Presbyterian Church in Xuzhou Raided During Service

 It’s a miracle that these people have a way of watching the service online with all the persecution they face on a regular basis. Let alone that not all of them were arrested.

Just a testament to the grace of God.

11/04/2021 China (International Christian Concern) – A Presbyterian Church in China’s Xuzhou was raided on October 31 during Sunday worship. The pastor and four members of the house church were taken away, while others in attendance had their personal information taken by the police.

According to China Aid, local authorities from Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province raided Dao-en Presbyterian Church last Sunday when the worship was taking place. Pastor Fang Xiaojun and four Christians were brought to the local police station.

As a church not vetted by the state, Dao-en Presbyterian Church is not unfamiliar with persecution. In August 2018, Tongshan District Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau interrupted the Sunday service of the church’s South Campus and issued a notice of administrative punishment to Pastor Fang and Preacher Ma Ben. Since then, the church has often been raided.

On August 2, 2020, Pastor Fang and some members were gathering at a congregant’s home, while others attended online Sunday worship. The police raided the home and took Pastor Fang away. He was not released until noon that day.

Pastor Fang has a track record of standing with the persecuted(Read More).

Christians in China ordered to renounce faith

God give my Chinese brethren in Christ the strength to not renounce their faith and trust in Him as Jehovah-Jireh to provide for their sins.

Impoverished Christians living in China who are receiving aid from the state have been ordered to renounce their faith or have their welfare benefits revoked, according to reports from Bitter Winter, a non-profit organization dedicated to religious and human rights in China.

During a government meeting in the city of Linfen near the northern province of Shanxi, officials from all villages under the city's jurisdiction were instructed to remove crosses, religious symbols, and images from the homes of Christians who receive welfare payments and replace them with images of Chairman Mao Zedong and President Xi Jinping.

Clearly while China says they are an atheist government, they are commanding worship, namely, worship of the head of state.

During a government meeting in the city of Linfen near the northern province of Shanxi, officials from all villages under the city's jurisdiction were instructed to remove crosses, religious symbols, and images from the homes of Christians who receive welfare payments and replace them with images of Chairman Mao Zedong and President Xi Jinping.

For those Christians who refused to comply, the officials were told to withdraw their welfare benefits.

A member of a Three-Self Church located in one of the villages said that officials destroyed all religious symbols pertaining to Christianity within his home and posted a picture of Mao.

The policy is also being implemented in other parts of the country.

• The government of Xinyu city withdrew a disabled Christian's minimum living subsidy and a monthly disability allowance of around $14.
• A church member in her 80s from Jiangxi's Poyang county had her monthly subsidy of $28 removed for saying "Thank God" when her check arrived.
• An official from a village administered by a city in the eastern province of Shandong invaded a home and posted portraits of Mao and Xi saying, "These are the greatest gods. If you want to worship somebody, they are the ones."
• A Christian from Weihui city who refused to sign a statement renouncing her Christian faith had her allowance canceled. She depended on state money to support her two sons after her husband died(Read more here).

Underground Congregations Across China Facing Arrests, Harassment

 They are in my prayers.

4/24/2014 China (UCANews) - The powerful propaganda department of China's Communist Party last week handed Beijing's prominent underground churches a testing Easter present, banning any reporting about the Protestant Shouwang Church's outdoor services.

While Shouwang has been a target of the government for many years, the latest move against underground churches is part of a broader crackdown on dissent since the regime of leader Xi Jinping came to power in late 2012. The new government is targeting any organization perceived as a threat to Chinese Communist Party policy.

"There are thousands of family churches in Beijing, with congregations ranging from several members to thousands," said Xu Yonghai, a Christian activist in Beijing.
Xu told ucanews.com that members of unregistered Christian churches often shun the state-supported Church, whose members often aided Chinese authorities in crackdowns of "rival underground churches since the 1950s."

Since the eviction, the Shouwang Church has regularly posted open letters on chinaaid.org -- a US-based aid organization for Chinese Christians -- announcing the number of outdoor services they have held and objecting to the treatment meted out by local authorities, the latest on March 27.
In an Aug 13 letter published online, the Shouwang Church said that during a religious service held two days earlier at least 38 members were arrested, with nearly two-thirds of the group held for an indeterminate amount of time.

"It was really sad for us to hear that one sister was manhandled by a deputy [police] director ... who seized her by the throat and pulled her hair. Our sister calmly faced such rough treatment, and forgave this man by God's grace," the letter read.

Denied the necessary permits to rent or build a church Shouwang has continued its outdoor worship. The Church has held close to 200 outdoor services, come rain, hale or shine. Despite restrictions on their outdoor activities they have resolutely continued to gather.

In the capital particularly, underground church members are often agitators for political change in China. More recently reports have emerged that members of a number of these communities have recently been harassed and members detained.

