Source: Direct Reports from China
Date: May 11, 2018
On April 15, 2018, local government officials in Fuyang, Anhui, ordered more than 20 minors to leave a Three-Self church telling the believers that children are not allowed to believe in God or go to the church.
At around 9 a.m., a group of seven, including officials from the Zhuzhai town government in Funan County, Fuyang City and the secretary of the administrative village, came to a Three-Self church in Zhuzhai town and summoned believers to a meeting. They stated that minors under 18 and Communist Party members were not allowed to believe in God. If Party members were to believe in God, they must quit the Party. They also demanded that it is forbidden to hold religious meetings at home: one can believe in God and attend meetings only in Three-Self churches.
Bitter Winter has learned that, in the same month, teachers in a Fuyang school announced to the students in a class that if they were found attending church, they would be expelled from school. They also informed the students that the school wanted to collect detailed information about their faith.
Some Christians revealed that, in February 2018, officials from the Religious Affairs Bureau in Funan County sent national flags and portraits of Xi Jinping to a Three-Self church in Zhuzhai town. In March, the town government ordered people to raise the flags and hang the portraits in the church. An elder believer commented that, in the future, the Government would only protect the churches raising national flags.
