Christians in China are facing a new turn of state persecution with Chinese authorities forcing church leaders to replace all crosses with the image of President Xi Jinping and Chairman Mao. Also worship services can only be led by government approved pastors while children below 18 years are prohibited from going to church. To enforce these oppressive rules, the government installed surveillance cameras inside churches.
According to a report released by International Christian Concern (ICC), the government has also forbidden parents from enrolling children in faith-based schools and is also sending children adopted by Christians back to their parents.
The ICC in its report said the Chinese communist government has intensified clampdown in Henan province, Shouwang Church, Zion Church in Beijing, and Early Rain Covenant Church in Sichuan.
According to the report, in 2018, the government began implementing an initiative called Regulate Christianity in Rural Areas Pursuant to Law. The governments in cities like Nanyang City removed crosses, demolished churches, or ransacked church properties, which gradually turned more brutal and violent.
During the joint actions of the local Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau, Urban Management Bureau, and Public Security Bureau against churches, the authorities seemed to follow a standardized procedure: they would intrude gathering places including residences, turn away CCTV camera or cut off electricity, remove any church-goer who questioned them, confiscate cell phones from members who were recording the illegal administrative act, remove any Christian symbols such as the cross or Christian signs, both indoor and outdoor, so as to avoid leaving any trace behind, and seize all the desks, chairs, and other items, all without showing their IDs or proper documentation.
In 2018, local authorities in China put Pastor Wei Jindang, Yang Liupei, and Zhang Yinan under administrative detention. In April 2019, Pastor Li Juncai in Henan province’s Xinxiang was arrested under the alleged charges of destroying accounting books, the crime of “duty encroachment,” and disrupting public service.
The Chinese Communist Party is also ordering poor families of Henan, Shanxi, Jiangxi, Shandong, and other provinces that have been deeply affected by the coronavirus pandemic to renounce their faith or lose welfare benefits.
The government has also threatened that financial assistance to the families would be withheld if they don’t replace crosses, religious symbols, and images inside their homes with portraits of China’s communist leaders.
The ICC in its report called for prosecution of abusers of religious freedom stating that they should not go “unnoticed and unpunished. With specific recommendations, ICC hopes to work with policymakers throughout the US government and the cohort of religious freedom advocates to advance religious freedom for Chinese Christians.”