"My family church never had members arrested for 25 years, but it happened under the new regime," Xu said. "We had most of our members, 17 out of 20, arrested and detained for up to one month in January."

It's not just underground churches but members of state sanctioned churches that are now being targeted by the government. In Nanle County, Henan province, Pastor Zhang Shaojie of the state-approved Three Self Patriotic Movement was arrested on Nov 16 on a charge of "gathering a crowd to disrupt public order”. Beijing lawyer and civil activist Xu Zhiyong was recently convicted on the same charge and sentenced to four years in prison(Source).

Two Christian Kindergarten Teachers Detained in China

Their souls should be in our prayers.

2/20/2014 China (ChinaAid) - Two Christian women were taken into custody on Tuesday from the Christian kindergarten in China’s southern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region where they both work full-time.

Cheng Jie and Mo Xiliu were placed under criminal detention on Wednesday and charged with “engaging in illegal business operation” according to detention notices issued by the Yufeng (corrected Feb. 21) branch of the Liuzhou Public Security Bureau. Translations of the document will be published shortly.

These detentions appear to be related to the Christian teaching materials used in the school. “The Guangxi authorities are obviously trying to use the business-related, trumped up charges in order to cover up its religious persecution,” Bob Fu, ChinaAid founder and president, said.

“We urge the Guangxi authorities to immediately release these two innocent Christians,” Fu said.
Cheng’s husband, Pastor Du Hongbo, is a house church pastor and missionary. The couple has two small children, aged 3 (corrected on Feb. 20) and 1-1/2 years old (Source).

Chinese Gov’t Continues to Pressure House Churches

Let's hope our brethren continue to persevere even in the midst of this trial.

1/25/2014 China (ChinaAid) - A house church in Guangzhou, the provincial capital of China’s southern Guangdong has been pressured by local police six times since the beginning of the month; meanwhile, Christians in Neihuang County, in central Henan fear to attend church meetings because of persecution from several local government departments. Police have disrupted church gathering twice a week since the beginning of January to warn the church to cease their meetings, “Mark,” a missionary at Guangfu House Church in Guangzhou, said.

“They come to our place twice a week. This past Sunday… I went to the local police station and talked with them about our belief and what we do. They gave me the phone number of a deputy director of the police station; I also saw him. He asked me whether we just read the Bible and pray. I said yes and didn’t say anything more than that,” Mark said.

“I thought this thing was over so we went on with the gatherings. Then, they came again, and they even told the landlord, who is a brother among us, not to gather together.”

On one occasion, the church members tried unsuccessfully to obtain information about those persecuting them. “We asked the officer from the local police station to leave his phone number, but he wouldn’t do so. When we asked him to give us his name, he only said his last name, which is Yao. When we asked for his first name, he wouldn’t tell us,” Mark said.

“When I said I wanted to see his identification papers, he said I didn’t need to look at them. He just said he is from Pingguwu Police Station, and that I can find him there, and that the director of the police station told him to come to our place. When I asked him what the director’s last name was, he didn’t say.”

This isn’t the first time Guangfu House Church has experienced persecution. Last May, three Christians from the church were summoned by the Baiyun District Public Security Bureau and were accused of preaching the Gospel to passersby.

On that occasion, the believers were told that their gatherings were illegal. As a result, the landlord of the building where the church met was pressured to the point of cancelling the church’s lease.
In addition, the water and electricity in a home that Mark had purchased to host meetings in were cut for almost a year.

Mark also said that Guangfu House Church has heard of another local house church have received warnings from police.
Neihuang County, Henan

In addition to persecution in Guangdong, believers in Neihuang County in China’s central Henan told ChinaAid that the Neihuang County Public Security Bureau, Religious Affairs Bureau and other government agencies have pressured believers so much that many are afraid to participate in church services.

“They dare not come to the gatherings,” one believer said. “When people from the Religious Affairs Bureau come, many of the believers dare not come out. Some people in the town risk their lives to come to the gatherings(Source).”

Police Raid Multiple House Churches in Northwest China

And the persecution of my Chinese brethren continues.

7/29/2013 Washington D.C. (International Christian Concern) – International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that Chinese police raided multiple house church gatherings last month in far Northwestern China in an apparent crackdown on “illegal” Christian gatherings. The leaders of the Christian gatherings were all detained for questioning and two were sentenced to several days of public security detention. Christians in China are required by law to attend government-sanctioned religious services, while those under the age of 18 are prohibited from attending religious services of any kind.

According to ChinaAid, worshippers present at one of the raids on June 9^th said unidentified intruders stormed the home where a worship service was being conducted and shouted, “Yours is an illegal assembly and all of you must stay still!” Worshipers initially thought they were being robbed, as the police were dressed in plain clothes and refused to show identification. Police proceeded to question members of the church, located in the Shayibake District of Urumqi, for an hour and threatened to take younger members away for further questioning. Eventually Brother Tan Wen, believed to be the group’s leader, was detained, sentenced to 10 days of public security detention and fined 500 yuan, or about 80 U.S. dollars.

