BITTER WINTER

Testimonies China

ID Cards Help Authorities to Persecute for Religious Belief

ID Cards Help Authorities to Persecute for Religious Belief

A woman that belonged to a government-approved Protestant Three-Self Church in Fujian was blacklisted when her religious faith was marked as xie jiao (a heterodox organization) on the official identity database. The religious affiliation of a person, among other...

Authorities Cover the Cross of Wenzhou Church

Authorities Cover the Cross of Wenzhou Church

A black iron sheet was used to hide the cross on the main entrance to a government-controlled Catholic church that belongs to the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association in Xikeng, Zhejiang. The Pingyang County government declared that the cross on the Xikeng Church...

Church Demolished, Leaders and 60 Members Arrested

Church Demolished, Leaders and 60 Members Arrested

The Three-Self Church in Shuangmiao village is one of many government-controlled churches recently demolished in Henan Province. The crackdown on religion in China has affected even the Three-Self Churches that belong to the State-approved united Protestant church. On...

University Student Suspended for Believing in Almighty God

University Student Suspended for Believing in Almighty God

After university authorities discovered that a student was a member of The Church of Almighty God, he was forced to leave his studies and flee. Li Chao (pseudonym) studied at a university in Henan and was also a member of The Church of Almighty God, a Chinese...

Arrested Twice for Books on Almighty God

Arrested Twice for Books on Almighty God

In China, even possessing a book from The Church of Almighty God is sufficient grounds for arrest or persecution; an elderly believer from Shandong knows this well after being apprehended twice. Chen Ye (pseudonym), a 65-years-old member of The Church of Almighty God,...

Family Church Shut Down

Family Church Shut Down

Police in Shandong Province shut down a family church, following the implementation of the new Regulations on Religious Affairs. In March 2014, Wang Xilan (pseudonym) built a church under the guise of a nursing home in Dezhou city of the Shandong Province. Believers...

Christians Paraded in Streets for Believing in God

Christians Paraded in Streets for Believing in God

In a tactic that is reminiscent of Cultural Revolution, people of Christian faith were publicly humiliated by parading them in streets. During China’s Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s to 1970s, a large number of people who were seen as violators of any kind by...

Reward for Information About Believer on the Run

Reward for Information About Believer on the Run

Arrested by the police, a member of The Church of Almighty God, managed to escape, forcing authorities to start a manhunt, promising local population financial rewards for tip-offs. Kang Min (pseudonym) is a member of The Church of Almighty God, a Chinese Christian...

Believer in Almighty God Tortured for Three Days

Believer in Almighty God Tortured for Three Days

The Chinese police practice “soft” torture violence, aiming at destroying person’s spirit by using psychological pressure instead of physical force. Since the beginning of April, the Jiangsu provincial police launched a unified operation aimed at The Church of...