The China Information Website
News on the Persecution of Christians in China
3/8/2016 PERSECUTION SURGES AS XINJIANG AUTHORITIES DETAIN PASTORS, FAMILY
Hetian, Xinjiang— Persecution in China’s northwestern Xinjiang province spiked earlier this month as authorities raided several house churches, detained numerous Christians and confined an entire family to their residence.
In Hetian, one of the province’s southernmost cities, officials raided several churches throughout a single county on July 7 and took many Christians to the police station for interrogation about their church’s religious affairs. They were released at 8 a.m. the next day, but received a summons for further questioning hours later and were held at the police station until late that evening.
read the full story
7/8/2014 COMMUNIST PARTY WILL RE-WRITE BIBLE CONSTRUCT
ITS OWN VERSION OF
CHRISTIANITY TO CONTROL CHURCHES
China will construct a "Chinese Christian theology" suitable for the
country, state media reported on Thursday, as both the number of
believers and tensions with the authorities are on the rise.
China has between 23 million and 40 million Protestants, accounting
for 1.7 to 2.9 per cent of the total population, the state-run China
Daily said, citing figures given at a seminar in Shanghai.
About 500,000 people are baptised as Protestants every year, it added.
"Over the past decades, the Protestant churches in China have
developed very quickly with the implementation of the country's
religious policy," the paper quoted Wang Zuoan, director of the State
Administration for Religious Affairs, as saying.
"The construction of Chinese Christian theology should adapt to
China's national condition and integrate with Chinese culture.".....In April, authorities in the eastern Chinese city of Wenzhou, known as
China's Jerusalem, with more than a million Christians, demolished a
church following government claims it was an illegal structure.......
read the full story in the South China Morning Post
1/7/2011 5500 PEOPLE AT ONE CHURCH SERVICE - 247 BAPTISED IN 1 DAY
COULD
CHRISTIANITY BRING DOWN THE CHINESE COMMUNST PARTY ?
China is undergoing a diverse spiritual renaissance – Daoism, Buddhism
and Islam have all seen a significant increase in believers.
But there is one religion in particular that has experienced
phenomenal growth, Christian evangelism.
The number of worshippers remains unknown, as there are two types of
church in China - the officially sanctioned churches and the
underground churches.
But with the government concerned that a growing evangelist movement
could threaten social harmony, the state is cracking down on groups
that try to stay out of government control; and, as this film shows,
on those who try to report on it.
(watch this amazing Aljazeera video - which includes film of the Chinese Secret Police assaulting the reporters)
10/7/2011 MORE CHRISTIANS THAN COMMUNIST PARTY MEMBERS IN CHINA NOW
While Christianity is in decline in Britain and most of Europe, it is growing and thriving in China, where the number of people in church on Sunday is greater than the total membership of the Communist Party, in the land that in 1958 Chairman Mao had declared “religion free”. The people flocking to the churches are not, as Karl Marx would have predicted, the poor and oppressed searching for the opium of the people. They are the young, hard-working, upwardly-mobile entrepreneurs for whom Christianity offers an ethical framework, a structured view of life and its disciplines, in a society experiencing rapid transition.
read the full story at aish.com.....
16/5/2011 FURTHER ARRESTS OF CHRISTIANS - NO PROTEST FROM AUSTRALIA
Beijing police detained 13 Christians yesterday in an ongoing action
against one of the mainland's most influential unregistered churches
as the congregation tried to worship outdoors in the centre of the
capital for the sixth week running, according to church leaders.
read the full story in the South China Morning Post
11/4/2011 FEARS OF NEW CRACKDOWN AS 160 CHRISTIANS HELD
More than 160 Christians were taken away by Beijing police yesterday
as they tried to attend an outdoor service after being evicted from
their usual place of worship, the church's pastor said, in what
appears to be the largest crackdown on unofficial churches in years.
The move prompted fears that a new round of persecution is under way
on underground churches.
read the full story in South China Morning Post