In a separate police raid last month, 60-year-old Zhu Jinfeng, who led a small Bible study with neighbors in Urumqi for more than ten years, was also detained and charged with conducting “illegal” Christian activities. Police fined Ms. Zhu 200 yuan, about 30 U.S. dollars, before releasing her. Despite feeling “shaken” by the raid, Ms. Zhu reportedly attempted to file an application for “administrative reconsideration” of her case with authorities but was turned down upon her initial attempt. Speaking to the South China Morning Post, Ms. Zhu said she feels “lost and desperate” and has stopped worshipping in her own home.

The raids took place in Urumqi, capital of the highly volatile Xinjiang Province. Tensions in the region have been high between the indigenous Uighur population and ethnic Han Chinese settlers. The latter moved in at the behest of the Chinese government which has sparked violent clashes between the people groups over the past several years. China maintains a heavy security presence in the area to clamp down on any perceived dissent.

Xinjiang Province is also home to Alimujiang Yimiti, a Uighur house church leader and father of two. He was detained in 2007 for “spreading Christianity” and secretly sentenced in 2009 to fifteen years of imprisonment. His case is widely believed to represent one of the most egregious sentences given to a Christian leader in China in recent years. Last week, International Christian Concern submitted a petition to Chinese Ambassador Cui Tiankai calling for Alimujiang’s immediate release(Source). 

American Christian Remains Imprisoned in North Korea

Let's pray that he is released soon.

6/20/2013 North Korea (CIC) - North Korea has found U.S. citizen Kenneth Bae guilty for "hostile acts" against the state, sentencing him to 15 years of hard labour. The verdict was handed down on April 30th. A press release from North Korea's "Korean Central News Agency" reported on May 15th that he has now begun serving his sentence within a "special prison."

Kenneth, described as a devout Christian, is the owner of a North Korea tour company. He was in the country with official permission when detained by North Korean authorities on November 3rd. Human rights activist Rev. Robert Park says one thing is certain. "Bae, a humanitarian who had compassion for North Korea's starving and abandoned orphans, is not indictable for any crime. Rather, he is a hostage being held to accommodate yet undetermined North Korean agenda."

The concerned activist further explains that this case is reminiscent of the still unresolved case of a Christian minister and humanitarian, Rev. Kim Dong-shik, who died in a North Korean prison. In 2000, North Korean agents crossed the border and hunted Kim down in China where he was operating several underground shelters for North Korean refugees. He was abducted and returned to North Korea where he was reportedly tortured and starved to death.

A 2011 report from the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea discovered that the country has abducted more than 180,000 people from 12 countries. Apart from North Korea's own citizens, Rev. Park said no nation and people have suffered more as a result of the savagery...than the Republic of Korea (South Korea). Apart from the abductions, murders and terrorist attacks, he believes North Korea continues to be the world's worst proliferator of nuclear weapons technology, also committing crimes against humanity and genocide against its own people(Source).

China Still Persecuting Christians, Just Better at Hiding It

So let's not be fool by any outward facades that this country  may be giving to the rest of the world.

6/24/2013 China (International Christian Concern) – Two weeks ago, the New York Times published details of a fascinating interview with Mr. Zhang, the claimed author of a note written in English and allegedly smuggled out of the Masanjia labor camp while he was imprisoned there. The letter was discovered by a woman in Oregon who found it stashed in a box of Halloween decorations that were packaged at the labor camp. The letter revealed that conditions in the camp were “a living hell” and that about half the camp’s occupants were either Falun Gong practitioners or members of underground house churches.

In late 2012, China Aid, a human rights organization dedicated to assisting Chinese Christians who face abuses of religious freedom, published a report citing an increase of 131.8 percent in the number of Christians imprisoned by the Chinese government over the course of 2012. The report was alarming and controversial, but recent research conducted on the ground by International Christian Concern (ICC) has confirmed that Christians still face arrest and imprisonment in large numbers despite the overall impression that China has curtailed repression of religious minorities in recent years.

One eyewitness sentenced to a re-education through labor camp in Shangqui, Henan Province, told ICC late last month that she estimates at least 50 to 60 Christians spent time in her camp over the course of her two-year sentence. She said many were arrested repeatedly for refusing to stop attending house churches which remain technically illegal in China. The only legal option for Protestants is to attend an officially registered “Three-Self church.” However, millions of Chinese Christians refuse to join these churches due to the high level of control exerted by the Communist

Party over everything – from what is preached to who is allowed to preach it.
Also alarming is the length to which Chinese officials are willing to go in order to keep the repression of religious groups confidential. Many Chinese religious leaders told ICC that the number of violent incidents, such as beatings or torture while under arrest, have decreased dramatically in recent years while at the same time the level of control exerted over these groups has increased exponentially. One pastor relayed how officials in his hometown “knew everything about him” and were constantly tracking meeting locations, times, and number of people in attendance. They would often invite him to “have tea” and apply subtle pressure for his congregation to join with the local Three-Self church.

