11/07/2019 China (International Christian Concern) – Recent reports indicate that the situation for Christians within the People’s Republic of China is worsening by the day. Chinese “sinicisation” policies are trampling individual religious freedoms into the dust and choking the Church’s presence across the nation.
This new wave of repression began in Jiangxi and Fujian provinces. There, over the past few months, the Chinese government has introduced its latest anti-religious policies. Speakers have been silenced, pastors haven been driven underground, house churches have been made illegal, and churches have been closed across the region, if not torn down. Even Three-Self Churches, those specifically sanctioned by the state, are being repressed.
However, persecution is nothing new in China. The Chinese government has been operating like this for decades. For the Chinese government, religion in any form must be controlled to maintain and uphold the bounds of the Chinese culture and its leaders. If religion cannot be controlled, it must be eliminated.
Of course, these new policies will not quash Christianity under heel in any short period of time. No string of church closures and arrests are going to stop Christianity so spontaneously. For decades, persecuted Christian in China have been willing to endure severe persecution and repression for their Christian faith.
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