Unbeknownst to most of us, Christians in China are facing a wide-scale persecution of religious liberties in the name of communist doctrine. Christianity is the fastest growing religion in China, with nearly 67 million Christians, but China is officially an atheist state, and the Chinese government has ramped up measures to eradicate Christianity in China.
"Chinese leaders have always been suspicious of the political challenge or threat that Christianity poses to the Communist regime," said a scholar of Christianity in China at Duke University. "Under Xi, this fear of Western infiltration has intensified and gained a prominence that we haven't seen for a long time."
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The Associated Press led an investigation and published their findings in an article, titled "For God or party? China's Christians face a test of faith, in which the author notes that:
Children and party members are banned from churches in some areas, and at least one township has encouraged Christians to replace posters of Jesus with portraits of Xi. Some Christians have resorted to holding services in secret.
The government has closed hundreds of private churches over the past months. Authorities have seized Bibles, religious paintings, and crucifixes .
A dozen Chinese Protestants interviewed by the Associated Press described gatherings that were raided, interrogations and surveillance, and one pastor said hundreds of his congregants were questioned individually about their faith. … After reporters visited Henan in June, some interviewees said they were contacted by police or local officials who urged them not to discuss any new measures around Christianity.
At its heart, this is a fight against Western ideas, which the Chinese government increasingly considers a threat to their
Communist regime. It's part of what the Chinese President has described as the effort "to 'Sinicize' all the nation's religions by infusing them with 'Chinese characteristics' such as loyalty to the Communist Party."
The whole thing is reminiscent of the early days of Christianity, when Christians worshipped despite the threat of death.
Willy Lam, a Chinese politics expert at the Chinese University of Hong Kong described President Xi as "a closet Maoist — he is very anxious about thought control. He definitely does not want people to be faithful members of the church, because then people would profess their allegiance to the church rather than to the party, or more exactly, to Xi himself."
The whole thing is reminiscent of the early days of Christianity, when Christians worshipped despite the threat of death.
