A house church preacher was arrested after she posted on a WeChat group some video footage depicting government’s persecution of religion. As a result, her church was forcibly closed down.
In April this year, Zhang Hua (pseudonym), a preacher from Hebei Province’s Qinhuangdao city, posted on her WeChat group some videos with images of crosses being dismantled and church’s valuables confiscated by government officials.
Shortly after, she was summoned to the city’s National Security Bureau. Police prohibited Zhang Hua from sharing similar videos or remarks about the government’s religious persecution, or else she would be convicted and sentenced. Officers also tried to coerce her into signing a guarantee that she would not share the gospel anymore, which she refused to do.
Ten days later, over 20 police officers and government officials raided Zhang Hua’s church and closed it down, leaving members of the congregation with no place to worship.
On June 10, officers from the National Security Bureau arrested Zhang Hua again to warn her against sharing videos online.
As Bitter Winter reported earlier, because of the recent CCP’s efforts to control religious information online, church leaders across China warned believers not to use religion-related sensitive terms, such as “Jesus” and “Amen” in their online chats. People of faith are also encouraged to change their online group names into something less conspicuous, like “Connected with Love” or “I Love My Class.”
Sources from the Public Security Bureau confirmed that religion-related words had been added to a list of system-monitored vocabulary, and as soon as such words appear online, the content of posts is monitored.
Reported by Feng Gang
