China Continues Crackdown on Christian Churches

Chinese authorities continue to intensify their crackdown on churches, recently forbidding a church to hold services and requiring its members to register with the government.

 

ChristianToday.com reports that Huoshi Fellowship church in China’s northwestern province of Gansu was raided by authorities. Members were forced to register their identification cards with the government and were told they could no longer gather at the church.

 

Christian charity China Aid warns that China’s Communist Party aims to wipe out Christianity from the country. The Chinese government wants to replace "Christ as the head of the church with submission to the Communist Party,” said the ministry.

 

As many as 1,700 churches in China have been demolished by authorities in the past two years and many Christians have been targeted by government officials. Some have even been beaten and jailed.

 

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom also recognized China’s increased persecution of Christians, stating that the Chinese government has "stepped up its persecution of religious groups deemed a threat to the state's supremacy and maintenance of a 'socialist society.”

Government authorities have also cracked down on those who have engaged in prayer meetings in honor of the twenty-seventh anniversary of the military crackdown in Tiananmen Square where the government killed hundreds of pro-democracy protesters.  

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