This heightened level of observation should not be surprising. Starting in 2010, China began spending a greater share of its gross domestic product on internal security to police its own population than on its substantial military. One source cautioned an ICC representative that they should assume that all communications – cell phone, e-mail, and even web addresses visited – would be monitored and recorded while visiting China. If at any time the work of a foreigner becomes too prominent or threatened, they would be “deported without delay.” The requirement for users of hotel internet to input their passport number before being able to browse was the first indication to this author that China’s internal security apparatus remains alive and well(Keep Reading).

China Still Persecuting Christians, Just Better at Hiding It

 

6/24/2013 China (International Christian Concern) – Two weeks ago, the New York Times published details of a fascinating interview with Mr. Zhang, the claimed author of a note written in English and allegedly smuggled out of the Masanjia labor camp while he was imprisoned there. The letter was discovered by a woman in Oregon who found it stashed in a box of Halloween decorations that were packaged at the labor camp. The letter revealed that conditions in the camp were “a living hell” and that about half the camp’s occupants were either Falun Gong practitioners or members of underground house churches.

In late 2012, China Aid, a human rights organization dedicated to assisting Chinese Christians who face abuses of religious freedom, published a report citing an increase of 131.8 percent in the number of Christians imprisoned by the Chinese government over the course of 2012. The report was alarming and controversial, but recent research conducted on the ground by International Christian Concern (ICC) has confirmed that Christians still face arrest and imprisonment in large numbers despite the overall impression that China has curtailed repression of religious minorities in recent years.

One eyewitness sentenced to a re-education through labor camp in Shangqui, Henan Province, told ICC late last month that she estimates at least 50 to 60 Christians spent time in her camp over the course of her two-year sentence. She said many were arrested repeatedly for refusing to stop attending house churches which remain technically illegal in China. The only legal option for Protestants is to attend an officially registered “Three-Self church.” However, millions of Chinese Christians refuse to join these churches due to the high level of control exerted by the Communist Party over everything – from what is preached to who is allowed to preach it.

Also alarming is the length to which Chinese officials are willing to go in order to keep the repression of religious groups confidential. Many Chinese religious leaders told ICC that the number of violent incidents, such as beatings or torture while under arrest, have decreased dramatically in recent years while at the same time the level of control exerted over these groups has increased exponentially. One pastor relayed how officials in his hometown “knew everything about him” and were constantly tracking meeting locations, times, and number of people in attendance. They would often invite him to “have tea” and apply subtle pressure for his congregation to join with the local Three-Self church.
This heightened level of observation should not be surprising. Starting in 2010, China began spending a greater share of its gross domestic product on internal security to police its own population than on its substantial military. One source cautioned an ICC representative that they should assume that all communications – cell phone, e-mail, and even web addresses visited – would be monitored and recorded while visiting China. If at any time the work of a foreigner becomes too prominent or threatened, they would be “deported without delay.” The requirement for users of hotel internet to input their passport number before being able to browse was the first indication to this author that China’s internal security apparatus remains alive and well.

The bright side to all of this is that it appears that international pressure has in some ways had a great effect on China’s overall treatment of religious minorities. Incidents that would spark an international outcry, such as handing down a long prison sentence to a major house church leader, are frowned upon by Beijing, even if publicly the country’s leaders deny any wrongdoing to the rest of the world. For the millions of Christians living in Beijing, Shanghai, and other major cities, this is good news.
Unfortunately for the millions more living in more rural or suburban areas of China, there is little hope of assistance. Stifling restrictions placed on both the Chinese press and foreign journalists make it extremely difficult to collect first-hand reports of recent arrests on the basis of religious belief. The information we do have, though, suggests that it is far too soon to announce the dawn of anything like true religious freedom in the People’s Republic of China. For hundreds of millions of Chinese citizens, that day remains hidden in an uncertain and, if the Communist Party has its way, highly controlled future(source).

Chinese Government Shuts Down Multiple House Churches

 

6/18/2013 China (MNN) - A recent report from the Voice of the Martyrs Canada office shows the Chinese government has ordered the closure of more than a dozen house churches in the southern province of Hainan.

Last month, while the Sanya Hosanna Church was holding a morning worship service, several people from the Religious Affairs Bureau and the neighborhood committee disrupted the service and served this notice: "Announcement by the Hongqi Street Community of the Voluntary Dissolution of Irregular and Illegal Religious Meeting Sites."

