Source: Direct Reports from China
Date: June 9, 2018
The public security police, the SWAT police and urban management officers from Jilin Province’s Jilin city seized a church near a residential community called “Beijijiayuan” on May 8, taking away four Christians.
At around 12:30 p.m., two public security police cars, four SWAT cars, and five urban management cars surrounded the church. The police officers taped off the church, closed it down, and removed the cross. Some Christians tried to reason with the police but failed.
The police activities attracted around 30 onlookers. Seeing that two people were taking photos with their cell phones, the police officers immediately snatched and smashed their phones and pushed them into police cars with their hands cuffed. Others in the crowd were manifesting their discontent, and the police ordered them to shut up and warned them not to leak any information. The police cuffed two people who continued to comment on the event, causing fear among the crowd that made them disperse gradually.
Some witnesses tried to continue observing from a distance, only to find that two police officers with guns inside a SWAT car were watching the surroundings, so they did not dare to look anymore.
The church continues to be under the control of the Chinese Communist Party with plain-clothed police officers frequently inspecting its surroundings.
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).
