BITTER WINTER

China

Octogenarian Church Leader and Three Others Arrested

Octogenarian Church Leader and Three Others Arrested

Local authorities in Xinjiang’s Manas county arrested four people after a villager reported about their whereabouts. In late March, a man ventured into a village to run some errands. A villager identified him as being the son of a local house church leader, Liu Zhang...

Believer in Almighty God Arrested Upon Returning to China

Believer in Almighty God Arrested Upon Returning to China

A member of The Church of Almighty God was arrested at the Shanghai airport after she came back from Japan. On July 18, 2018, Tan Ruihua (pseudonym), a member of The Church of Almighty God, a Chinese Christian new religious movement, who had worked in Japan for the...

Local Church Leader Sentenced to Three Years in Prison

Local Church Leader Sentenced to Three Years in Prison

The leader of a Chinese religious movement was detained and later imprisoned.  The Local Church, also known in China as the “Shouters, which the Chinese authorities listed as xie jiao in 1995. This non-denominational movement was started in 1927 by Ni Tuosheng or...

Elderly Believer Persecuted Throughout Life

Elderly Believer Persecuted Throughout Life

Authorities have kept a close watch on an elderly Christian and harassed him one way or other all his life. On July 27, three officers from the Yongcheng city police station barged into the home of 70-year-old Dong Li (pseudonym). He was not at home, so the police...

Authorities Persecuted South Korean Missionaries in Shandong

Authorities Persecuted South Korean Missionaries in Shandong

South Korean missionaries and pastors in China’s Shandong Province have been arrested and deported, and churches have been forcibly shut down. At two o’clock on the afternoon of May 6, 2018, a police station in Heze city dispatched eight officers to an apartment in a...

Suppression of Religious Belief Intensifies in Linfen City

Suppression of Religious Belief Intensifies in Linfen City

Several government efforts are underway to severely curtain religious belief in Linfen, a bustling city in China’s Shanxi Province. Earlier this year, the Chinese Communist Party blew up the Golden Lampstand Church in Shanxi’s Linfen city. The church had more than...

Two Uyghurs Arrested After Applying for Passports

Two Uyghurs Arrested After Applying for Passports

A mother and son in Xinjiang Province were forcibly detained because of their belief and after they had applied for passports; they remain unaccounted for to date. A close friend of the arrested recently recounted to Bitter Winter about the arrest and disappearance of...

Imprisoned for Helping a Christian Friend

Imprisoned for Helping a Christian Friend

Authorities in Ningxia Hui autonomous region arrested a man and put him in prison for merely helping a friend who is a member of The Church of Almighty God. In July 2013, officials from Guyuan city Public Security Bureau detained Liu Cheng (pseudonym) for transporting...