• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • HOME
  • ABOUT CHINA
    • NEWS
    • TESTIMONIES
    • OP-EDS
    • FEATURED
    • GLOSSARY
    • CHINA PERSECUTION MAP
  • FROM THE WORLD
    • NEWS
    • OP-EDS
    • FEATURED
    • TESTIMONIES
  • INTERVIEWS
  • DOCUMENTS AND TRANSLATIONS
    • DOCUMENTS
    • THE TAI JI MEN CASE
    • TRANSLATIONS
  • EVENTS
  • ABOUT
  • EDITORIAL BOARD
  • TOPICS

Bitter Winter

A magazine on religious liberty and human rights

three friends of winter
Home / China / News China

Christians Flee Abroad, Their Families Face Threats

12/22/2018Piao Junying |

A family member questioned by a police

Police push the relatives of The Church of Almighty God members who have fled China to pressure believers to return, where they face arrest.

Many Christians in mainland China have fled overseas to seek asylum because of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) authorities’ persecution and repression of religious believers. Many of these Christian exiles have found, however, that the persecution does not end when they leave the country, it simply is transferred to their families.

Bitter Winter has previously reported that in Hebei and Hunan provinces and elsewhere, the families of several Church of Almighty God (CAG) members who have fled to South Korea have been intimidated by the authorities. They have been asked to cooperate with the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) filming of the video “Searching for Relatives.” The authorities hope to use the video to coerce Christians applying for political asylum in South Korea to return to China.

The personal stories of individual families help to make clear the dilemmas believers and their relatives face.

Liu Shuang, a 35-year-old member of the CAG, has fled China. This October, four or five police officers from Heilongjiang province came to her mother’s home under the pretense of conducting a household census. Officers did not, however, conduct a normal household survey; instead, they asked numerous questions about Liu Shuang’s travels overseas. In addition, the officials also found Ms. Liu’s husband, and pressured him to tell them about her religious status.

Sources report that, as early as 2015, the CCP issued a secret document, explicitly demanding that officials throughout China investigate CAG members who had left the country. One CCP insider revealed that Meng Jianzhu, Secretary of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, instructed his officials to “establish a large database of overseas religious organizations and individuals, so that we can launch and regulate attacks with precision.”

The nature of the attacks ordered by Mr. Meng can be seen in examples such as that of Xiao Wanjun, a Christian from Qiqihar in Heilongjiang province.

This August, local government officials called Xiao Wanjun’s father and said: “Your daughter is overseas spreading the gospel. She is already under surveillance by the Ministry of State Security. We want her to come back now. As her parents, you and your wife must guarantee that she no longer believes in God.”

Since this phone call, Ms. Xiao’s mother has been filled with anxiety, fearing what persecution may come next. She knows that if her daughter were to come back to China, she would likely be arrested and sentenced like many other many Christians. Some of those imprisoned have not been heard from since. Xiao’s mother said worriedly: “I am afraid that if she is forced to come back, she will be tortured and beaten to half death!”

The family of Cheng Yikun, a Christian from another city of Heilongjiang province, suffered under similar pressure. This August, two staff members from the municipal religious association met with Ms. Cheng’s older sister to investigate the religious beliefs of the exiled sister. The elder Cheng was threatened, and told: “Your sister believes in Almighty God. The country opposes and forbids religious beliefs. Now, she is practicing her faith overseas. You must cooperate with us to get her to come back!” Cheng Yikun’s sister refused.

Stories of fearful and intimidated families abound across China. For example, in Anhui province in the east of China, numerous families report harassment after their Christian relatives escaped overseas. Li Hui, Wang Ming, and Zhang Yingying are all CAG members who fled to avoid arrest by the CCP police. Since July, all of their families have been visited by the police at their homes for questioning and harassment. The police threatened and intimidated the families in an effort to learn detailed information about the overseas Christians, causing their families to live in fear.

(All names used here are pseudonyms.)

