Officials tear Christian mural from home and arrest pastor.
A leading campaigner has warned of a gathering storm for
persecuted Christians in China. Release International partner, Bob Fu,
says the persecution of Christians has worsened dramatically under
President Xi Jinping, and is set to get worse now Xi has been declared
president for life.
Bob Fu gave his warning at a Release
International event in London, entitled Christian Persecution in
China. He said:
'Churches have been totally destroyed
under President Xi's rule. There is a new spiritual storm coming to
the Chinese Church. It may even be worse than during the Cultural
Revolution.'
President Xi has imposed tough new
restrictions on religious freedom, which came into force on February
1. These are already beginning to bite.
The latest
crackdown in March has been in Luoning County, where the authorities
have banned preaching and gathering for worship and have been
arresting Christians. Officials have smashed windows, torn religious
murals from homes, removed crosses from churches, cut off electricity
and confiscated property. They have even stationed security guards in
private homes to prevent family prayers. 'It feels like another
Cultural Revolution,' one Chinese Christian remarked.
'Since February, even organising a prayer meeting in your home is
totally forbidden,' said Bob Fu. 'If you disobey, your home will be
subject to destruction and confiscation. According to the new
regulations you cannot share religious messages with anyone under 18.
And students, young people and Communist party members have been
forbidden from entering churches.'
Persecution is likely to increase in the coming months and
years, believes Fu, who has advised presidents Clinton and Obama on US
relations with China. The signs are that the Communist party is
tightening its grip on the nation under President Xi Jinping, who was
proclaimed president for life in March by the National People's
Congress.
'Expect to see more control. The word is
Sinicisation, [this is the process of making more Chinese in character
or form] which aims to bring the churches under the absolute control
of the Communist party. Even registered churches are being forced to
install face-recognition cameras and provide office space for
Communist party members to monitor the church.'
'Already
we are seeing Christians labelled as belonging to 'evil cults', simply
because they have been found reading books like Pilgrim's Progress and
Streams in the Desert,' says Bob Fu.
One target of the
Communist party is to curb the rapid growth of the Church. When the
party took power in 1949 there were around a million Christians in
China. By the 1980s, the Church had grown ten-fold, despite attempts
to eradicate the faith during the Cultural Revolution. Today, the
number of Chinese Christians is estimated at more than 100m. There are
now more Christians than members of the Communist party in China, and
that figure is set to more than double.
Says Bob Fu:
'Sociologists estimate that by 2030, the number of Chinese Christians
will reach at least 224m, even at the slowest projected rate of
growth.' This is the real reason for the clampdown, he believes.
According to Bob Fu, of Release partner ChinaAid, a leaked
Communist party document reveals the tough new restrictions on the
Church are to 'contain the overheated growth of Christianity.'
Bob Fu, who now lives in exile in Texas, believes, 'God is
sovereignly reviving his church in China. The reason the church in the
west is not currently experiencing revival is because there is less
persecution.'
Release International CEO, Paul Robinson,
who hosted the London event, said: 'We are calling on the UK church to
stand with their brothers and sisters in Christ by declaring 'We will
not abandon them!'