Source: ChinaAid
Date: May 13, 2018
ChinaAid reports on yet another attempt by religious affairs bureau to coerce members of Huaqiu Church congregation in China’s southern Guizhou to join the state-run Three-Self Church.
Officials from the bureau visited the church last Tuesday and told the church’s director and eight members of the congregation present at the site that the church should obtain government permission to hold services. The officials instructed the believers to communicate with pastors from the China Christian Council and the National Committee of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement – China’s only two government-approved Christian organizations. The bureaus’ personnel warned the church’s director to be vigilant of foreigners who are trying to ideologically infiltrate China.
The government has targeted Huaqiu Church before: last year, the police pressured the church to give out members’ personal information and used coercion to make some members of the congregation abstain from attending the church.
