Stingray: Chinese Persecution of Christians: 2006 Persecution Report Released

January 30, 2007

Chinese Persecution of Christians: 2006 Persecution Report Released

by Michael McCullough at 12:50 PM

China Aid Association released its first annual persecution report of Christians in China this week. To see the full report, click here. To summarize, raids on house churches in 2006 increased over those in 2005. However, less arrests were made, with China preferring to imprison pastors rather than members. House church members often undergo tough interrogation and beatings during raids though. From the report:

A new tendency was to target house church leaders with criminal accusations. Pastor Cai Zhuohua, a house church pastor in Beijing, was convicted in November 2005 of “illegal operation of a business” for printing and giving away Bibles without government authorization. Two other house church pastors, Liu Yuhua and Wang Zaiqing, were also reportedly detained and sentenced under the same accusation in 2006. Mr. Zhang Rongliang, a leader of the China for Christ house church network in Henan province, was sentenced to prison for seven years and six months under the charge of “illegally crossing the national border and fraudulently obtaining a passport” in June 2006.

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The changing strategies and tactics of Public Security Officials; interrogations on the spot, accusing church leaders of criminal activities and banning protestant movements as cults suggests that the Chinese authorities are becoming increasingly concerned about appearing more tolerant of Christians in the eyes of the international community. However there seems to be less evidence of a genuine change in their broad policy.

The province-by-province report shows that Zhejiang and Henan provinces, where the Protestant House Church movement is particularly strong, had the worst persecution against House churches in the past 12 months. 246 pastors and believers were arrested in 9 raids from January 2006 to December 2006, 3 churches were destroyed, 10 were sentenced to imprisonment, and many of the arrested were abused while detained. After the raid on March 13, 2006 in Wen County, two arrested Christian ladies, ages 72 and 21 respectively, were forced to stripe off their cloths during the interrogation. A disabled Pastor Li Gongshe was severely beaten breaking one of his ribs.

The second most severe Christian persecution occurred in Anhui province, Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR), and other provinces.

“Zhejiang and Henan province should be put on notice having the worst religious persecution record,” said Rev. Bob Fu of CAA, “It is morally imperative for any conscientious foreign investors in Henan to address this serious issue.”

Just like the Roman Empire, the number of Chinese Christians have continued to increase despite the persecutions.

Recently, the director of the Chinese State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA), Yie Xiaowen, said that the number of Christians in China has reached 130 million, including 20 million Catholics, during internal meetings at Beijing University and Chinese Academy of Social Science, according to a CAA source.

I have spoken with Christian Chinese friends and pastors and they have all confirmed that the church in China is growing by leaps and bounds. There will come a point during the next few decades where Christians in China are the majority. Perhaps then the persecution will stop and China will join South Korea as the two primarily Christian nations in Asia. At that point, if not before, we can expect to see China sending missionaries to the the United States.

Prayer for the day: Dear Heavenly Father, we ask you to have mercy on the Christians in China and to keep them safe, even as the number of Christians grow larger every day. We ask you to shower them with your peace and your joy despite the persecutions and that they will keep their eyes on the ultimate prize rather than the things of this earth. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.

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