Persecution of Christians in China: This is part of the Chinese government’s ongoing attempt to replace the Christian faith with faith in the Chinese Communist Party. Xi Jinping’s instruction is telling: he wants Chinese authorities “to cultivate generation after generation of useful talents who support the CCP leadership and the Chinese socialist system, and who are committed to a lifelong struggle for the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics.” Faith in Jesus Christ might interfere with one’s devotion to socialism with Chinese characteristics, and so Chinese officials are bent on eradicating that faith.
This is a matter of grave concern for the tiny community of Orthodox Christians in China. The Chinese government has not granted Orthodox Christianity any official status; Orthodox churches in China could be closed at any time at the whim of local officials, and Orthodox Christians taken into custody.
For previous ChristianPersecution.com coverage of the persecution of Christians in China, see here.
“Banned from Churches, Youth Only Allowed to Believe in Socialism,” by Ye Ling, Bitter Winter, October 29, 2020:
In August, the Nanping city government in the southeastern province of Fujian prohibited a state-run Protestant church from organizing its summer camp for youth. According to a church member, the authorities learned about the camp through a church pastor’s message on his WeChat account. Soon after, the police took away the person in charge to question him about the pastors involved in preparations for the camp and ordered him to stop organizing the event.
“Bans on children’s participation in church activities are part of the government’s religion eradication policy,” a state-run church preacher from Nanping told Bitter Winter.
The government of Fujian’s Xiamen city issued a ban on summer camps to some Three-Self state-run churches in March, threatening to close any church that runs faith-related programs for minors.
Crackdowns on church activities for minors are implemented following President Xi Jinping’s instructions “to cultivate generation after generation of useful talents who support the CCP leadership and the Chinese socialist system, and who are committed to a lifelong struggle for the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics.”
Even kindergartens are not spared. Chalu town in Ninghai, a county administered by the prefecture-level city of Ningbo in the eastern province of Zhejiang, played an important part in the CCP’s revolutionary history. In late September, the town’s Central Kindergarten organized educational activities for its students and their parents, who were required to take part in experience games called the Little Long March and the Little Red Army in Old Base Areas. The aim of these activities was to imprint “the red education into their minds and hearts.”
On September 30, China’s Martyrs’ Day to commemorate revolutionary heroes, the Ningbo city government organized school students to attend memorial activities in Jian’ao village, a revolutionary base in the city’s Yinzhou district. The students were told to sing We are the Communist Successors and Without the Communist Party, There Would Be No New China and salute the national flag.
In October, students in a Ningbo primary school were organized to swear allegiance to the Communist Party. “This is the indoctrination of students,” a teacher commented….