The committee warned the Christians that officials would take stricter measures if they met again the following week. They also put pressure on the landlord to stop renting the meeting site to the church, which was given 15 days' notice to move out.
It didn't stop there. According to China Aid, a ministry partnered with the Voice of the Martyrs, the leader of the church was also restricted from going to Hong Kong to attend a special conference. He was told his attendance might jeopardize national security and national interests.
On the same day, three other Sanya house churches (Elim Church, Bethel Church and XinjuChurch) faced the same kind of harassment. Days earlier, Sanya's Mengai Church, Hexing Church, and three other house churches were shut down. A church in Haikou has experienced similar treatment, and several other churches have been forcibly closed. In addition, some churches in the Baoting county have been shut down.
"Closing a dozen churches in Hainan is an alarming sign that little has changed with Xi Jinping as president," said ChinaAid founder and president Bob Fu. "The government is carrying out its plans to 'eradicate' the independent house church movement, a crackdown that would affect up to 100 million people. China must end this repression if it wants global respect as a rising power(Source)."

Vietnamese Court Sentences Eight Christians up to 11-Year Prison Terms for Religious Expression and Association

This is injustice right here and it makes me angry.

05/30/2013 Vietnam (Radio Free Asia) - A court in Vietnam’s Central Highlands on Wednesday sentenced eight ethnic minority Montagnards affiliated with an unregistered Catholic church to between three and 11 years in prison for “undermining unity” in the authoritarian state. The Gia Lai provincial court said some of the eight had worked with a banned exile organization to establish an independent state for indigenous peoples in the Central Highlands, according to state media.

The others were accused of inciting thousands of protesters to demonstrate against their relocation from their village to make way for a power plant in 2008. All eight—who are between 32 and 73 years old—were convicted under Article 87 of the penal code, a national security provision that forbids “undermining the [national] unity policy” by “sowing division” or ethnic or religious hatred.
Vietnam’s Central Highlands are home to some 30 tribes of indigenous peoples, known collectively as Montagnards or the Degar, who rights groups say suffer extreme persecution.

In the early 2000s, thousands in the region staged violent protests against the confiscation of their ancestral lands and religious controls, prompting a brutal crackdown by security forces that saw hundreds of Montagnards charged with national security crimes. Scott Johnson of the Montagnard Foundation, a U.S.-based rights group, said Vietnam’s jailing of members of the ethnic minority for national security crimes and linking them to alleged overseas separatist groups was unjustified.

“In reality all these ethnic people … want are indigenous land rights and basic human rights,” he said.
“They are not terrorists, they are not separatists, and they do not seek an independent state.”
“Basically the Vietnamese government is seeking to crush the independent underground house church movement [in the region],” he said(Source).

American Christian Tour Operator Languishes in North Korean Prison

My prayers are with my brother in Christ.

05/18/2013 Washington D.C. (International Christian Concern) – After the recent sentencing of an American Christian to 15 years’ hard labor, North Korea shows no signs of releasing the U.S. tour operator, solidifying its reputation as the world’s worst persecutor of Christians. In November 2012, Kenneth Bae (Pae Jun-ho), a 44-year-old Korean American tour operator was arrested by authorities in North Korea while leading a trip with five Europeans into the Rason Special Economic Zone, a pilot region on the border of China and Russia which is open to foreign companies.

Bae, who lived in China, ran a travel agency called Nation Tours and had visited North Korea several times before without incident, according to Do Hee-youn, who heads the Citizens Coalition for the Human Rights of North Korean Refugees, based in Seoul. He is at least the sixth American detained in North Korea since 2009.

Since his sudden arrest on unclear charges, there was almost no news of him, until May 6, when the government-run Korean Central News Agency reported that he was charged with “committing crimes aimed at toppling the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea with hostility towards it,” according to The Independent.

Reasons for Arrest
On May 10, after mounting pressure on North Korea to provide justification for his arrest and sentencing, the government released a detailed report with a long list of allegations against him. According to the report, Bae gave anti-Pyongyang lectures in China and “infiltrated” about 250 students into the city of Rason.

North Korea said that Bae “set up plot-breeding bases in different places of China for the purpose of toppling the government from 2006 to October 2012 out of distrust and enmity. He committed such hostile acts as egging citizens of (North Korea) overseas and foreigners on to perpetrate hostile acts to bring down its government while conducting a malignant smear campaign against it. He was caught red handed,” The Guardian reported.

Speculation surrounds the reason for his arrest in the first place, with reasons including his compassion for orphans, possible links with a missionary organization and his potential for being used by North Korea as bait for political maneuvering.

Bae is known to have “feelings for orphans and has done some ministry work feeding orphans,” according to David Ross of Antioch World Ministries Inc. in Monroe, Washington. Ross and Bae reportedly met four years ago through church affiliations in Hawaii and have been “casual acquaintances” since, according to UCA News. It’s possible that he was arrested while taking pictures of orphans in the markets of Rason, something in keeping with his known concern for children, which was taken to be anti-North Korean propaganda. However that remains speculative, at best.

