Chapter 10 Tyranny and Crisis (4)

The Chinese Communist Party has been cracking down on Christians, Catholics and Muslims (Muslims) who do not love the Party and disobey the leadership of the United Front Work Department. The CCP tore down crosses erected by Christians and Catholics harassing religious activities of the faithful, arresting church pastors and restricting the free activities of the faithful.

On April 2, 2020, Zhao Huaguo, the pastor of the Burt’s Family Church in Cili County, Hunan Province, was arrested on the false charges of “inciting subversion of the government.

Twenty-two Christians were detained at the Maoming City Detention Center in Guangdong Province in October 2018. Guangzhou rights lawyer Fan Biaowen was granted access to meet them at Maoming City Detention Center No. 1 only a month later but the meeting was too short to get more details.

In October 2018, Fujian Christian Church was continuously harassed and suppressed by the government. Water and electricity were cut off for 10 days and city police were continuously sent to storm the church to threaten believers. The church leader was forcibly taken to the police station for interrogation while he was hospitalized for heart disease.

On November 4, 2018, when 700 members of the Evangelical Church of Chengdu met for worship, undercover police showed up to monitor them. On the 5th, a group of seven people from the Communist Party’s Religious Bureau, State Security and the community came to the home of evangelist Jiang Tian and tried to force him to sign documents from the religious department which Jiang Tian steadfastly refused. He also asked for audio and video recordings of the meeting but was also refused. A believer was fired from his workplace for believing in Christ.

In September 2018, Pastor Zhang Ganghua of Changsha Mars Church signed a statement of support for the Christian faith. Mars Church was then subjected to a series of government harassment. In October the church door sign was smashed, the authorities sent someone to the door and questioned Pastor Zhang Ganghua for 4 hours. The church door lock was broken. On November 11, the Religious Affairs Bureau officials came to the door claiming to ban the church; the police brutally and forcibly took away 3 believers and injured 1 person. The church called the police several times but the case was not accepted.

On November 25, 2018, a Christian house church in Zhengzhou University City was stormed by more than 10 religious bureau officials. There were only 10 or so believers there that day before it was finally banned and seized.

It is estimated that there are currently 100 million believers in God scattered throughout mainland China; most of them are church house members who are not tolerated by the Chinese Communist authorities. They continue to meet and practice their religion despite constant harassment and persecution.

The CCP’s greatest success with religion has been the privatization and commercialization of Buddhism. The Buddhist monks at the top of Buddhist temples have mostly accepted the Communist Party’s religious administration. The CCP’s Religious Affairs Bureau allows and encourages wealthy businessmen to conspire with monks and abbots to invest in Buddhist monasteries from which religious officials also receive benefits. Senior monks and abbots can become millionaires, have girlfriends and get married. Religious officials ask monks and nuns to pledge their allegiance to the CCP. The Buddhist monks and nuns can dance in disco and the “loyalty dance”. The CCP has corrupted the senior members of Buddhist temples who are wearing Buddhist clothes, while the majority of lower-level Buddhists still adhere to their Buddhist beliefs.

The Chinese Communist Party’s persecution of pro-democracy activists has had a major impact on the international community, as it did on Liu Xiaobo, who won the Nobel Peace Prize and died in prison of a terminal illness. Liu Xiaobo was a doctoral lecturer at Beijing Normal University, a writer, and a social activist who led the drafting of Charter 08 in 2008 and was arrested and imprisoned in 2009. Since Xi Jinping came to power in 2013, Liu Xiaobo’s liver cancer had been worsening in prison and the Xi regime had denied his medical parole since June 2017. It was only when he was about to die in prison or false pretenses. Liu Xiaobo died a month after entering Shenyang Hospital at the age of 61. His body was then cremated and his ashes scattered in the sea. His peace prize was never received.