, where the coronavirus outbreak is at its worst, penned a letter on Jan. 23 addressed to Christians everywhere seeking to describe the trial believers in Wuhan are enduring.