• 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 / News China

Police Raided a House Church, Arresting Seven Christians

05/28/2018Bitter Winter |

Source: Direct Reports from China
Date: May 28, 2018

Bitter Winter has learned that, on May 6, 2018, the police raided a house church meeting place in Xiaoguan, a town in Henan near the city of Gongyi, arresting seven Christians.

At about 2 p.m. that day, four policemen from the police station in Xiaoguan town, together with three government workers broke into a local house church meeting place and forcibly arrested and escorted seven Christians to a local police station. Three of these people are in their seventies.

Later that day, the village secretary and the director of social security of the village paid a visit to the police station. They interceded with the director of the police station on behalf of the Christians, asking him to release them. The director of social security said that one of the arrested, Zhi, was 72 years old, and she had to take care of two granddaughters since her son and daughter-in-law were out of town. If Zhi were sent to the detention center, her two granddaughters would be left unattended. The director added that these Christians just believed in God and had a meeting; they did not do anything wrong. Yang, the director of the police station, replied, “No matter whether they do something wrong or not, house church meeting places must be banned. We will seize any such meeting place we find. Today, I will release them for your sake. But if they are caught one more time, I’ll send them straight to the detention center!”

At 11 p.m. that night, all seven Christians were finally released. According to one of them, before he was released, the police warned him not to attend church meetings in future. If he continued to do so and were caught again, he would be detained for half a month. If he still refused to give it up, he would be sent to the Zhengzhou Labor Re-education Camp.

Tagged With: House Churches

bw-profile
Bitter Winter

Bitter Winter reports on how religions are allowed, or not allowed, to operate in China and how some are severely persecuted after they are labeled as “xie jiao,” or heterodox teachings. We publish news difficult to find elsewhere, analyses, and debates.
Placed under the editorship of Massimo Introvigne, one of the most well-known scholars of religion internationally, “Bitter Winter” is a cooperative enterprise by scholars, human rights activists, and members of religious organizations persecuted in China (some of them have elected, for obvious reasons, to remain anonymous).

Related articles

  • Henan Preacher Arrested for Purchasing Christian Books Online

    Henan Preacher Arrested for Purchasing Christian Books Online

  • House Churches Attacked and Banned in Several Provinces

    House Churches Attacked and Banned in Several Provinces

  • House Church Under Attack in Guiyang

    House Church Under Attack in Guiyang

  • Beijing Shouwang Church: The House Church That Refuses to Die

    Beijing Shouwang Church: The House Church That Refuses to Die

Keep Reading

  • Xi’an Church of Abundance: Crackdown on a Historical House Church
    Xi’an Church of Abundance: Crackdown on a Historical House Church

    After 30 years of existence, the theologically mainline church is accused of fraud and of being a xie jiao or a “cult.”

  • Leading House Churches Targeted in China
    Leading House Churches Targeted in China

    Beijing’s Zion Church, Renai Church in Guiyang, and Early Rain in Chengdu continue to be under attack.

  • Numerous Protestant Venues Shut Down Across China
    Numerous Protestant Venues Shut Down Across China

    Local authorities raid and close places of worship using various pretexts, from poverty alleviation to epidemic prevention.

  • Protestant Churches Continue to Be Destroyed Across China
    Protestant Churches Continue to Be Destroyed Across China

    Both Three-Self and house church venues have been demolished under various pretexts in Shaanxi, Anhui, and other provinces. Exclusive videos and pictures from Bitter Winter.

Primary Sidebar

Support Bitter Winter

Learn More

Follow us

Newsletter

Most Read

  • There Are Christian Uyghurs, Too: New Organization Launched in London by Ruth Ingram
  • The Last Words of a Uyghur Father: A Son’s Memory by Abdurehim Gheni Uyghur
  • Xi Jinping: Beijing’ National Art Museum Is Not Socialist Enough by Hu Zimo
  • Occupied Ukraine: Anti-Cult “Experts” Target Moscow Patriarchate Dissident Priest by Massimo Introvigne
  • Chinese Agents Tried to Bribe U.S. Tax Officer in Anti-Falun-Gong Plot by Massimo Introvigne
  • Russia: Lunatic Theory that Yellowstone Volcano Caused the War in Ukraine Gains Momentum by Massimo Introvigne
  • Vandalism Against Catholic Churches on the Rise in Bavaria by PierLuigi Zoccatelli

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