“I don’t know the specifics about that. I think he could have because of who he is and he’s generous in giving, maybe he could have delivered bread to orphanages once or twice, but I really don’t know if that is the reason,” his sister, Terri Chung, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper.

According to the Telegraph, Bae’s Facebook page links to an organization in Ohio called the Joseph Connection, which describes itself as “a Christ centered, humanitarian outreach to the Least of the Least world-wide.” It organizes short-term trips into closed or restricted countries “to touch the average person.” If discovered, the missionary link could have prompted his arrest. North Korea has a history of violent and extreme persecution of Christians. For 11 consecutive years, Open Doors has ranked the country as the leading persecutor of Christians, a view supported by the Pew Research Center(Source).

Churches Stand in Solidarity with Persecuted Christians

4/24/2013 China (ChristianToday)- Churches in the UK and Ireland will be holding services outdoor next month as a mark of solidarity with persecuted Christians around the world. The Great Outdoors Church Service is an initiative of Release International, which works with Christians suffering for their faith.

In some parts of the world, authorities have demolished churches or banned congregations from meeting in their own buildings. Worshippers at Shouwang Church in Beijing, China, are banned from entering their building and have been arrested as they meet outdoors. According to Release International, Shouwang Church has now held more than 100 services in the open air after being refused official recognition by the authorities.

In Nigeria, the destruction of churches by extremists has forced many Christians to hold their services in the open air. In Central Asia, Christians have resorted to meeting in the countryside to escape surveillance. Churches in the UK and Ireland will be holding their services outdoors on 19 and 26 May as an act of public witness.

"This is a great opportunity to stand with courageous Christians who remain true to their beliefs despite opposition," said Paul Robinson, Chief Executive of Release International(Source).

ChinaAid Provides Detailed Explanation of Report on Persecution in China

 

03/24/2013 China (ChinaAid) - ChinaAid's 2012 annual report on persecution of churches and Christians in China has sparked an online dialogue, with reactions ranging from support to doubts and even rejection. On Monday Feb. 25, Christianity Today ran two pieces by two experts on the church in China under the headline "China Isn't Trying to Wipe Out Christianity."

In response, ChinaAid wishes to point out first that those who question and doubt our 2012 annual report appear to have overlooked this key point: "In 2012, Christians and churches in China experienced a serious comprehensive escalation of government persecution. In comparing the total number of persecution cases, the number of people persecuted, the number taken into custody, the number sentenced, the number of abuse cases and the number of people abused with the same figures for 2011, the total of all six categories rose 13.1% over the previous year..." The report also lists "the Main Characteristics of and Reason Behind 2012 Persecution: To Eradicate House Churches."

The first CT piece, "China's Actions Are Not About Christianity," was written by Brent Fulton, president of ChinaSource and the editor of ChinaSource Quarterly. His basic point was, "On their face these numbers appear to be cause for serious alarm, and the China Aid report has in fact spawned headlines decrying the beginning of the end of the house church in China. However, upon closer examination these statistics do not support China Aid's assertion of a nationwide government-sponsored campaign against Christianity in China.

The problem here is three-fold.
First, the problem of persecution is indeed serious, and ChinaAid's Christian position is that the persecution of any church, not to mention that of thousands of Christians and their families, should always be considered serious. Incidentally, as Mr. Fulton correctly noted, it was news reports about our report that were "decrying the beginning of the end of the house church in China." We wish to emphasize that it is not ChinaAid's belief that this is "the beginning of the end of the house church in China" because we simply do not think that the Communist's state machinery can ever succeed in eradicating China's house churches: house churches have grown and spread to such an extent that no group is strong enough to contend with it. Just as happened with the persecution of the early Roman Church as well as the Communist Party's persecution of the church in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, Chinese government persecution will also fail.

Second, the conclusions in our report are supported by our investigations and data, and they show that the persecution in 2011 and into 2012 has been characterized by thorough investigations of house churches and eradication of those churches for which the government has set up files; this is all part of Phases 1 & 2 of the government's ten-year plan to eradicate house churches.

Third, the cases cited in the annual report come from all over China and are just the tip of the iceberg, but they have representative value. Mr. Fulton notes that "the China Aid report mentions only two cases involving Beijing house churches for the entire year." But if he thinks that the two persecution cases we listed for Beijing were the only two cases of persecution in the Chinese capital in all of 2012, he clearly does not understand the persecution situation that Beijing house churches face.

It's hard to imagine that anyone with a basic understanding of China's house churches would think that only two cases of house church persecution occurred in Beijing for the whole of 2012(Source).

Two Christian Women Detained For Distributing Gospel Tracts in China

(Bazhou, Xinjiang–March 27, 2013) Two Christian women who had printed and were distributing Gospel tracts in the far western region of Xinjiang were held under administrative detention for 10 days and have hired a lawyer to seek a review of their case, ChinaAid has learned.

