• 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 / Pictures

Government Persecutions Result in Church Workers’ Deaths

01/25/2020Yao Zhangjin |

Even state-run churches are not spared CCP’s endless harassments. Two directors of Three-Self churches in Henan died after crackdowns on their places of worship.

by Yao Zhangjin 

All religions in China, especially the banned movements like Falun Gong, are being subjected to the most severe suppression since the Cultural Revolution. In some cases, persecutions result in the deaths of people of faith: some take their lives unable to live without practicing their religions freely,  while others die overwhelmed by government-imposed inhibitions. Even being a member of an officially approved church does not mean that one is safe, as more and more pressure is exerted on congregations of state-run churches, too. On July 17, 2019, Song Yongsheng, the chairman of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement in Henan Province’s Shangqiu city, committed suicide, unable to bear CCP’s control.

Since August 2018, the Three-Self Gospel Church in Humiao village in Shangqiu’s Zhecheng county has been subjected to numerous government crackdowns. First, its cross was demolished, then, the church was shut down and converted into a “Dining site for wedding and funeral council.”

The original appearance of the Gospel Church in Zhecheng county.
The original appearance of the Gospel Church in Zhecheng county.

The church director, 73-year-old Ding Mei, remained at the helm throughout these tumultuous months. “After the church was shut down, Ding Mei’s health was getting worse,” a congregation member told Bitter Winter. “She kept repeating that she had let down brothers and sisters, blaming herself for failing to preserve the church. She wept often and has lost appetite. Because of her deteriorating health, she had to receive intravenous infusions frequently.”

The Gospel Church has been converted into “Dining site for wedding and funeral council.”
The Gospel Church has been converted into “Dining site for wedding and funeral council.”

“To save money for building the church, brothers and sisters had never spent money on good food and drinks, and they sold their eggs and even hair,” another believer added. “After the government forcibly occupied the church, Ding Mei felt responsible for not saving it.”

After the church was repurposed on August 29, 2018, Ding Mei became even more anxious. Though feeling weak, she visited the county’s Religious Affairs Bureau almost every day hoping to get the church back, but to no avail.

On December 7, she submitted her last application to the Bureau. The reply stated that no leniency would be shown to the church congregation because places of worship are being closed down as per the national policy; more than a dozen churches had been shut down in the county already.

This has left Ding Mei completely distraught. The next day, she started vomiting blood and fainted. A medical examination revealed that the woman had a brain hemorrhage, and she died nine days later.

“It’s Xi Jinping’s policy that has driven her to death,” a local elderly believer said angrily.

A member of a Three-Self church in Zhecheng county told Bitter Winter that he had heard of at least eight cases of church workers falling ill as a result of government persecutions.

According to residents from Shibali village in Weishi county under the jurisdiction of Kaifeng city, their Three-Self church was taken over by the government in mid-2018.

The original appearance of the Three-Self church in Shibali village.
The original appearance of the Three-Self church in Shibali village.

“The church has been converted into a cultural activity center, and officials started giving villagers 50 RMB (about $ 7) to go there for entertainment and free lunch,” a local believer told Bitter Winter. “The place for worshipping God has become a place for amusement, and believers lost the place for gatherings. This situation troubled the church director; it permanently weighed on her.” Already in weak health, the director’s condition deteriorated sharply, and she died in December.

The Three-Self church in Shibali village has been converted into a cultural activity center.
The Three-Self church in Shibali village has been converted into a cultural activity center.

Believers from Zhaishang village, administered by Gaoji town in Henan’s Dengzhou city, told Bitter Winter that the increasingly severe persecution had driven their Three-Self church congregation to desperation. On August 9, 2018, the government repurposed the venue, and its director started experiencing continuous harassment from local authorities. Consequently, he had a heart attack and was taken to a hospital.

Similarly, the 71-year-old director of a Three-Self meeting venue in Dengzhou’s Linba town was hospitalized for hypertension after the government shut down the church.

Tagged With: Three-Self Church

Yao Zhangjin profile picture
Yao Zhangjin

Uses a pseudonym for security reasons.

Related articles

  • Closed Churches Ordered to Be Sold, Rented, or Destroyed

    Closed Churches Ordered to Be Sold, Rented, or Destroyed

  • Believers Forced to Renounce Faith for Social Benefits

    Believers Forced to Renounce Faith for Social Benefits

  • Christian Pastors Told to Preach in Sermons Confidence in the Party and Xi Jinping

    Christian Pastors Told to Preach in Sermons Confidence in the Party and Xi Jinping

  • Villager Fined $ 24,693 for Celebrating Christmas

    Villager Fined $ 24,693 for Celebrating Christmas

Keep Reading

  • Chinese Christians Compelled to Honor Deceased CCP Leader Jiang Zemin
    Chinese Christians Compelled to Honor Deceased CCP Leader Jiang Zemin

    Three-Self Church honors him as “a great Marxist we love and miss” and says he did “a good job in religious work.” In fact, he increased surveillance and persecuted believers.

  • Seventh-day Adventist Clergy Get Heavy Jail Sentences in Guizhou
    Seventh-day Adventist Clergy Get Heavy Jail Sentences in Guizhou

    Officially, Adventist congregations in China are part of the Three-Self Church. Those who kept their distinctiveness are now persecuted.

  • Clergy Ordered to Promote the Communist Party in Sermons
    Clergy Ordered to Promote the Communist Party in Sermons

    The government increases censorship on was is said in state-run Protestant churches, demanding pastors and preachers to advocate CCP policies and praise its leaders.

  • ‘Xi Jinping’s Religious Persecution Harsher than Mao Zedong’s’
    ‘Xi Jinping’s Religious Persecution Harsher than Mao Zedong’s’

    Members of state-run Protestant churches suffer unmatched harassment at the hands of authorities, as their worship places are demolished on trumped-up pretexts.

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
  • More Uyghur Criticism of Donnie Yen: Wasn’t He More Guilty than Will Smith? by Kok Bayraq
  • The Donnie Yen Fiasco: A Uyghur View by Rebiya Kadeer
  • 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