While many expected that the agreement between the Vatican and China would cause a conservative schism in Chinese Catholicism, in fact the first signs of a possible schism are appearing among the pro-government Patriotic Association.
Believers in Shandong have suffered years of suppression of their religious belief. After having moved their congregation site multiple times, they face a permanent closure in the near future.
A member of the Life Church in Xinjiang was tortured for 24 hours after she was detained for hosting a church gathering.
A member of the Born-Again movement from Anhui Province suffered constant persecution for his faith.
The CCP is strengthening the crackdown on religious belief in schools by using propaganda videos, online petitions, and ideological indoctrination of students and staff.
Authorities in Henan are now forcing believers to replace portraits of Jesus with that of Chinese leaders at their homes.
The authorities claimed that a government-controlled Three-Self church in Luoyang city was an “illegal construction.”
An ethnic Hui Muslim, the imam, was picked up from his home in Xinjiang and taken to a “transformation through education” camp.
In the province’s Zhaoyuan city, the authorities have brought back the infamous one-hundred-day campaign against “cults.”
Worshipers were forced to either completely close down their gathering places or start meeting in small groups after a sequence of crackdowns on house churches that adhere to head-covering tradition.