Wang Yuxia and Zhang Xiaocun were released from their 10 days of administrative detention on March 8 and have retained a rights defense lawyer and have applied for an administrative review of their case in an effort to protect their right to religious freedom in accordance with the law.

The two women, who are passionate about evangelization, had printed up a large number of tracts about the history of Christianity, the Christian faith and the benefits to society of believing in Christianity, and were distributing them in a law-abiding manner on Feb. 25 in the town of Qixing (Seven Stars), the village of Naimudong, in the Group Two area when they were taken into custody by officers from the Qixing police station at about 3 p.m.  They were sentenced to administrative detention the same day.

While they were in detention, the family members of the two women received "Notification to Detainee's Family Members," and when they were released, the two women received their "Administrative Penalty Decision" and their "Statement of Release from Detention."  The two women have now, with the help of their lawyer, drafted an "Application for Administrative Reconsideration" in compliance with the legal procedure for a review(Source). 

Chinese Christians See Mounting Persecution in Country’s Effort to Disband House Churches

 

2/21/2013 China (Fox News) - Christians and human rights advocates are alarmed over an aggressive crackdown on house churches in China, where the faithful are forced to call their gatherings "patriotic" assemblies or sent to prison where they can face torture, according to a new report.

Cases of the government persecuting Christians rose 42 percent last year, amid a three-phase plan by Beijing to eradicate the home-based churches, according to China Aid, a Texas-based human rights group. Experts say the Communist Party in China has long felt threatened by any movement that galvanizes a large sector of the population, fearing it could wield political clout. But the nation has become more systematically hostile to worshippers, according to Bob Fu, China Aid founder and president.

"There have been new tactics of persecution as well, especially with the government using secret directives and memos with long-term, step-by-step strategies to eradicate house churches,” Fu told FoxNews.com. “This is very serious stuff.”

Last year, the government mounted a new three-phase approach designed to wipe out unregistered house churches by forcing them to join the official "Three-Self Patriotic Movement" and stop defining themselves as churches. The phase included having China's State Administration for Religious Affairs secretly investigate house churches and create files on them, the report found. The current wave of crackdowns, which began midway through 2012, is part of the second phase, according to Fu. Fu said the government is using a wide array of subtle and ham-handed tactics to persecute Christians, targeting house church leaders and churches in urban areas.

“Instead of using law enforcement officials directly to attack churches, last year we found they used a softer approach,” he said. “They used utility companies, service committees and neighborhood committees to terminate contracts with rental facilities and cut off electricity and water [to the churches].”

Those semi-official agencies, including industrial and commercial affairs departments, used various excuses to “harass, interfere and ban” church services.

At least 132 cases of persecution affecting 4,919 Christians, including 442 church leaders, were reported last year, up from 93 cases and 4,322 Christians in 2011, respectively. The number of people detained (1,441) and sentenced (9) also increased from the year earlier, the report found.

“Many people, especially in China, don’t even know there are really hundreds and thousands of their fellow Christian brothers being persecuted,” he said. “If a country like China shows it does not respect its own citizens and their most basic freedoms, we should be on alert and take more action from our side in the United States to advance that (Source).”

Vietnam: Five Christian Families Attacked, Beaten Up by Fellow Villagers

2/26/2013 Vietnam (CR) - Newly converted Christians of the Sedang ethnic minority in Vietnam’s Central Highlands were terrorized last week – their homes and personal property badly damaged or destroyed in four consecutive night raids, and some of the faithful seriously injured from beatings in broad daylight, sources said.

Since becoming Christians in the past year, five families in mountainous Kontum Province have reported constant harassment from villagers upset that they are no longer contributing to communal sacrifices and other practices because of their new faith. The attacks from Monday (Feb. 18) to Friday (Feb. 22) constituted a third wave of sustained violence since their conversion, leaving their property severely damaged and their lives threatened.

Attacks on the new Christians – who belong to a Christian Mission Church (CMC) congregation in Ngoc La village, Mang Ri Commune, Tumorong District in northwestern Kontum Province – were primarily motivated by strong tensions within the ethnic group over the families leaving the “old ways.” Ideologically opposed to Christianity, local Communist officials freely permit and even encourage such conflicts, sources said.

At the same time, local Vietnamese officials commonly incite and employ area thugs to attack Christians, whose united faith is perceived as a threat to government ideology and sovereignty. Often officials themselves put on civilian clothes or otherwise disguise themselves, joining in the attacks, sources said.

The assailants last week attacked the Christians’ homes, pelting them with bricks and cement roof tiles and swinging wooden clubs. They then invaded their houses and destroyed their belongings.

The victims managed to take photos with their cell phones, and though taken mostly in darkness, the images are clear enough to show a destroyed fibro-cement roof; a motorcycle with parts bent, broken and missing; dishes and kitchen utensils smashed to pieces; food cast to the ground; badly damaged furniture; broken windows; wooden shutters, doors and frames ripped out of walls; and wooden clubs and bricks strewn about.

