• 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 GLOBAL
    • TESTIMONIES GLOBAL
    • OP-EDS GLOBAL
    • FEATURED GLOBAL
  • 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 / Testimonies China

Couple Arrested for Christian Books

08/03/2018Gu Qi |

christian books
Two Protestant pastors from a government-controlled Three-Self church in Guangdong Province were arrested for receiving religious publications by mail.

On the morning of January 23, 2018, Dongguan city police officers arrived at the home of Xia Lian and her husband, both Protestant pastors, claiming that they needed to talk to them, and took the couple to a local police station. After confiscating Xia Lian’s mobile phone, police locked her to a tiger bench (a torture device) and questioned her repeatedly about the religious books she recently received from Beijing, claiming it was illegal to have religious texts. Officers stated that the books were sent to her by “an overseas anti-China organization, China Aid Network.” After the interrogation proved fruitless, Xia Lian was escorted back home where a search was conducted; more than 20 boxes of religious books were seized.

The couple was released after their church members that had connections intervened; they continue to be closely monitored by the police.

Since the new Regulations on Religious Affairs came into force this February, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) authorities issued multiple documents to ensure strict control of religious books. In March 2018, the CCP entirely banned online sales of the Bible.

Recently, Bitter Winter has received a copy of a document titled “Shenyang Municipal Implementation Plan for Concentrated Action to Combat Illegal Religious Publications, Printed Matter, and Harmful Information.” The document, issued by the Shenyang Municipal Working Group Against Pornography and Illegal Publications demands the confiscation and seizure of all religious books and publications in the hands of Christians. All Christian books and materials received by mail should be destroyed, and the sales of religious texts in all public places prohibited; businesses that are not licensed by the state to print religious materials should be punished. The prohibitions make it extremely difficult and even dangerous for believers to get books on religion in China.

Reported by Gu Qi

Tagged With: Chinese Communist Party, Three-Self Church

Gu Qi profile picture
Gu Qi

Uses a pseudonym for security reasons.

Related articles

  • “The Most Important Feature of Chinese Communism is Atheism”

    “The Most Important Feature of Chinese Communism is Atheism”

  • Ngaba Prefecture, Sichuan: Massive Re-Education to Prevent Tibetan Self-Immolations

    Ngaba Prefecture, Sichuan: Massive Re-Education to Prevent Tibetan Self-Immolations

  • “Socialist Spiritual Civilization”: The Great Comeback of an Old CCP Concept

    “Socialist Spiritual Civilization”: The Great Comeback of an Old CCP Concept

  • No Sex Please, We’re Chinese: Crackdown on the Oldest Student Sexology Association in China

    No Sex Please, We’re Chinese: Crackdown on the Oldest Student Sexology Association in China

Keep Reading

  • Burning Effigies: China Threatens American Academic Miles Yu
    Burning Effigies: China Threatens American Academic Miles Yu

    A Cultural-Revolution-style statue vilifies a scholar who has mightily upset the Communist Party.

  • Courtesy of the Two Sessions: Two New Powerful (and Dangerous) Chinese Agencies
    Courtesy of the Two Sessions: Two New Powerful (and Dangerous) Chinese Agencies

    Meet the new National Financial Regulatory Administration and National Data Bureau. Both mean more CCP control on the economy and the Internet.

  • The “Buddhist and Taoist Clergy Database,” Another CCP Imposture
    The “Buddhist and Taoist Clergy Database,” Another CCP Imposture

    Advertised as a tool against fraudulent “false monks,” it will in fact also help cracking down on Buddhist monks and Taoist priests not controlled by the CCP.

  • Wang Yi’s Visit to Italy: A Missed Opportunity
    Wang Yi’s Visit to Italy: A Missed Opportunity

    The present Italian leadership expressed the intention to walk out of the 2019 Belt and Road agreement signed by the previous government. So far, it has not happened.

Primary Sidebar

Support Bitter Winter

Learn More

Follow us

Newsletter

Most Read

  • Blaming the Victims: The Hamburg Shooting and the Jehovah’s Witnesses by Massimo Introvigne
  • The Donnie Yen Fiasco: A Uyghur View by Rebiya Kadeer
  • More Uyghur Criticism of Donnie Yen: Wasn’t He More Guilty than Will Smith? by Kok Bayraq
  • The “Buddhist and Taoist Clergy Database,” Another CCP Imposture by He Yuyan
  • The Suicide of the Pink-Haired Girl: How the CCP Exploited a Tragedy by Zhou Kexin
  • Second-Generation Unification Church Believers Discriminated in Japan. 3. Media Slander Leads to Discrimination by Masumi Fukuda
  • Russia: Pastor Moskvitin Sentenced to 1.5 Years in Penal Colony for “Brainwashing” by Massimo Introvigne

CHINA PERSECUTION MAP -SEARCH NEWS BY REGION

clickable geographical map of china, with regions

Footer

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

LINKS

orlir-logo hrwf-logo cesnur-logo

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