A magazine on religious liberty and human rights
Read the Severe Persecution of Christians in China.
The label xie jiao, reserved for banned “heterodox teachings,” is now increasingly applied to “normal” house churches.
Chen Lijun was detained in August. His wife reports he is still in jail, and his family is in desperate conditions.
Hao Ying claims that the authorities refuse to schedule an appeal trial for her husband, Pastor Geng Zejun.
Pastor Lian Changnian, Brother Lian Xuliang, and Sister Fu Juan remain under detention after two months. Church members have been beaten.
After the August 19 raid, the leaders of Linfen’s Covenant House Church were placed under arrest on September 30.
In Beijing, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Jilin, and Sichuan police raids targeted churches that refused to join the CCP-controlled Three-Self Church. Orders came from Xi Jinping himself.
Pastor Geng Zejun, the popular house church preacher, has been punished for his stubborn refusal to join the state-controlled Three-Self Church.
After 30 years of existence, the theologically mainline church is accused of fraud and of being a xie jiao or a “cult.”
They were jailed in 2009 and their church was dynamited in 2018. Their persecution continues.
Brother Zhao Weikai has been arrested on May 17. The house church in Taiyuan (China) has been repeatedly harassed in the last few months.