The gangs on Friday (Feb. 22) beat a number of the Christians in broad daylight, with some, including women, struck below the abdomen. Several were reported to be seriously injured. One family, threatened with death if they stayed in their home, fled into the forest, where they were forced to spend nights in the cold with inadequate clothing and no shelter.

While the religious freedom environment for many Christians in Vietnam’s larger cities has improved considerably in recent years, that of many ethnic minority Christians in remote and mountainous regions of the country definitely has not, sources said. Regularly occurring incidents demonstrate that Vietnamese authorities actively work to limit and contain Christianity, even as they appear to have given up on eradicating it(Source).

Chinese American and Two South Korean Missionaries Detained at House Church Meeting

02/25/2013 China (ChinaAid) - At about 2 o’clock on the afternoon of February 20, the Missionary Meeting of the West held by a house church in Jimo, Shandong Province, was raided by the local police and departments in charge of religious affairs. It is learned that two missionaries respectively from America and South Korea were detained. Besides, over 90 members of a fellowship of college students and house church missionaries were booked by their IDs and were then dispersed by force.

After the mission meeting of college students in Jimo City, Shandong Province was raided, a Chinese American and two South Korean missionaries remain in detention; their passports have been confiscated. Decisions will be made about them, and they may be deported from China.

In addition to these situations, it is reported that starting from 2012, some agencies of the Chinese government have conducted secret investigations on over 300 missionaries from South Korea. They have now deported or forced out nearly 100 of them. The remaining 200-some missionaries are all planning to withdraw from China soon to dodge the brunt of the crackdown(Source).

China: Presbyterian Church Raided, Pastor Beaten by Police

 

2/21/2013 China (CA) -Presbyterian Federation of Beijing has made an urgent appeal for prayers for the persecuted church in Heilongjiang and for assistance in hiring lawyers to intervene according to law. Prominent Christian Lawyer Li Fangping has agreed to represent the church in this case.

At about 7 p.m. on February 19, two police officers from Youhao District of Yichun City of Heilongjiang suddenly broke into Youhao Church (photo on the above). Under the guise of fire-code compliance inspection, they viciously harassed the members who were serving at the church. The chief pastor of the church, Sister Sun Wenxian, said that the officers didn’t give any acceptable reasons for their action. Further, one of the officers had a strong smell of liquor and was in a drunken state.

Pastor Sun Wenxian denounced them to their face for their unreasonable conduct and demanded that they show their identification papers. For this, the two police officers became furious and called her bad names and threatened to seal off Youhao Church. In addition, they became physically violent and beat her. In the physical conflict Pastor Sun Wenxian was injured so severely, both mentally and physically, that she had a heart attack.

Sister Hao, who serves in the church, told us that during this time they phoned #110 for police several times but none came. However, in comparison, these two police officers called, and within five minutes a large group of agents from Domestic Security Protection Squad (DSPS) of the Public Security Bureau entered the courtyard of Youhao Church. Sister Hao said that only when they saw Pastor Sun Wenxian was having a heart attack, they didn’t dare to do whatever they had intended.
After that, Pastor Sun Wenxian was rushed to a local hospital for treatment, where she is reported in a stable condition. In her telephone call, Pastor Sun Wenxian called on various churches to pray for Youhao Church and for the rulers(Source).

200 Million Christians in China Without Bibles

 I hope this situation changes.

02/22/13 China (MNN) - Within two decades, China is on track to be the largest Christian nation in the world, according to Bibles For China. Reports are projecting growth to over 400 million believers, and yet one thing is lacking: Bibles. Bob Drew with Bibles For China notes, "It's estimated that roughly 200 million Christians right now don't have Bibles in China."

Without the grounding of Scripture, new Christians are at risk of falling into heresy. Yet, the isolation prevents access. And there is another obstacle aside from remoteness and scarcity: cost. Millions of rural Chinese Christians subsist on less than $100 per year, which means a $5 Bible costs about a third of month's wages. "A lot of these people have never seen a Bible", Drew says. "They've been learning Scripture off of chalkboards; they've been learning from very, very old versions of the Bible, dating back prior to the 1940s."

The discipline required to memorize chapters at a time is admirable, but Drew says Bibles For China wants to do more. "We raise funds in developed countries that legally and openly give Bibles free of charge to the believers living in poverty-stricken areas. For Bibles for China, we focus on rural Chinese areas."

At a cost of $5.00 each, Bibles for China is currently purchasing and distributing God's Word free of charge to rural Chinese believers--complete Bibles which are legally printed in China. The need is huge: hundreds of thousands of Bibles have been requested. "When [some of them] actually got a new Bible, we had people literally break down and cry, screaming and chanting to God just how thankful they were just to have [His Word] in their hands(Source)."