• 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
    • OP-EDS
    • FEATURED
    • TESTIMONIES
  • 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 / Testimonies China

Three-Self Church in Jiangxi Destroyed Under False Pretext

07/17/2018Bitter Winter |

Xi Jinping
Kremlin.ru – CC BY 4.0

Even government-controlled Three-Self churches are not safe from the demolition campaign: the Baofeng church in Jiangxi was falsely declared unsafe and demolished.

Since President Xi Jinping took office, many churches have been demolished, or their crosses have been torn down across China. Theoretically, the government-controlled Protestant Three-Self Church should have escaped this campaign, but in fact, authorities have used various pretexts to hit Three-Self places of worship as well.

One of such examples is the Baofeng church in the city of Yichun, Jiangxi, which the government labeled a “dilapidated building” and demolished in August 2017. The promises to rebuild the church after its demolition were not kept.

In July, the Baofeng church was inspected in the middle of a religious service, and inspectors claimed that a section of a wall had tiny cracks in it, making the building unsafe. Less than a month later, the county administration and Baofeng Town Government officials visited the church and tried to persuade the parishioners to request themselves that it should be demolished, who refused, objecting that the church had been recently built and that two small cracks in a wall hardly made it unsafe. The authorities countered that the decision to demolish the Baofeng church had already been taken, promising to build a new one for the parishioners.

The government officials still wanted the devotees to sign a request to demolish the building and repeatedly returned to the church. Some parishioners were visited in their homes and forced to sign the request. The husband of the church administrator went to the authorities, explaining that, without the signature of his wife and the donor who had funded the construction of the church, the request of demolition was not valid. Neither his legal arguments nor the protests of the parishioners had any effect.

On August 2, the authorities proceeded with the forced demolition of the church, accompanied by the police to control the protests. According to eyewitnesses, however, when the excavators tried to break through the walls of the church, they found that they could not knock them down, and the authorities had to bring in a crane and a towing vehicle to finish the job. Onlookers questioned, “If this building is so dilapidated, how is it that it’s so hard to tear it down?” Only a week later the sturdy church was successfully leveled.

Almost one year has passed, and nothing has been heard of the authorities’ promise to rebuild the church. When some parishioners confronted the city officials, the answer was that the church had been demolished following a written request by the devotees, not an initiative of the government, which therefore was under no obligation to build a new church.

The construction of the Baofeng church had been funded by a Christian from Fujian. He invested more than 400,000 RMB in the project, which was completed in 2012. The site covered more than 100 square meters. Before it was demolished, more than 40 Christians regularly attended the church for worship.

Source: Direct Reports from China

Tagged With: Three-Self Church

Related articles

  • Seventh-day Adventist Clergy Get Heavy Jail Sentences in Guizhou

    Seventh-day Adventist Clergy Get Heavy Jail Sentences in Guizhou

  • USCIRF Charges China’s Authorized Religious Bodies as Communist Party Accomplices

    USCIRF Charges China’s Authorized Religious Bodies as Communist Party Accomplices

  • State-Run Protestant Churches Demolished on Bogus Pretexts

    State-Run Protestant Churches Demolished on Bogus Pretexts

  • “Christianity Loves the Party” Exhibition Unveiled in Shanghai

    “Christianity Loves the Party” Exhibition Unveiled in Shanghai

Keep Reading

  • Facial Recognition Cameras Installed in State-Run Religious Venues
    Facial Recognition Cameras Installed in State-Run Religious Venues

    More than 200 facial recognition cameras were installed in churches and temples in one Jiangxi Province county. This alarming practice is spreading across China.

  • 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.

  • Churches Told to Worship the CCP or Face Closure
    Churches Told to Worship the CCP or Face Closure

    Government propaganda continues to invade China’s places of worship, as they are turned into publicity centers to promote the Communist Party and its leaders.

  • 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.

Primary Sidebar

Support Bitter Winter

Learn More

Follow us

Newsletter

Most Read

  • Pro-Chinese Propaganda by The World Muslim Communities Council: Uyghurs Strike Back by Gulfiye Y
  • Zhanargul Zhumatai: “Help Me, I Just Want to Leave China” by Ruth Ingram
  • L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and the Visual Arts. 1. The Aesthetic Mind by Massimo Introvigne
  • Stricter Rules on Private Tutoring Protect Ideology Rather than Parents by Wang Zhipeng
  • Japan Religious Donations Law. 4. The Return of Brainwashing by Massimo Introvigne
  • Hong Kong: Christian Scholar Peng Manyuan Released but Not Rehabilitated by Gladys Kwok
  • The Weaponization of the CCP’s “Zero COVID” Against Tibet by Marco Respinti
  • L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and the Visual Arts. 3. Art as Communication by Massimo Introvigne
  • L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and the Visual Arts. 4. Art and Illustration by Massimo Introvigne
  • L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and the Visual Arts. 5. Professionals vs. Amateurs by Massimo Introvigne

CHINA PERSECUTION MAP -SEARCH NEWS BY REGION

clickable geographical map of china, with regions

Footer

Instant Exclusive News
Instant Exclusive News

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

Follow us

LINKS

orlir-logo hrwf-logo cesnur-logo

Copyright © 2023 · Bitter Winter · PRIVACY POLICY· COOKIE POLICY