The decision confirms that in Xi Jinping’s China independent house churches will not be tolerated.
Pastor Wang Yi.
by Massimo Introvigne
Bitter Winter has followed the tragic story of Pastor Wang Yi and his Early Rain Covenant Church as it unfolded during the last year. On December 9, 2018, the Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu, the capital of southwestern China’s Sichuan Province, was forcibly shut down, and nearly 100 members of the congregation were arrested. The church leader, pastor Wang Yi, was accused of “inciting subversion of state power.” His books were banned throughout China.
Apparently, Wang Yi’s influence in China’s house churches scared the CCP. He was among the initiators of the joint statement by pastors denouncing the persecution of house churches in China.
Bitter Winter learned that arrested members of the Early Rain Covenant Church were tortured to extract information from them and make them falsely testify against pastor Wang Yi, providing “evidence” that he “colluded with foreigners to incite subversion of state power.” Some were reportedly drugged with unknown substances. While they were in a state of mental confusion, the police extracted false testimony from them and recorded videos to use as evidence.
The fabricated evidence has now been used. Pastor Wang Yi was tried on December 26 before the Chengdu Intermediate People’s Court and the decision was announced on December 30. The Court was surrounded by armed police and both relatives of the Pastor and Early Rain Church members were prevented from entering.
Pastor Wang Yi has been sentenced to a term of nine years in jail, suspension of political rights for three years, and confiscation of his personal assets, for both “inciting subversion of state power” and “illegal trade.” The second accusation refers to the fact that Early Rain Covenant Church printed and sold some religious books.
The decision confirms that, after the New Regulation on Religious Affairs came into force in 2018, there is a systematic program aimed at cracking down on house churches. They are no longer tolerated as part of a Gray Market in the system of Chinese religion. Either they join the government-controlled Three-Self Church, or they are suppressed. This is Xi Jinping’s China. As Pastor Wang Yi said himself, the persecution of Christians under Xi Jinping is “the most horrendous evil in Chinese society.”
Massimo Introvigne (born June 14, 1955 in Rome) is an Italian sociologist of religions. He is the founder and managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), an international network of scholars who study new religious movements. Introvigne is the author of some 70 books and more than 100 articles in the field of sociology of religion. He was the main author of the Enciclopedia delle religioni in Italia (Encyclopedia of Religions in Italy). He is a member of the editorial board for the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion and of the executive board of University of California Press’ Nova Religio. From January 5 to December 31, 2011, he has served as the “Representative on combating racism, xenophobia and discrimination, with a special focus on discrimination against Christians and members of other religions” of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). From 2012 to 2015 he served as chairperson of the Observatory of Religious Liberty, instituted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to monitor problems of religious liberty on a worldwide scale.
