‘All-out war to eliminate’: China moves to a new, higher level of Christian persecution

An expert on China and its antagonism toward Christianity has testified that the communist regime there, under Xi Jinping, has now entered a new phase, a higher level of persecution.

“[T]he CCP under this dictator, Xi Jinping, has launched a war against the faith,” explained Bob Fu, the founder of the Christian human rights group ChinaAid, in a congressional hearing.

“Instead of the old paradigm of controlling Christian churches and other independent religions in the past, now they [have] launched the all-out war to eliminate any independent Christian churches and even … the thoughts of independence and other religious minorities as well.”

A report in the Washington Stand explains he continued, “When Xi Jinping took power, he launched three or four wars. [The first] war [was] against the cross and the forced demolition of the cross campaign. All of a sudden, the wooden cross was declared as the enemy of the state, as a national security threat. It really shows how fragile, actually, how fearful this militaristic, atheistic regime [is], and thousands of crosses were taken down. If you don’t take down the cross voluntarily — these are government sanctioned churches — the pastors were even arrested. Some were sentenced to 12 to 15 years imprisonment.

“And then [there was] the war against the Bible, especially the access of the Bible to children. Millions of Chinese Christian children were ordered to sign a Communist party-prepared form to renounce their faith in public, and the Bible was totally forbidden to be in the hands of the Chinese children. And then, of course, the [current] war against the Christian leaders.”

The subject of the communist regime’s crackdown on Christians and other faiths, revealing the campaign is not only a human rights issue but is a threat to U.S. national security, appeared during a Congressional-Executive Commission on China hearing.

There Muslim and Buddhist advocates joined Christians in testifying against the brutal repression to which ordinary Chinese people are subjected for simply choosing to practice their faith.

“Former senator and international religious freedom ambassador Sam Brownback noted that despite the Xi Jinping regime’s imprisonment of 10 Catholic bishops and countless other Christians, the communist government ‘has not paid a dime’ for its religious freedom abuses even though it has been officially designated as a ‘Country of Particular Concern’ (CPC) by the U.S.,” the report explained.

Fu, who also explained the surging anti-faith agenda in China on “Washington Watch,” said the latest targets are Christian leaders.

“[T]wo days ago, all 18 of the criminally detained [Zion Church leaders] were formally arrested,” he reported. “That means they will go to trial and face a long sentence. And the CCP even criminalized the tithes and offerings — [a] Christian practice for centuries. Many pastors were arrested for simply receiving or organizing the tithing and offering of the church. The pastor Yang Rongli and her husband received 15 years and nearly 10 years, respectively … and other pastors also received various years of sentence for being accused of fraud. So this [is] the new trend.”

The looming national security issues were cited by Grace Jin Drexel, the daughter of imprisoned Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri, the report said.

He was among about two dozen pastors and workers of Zion Church, a non-government-approved house church with 10,000 members, arrested just weeks ago.

The communists viewed it as a threat since it didn’t agree to install government-operated spy cameras at its locations.

Drexel explained she’s been subjected to harassment in the United States from those who claim they are U.S. federal agents.

Fu also noted the transnational implications.

“[W]e have seen [that] the Communist Party is not satisfied by just controlling the churches and synagogues and mosques and Buddhist temples inside China, but they also extend their long arms overseas [to] American soil by establishing their overseas police stations.”

He said, “[CCP operatives] surrounded my own home in West Texas and forced my whole family into exile from [our] home for three months back [in] 2020. Their only purpose [was] to intimidate and to silence our voice for freedom for the persecuted brothers and sisters and many Chinese pastors, even in the U.S.”