Reported by Piao Junying

Last edited on December 23, 2018.

Tagged With: Religious Persecution, The Church of Almighty God

Piao Junying profile picture
Piao Junying

Uses a pseudonym for security reasons.

Related articles

  • 전능하신 하나님 교회 난민들: 한국 대통령에게 발송한 편지

    전능하신 하나님 교회 난민들: 한국 대통령에게 발송한 편지

  • Henan: Pastor Sentenced to 5 and a Half Years for Printing Bibles

    Henan: Pastor Sentenced to 5 and a Half Years for Printing Bibles

  • Khalistan Movement Attacks Hindu Temple in Canada

    Khalistan Movement Attacks Hindu Temple in Canada

  • Two Sentenced for Attending a Christian Conference in Malaysia

    Two Sentenced for Attending a Christian Conference in Malaysia

Keep Reading

  • Sichuan Tibetan Intellectual Sentenced to Four and a Half Years in Jail
    Sichuan Tibetan Intellectual Sentenced to Four and a Half Years in Jail

    Tudan Lödup (Luo Zhu) defended the use of Tibetan language. He has been sentenced for “separatism.”

  • Christian from Wenzhou Prosecuted in Sichuan
    Christian from Wenzhou Prosecuted in Sichuan

    Lin Xuesui wanted to be a missionary. He has ended up being a prisoner of conscience.

  • Wang Zang and Wang Li: Marry a Poet and Go to Jail
    Wang Zang and Wang Li: Marry a Poet and Go to Jail

    The poet was sentenced for protesting against the repression of Tibetans, Uyghurs, Hong Kong democrats, and Falun Gong practitioners. His wife just for being his wife.

  • David Lin: China Promises to Free in 2030 American Pastor Detained Since 2006
    David Lin: China Promises to Free in 2030 American Pastor Detained Since 2006

    His life imprisonment sentence has been reduced after American pressures, but eight further years in jail may be too much for his frail health.

Primary Sidebar

Support Bitter Winter

Learn More

Follow us

Newsletter

Most Read

  • Pro-Chinese Propaganda by The World Muslim Communities Council: Uyghurs Strike Back by Gulfiye Y
  • Zhanargul Zhumatai: “Help Me, I Just Want to Leave China” by Ruth Ingram
  • L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and the Visual Arts. 1. The Aesthetic Mind by Massimo Introvigne
  • Stricter Rules on Private Tutoring Protect Ideology Rather than Parents by Wang Zhipeng
  • Japan Religious Donations Law. 4. The Return of Brainwashing by Massimo Introvigne
  • Hong Kong: Christian Scholar Peng Manyuan Released but Not Rehabilitated by Gladys Kwok
  • The Weaponization of the CCP’s “Zero COVID” Against Tibet by Marco Respinti
  • L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and the Visual Arts. 3. Art as Communication by Massimo Introvigne
  • L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and the Visual Arts. 4. Art and Illustration by Massimo Introvigne
  • L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and the Visual Arts. 5. Professionals vs. Amateurs by Massimo Introvigne

CHINA PERSECUTION MAP -SEARCH NEWS BY REGION

clickable geographical map of china, with regions

Footer

Instant Exclusive News
Instant Exclusive News

EDITORIAL BOARD

Editor-in-Chief

MASSIMO INTROVIGNE

Director-in-Charge

MARCO RESPINTI

ADDRESS

CESNUR

Via Confienza 19,

10121 Turin, Italy,

Phone: 39-011-541950

E-MAIL

We welcome submission of unpublished contributions, news, and photographs. Each submission implies the authorization for us to edit and publish texts and photographs. We reserve the right to decide which submissions are suitable for publication. Please, write to INFO@BITTERWINTER.ORG Thank you.

Newsletter

Follow us

LINKS

orlir-logo hrwf-logo cesnur-logo

Copyright © 2023 · Bitter Winter · PRIVACY POLICY· COOKIE POLICY