An influential Protestant church in China says prominent leaders were arrested in what appears to be a growing crackdown on the underground church movement.
Nine people were detained on Tuesday after police raided their homes and the church office in Chengdu, the Early Rain Covenant Church said. Five of them had been released by Wednesday.
More than 1,000 miles away in Wenzhou, authorities began demolishing the Yayang Church building, as seen in video obtained by the non-profit ChinaAid, which monitors religious persecution.
This latest wave of arrests, after others last year, shows the Communist Party’s resolve to snuff out churches that do not align with its ideology, Christian groups say.
The BBC has contacted China’s embassy in the UK for comment. Authorities have not made any statements about the arrests, or the demolition in Wenzhou.
China promotes atheism and controls religion. The government said in 2018 there are 44 million Christians in the country, but it’s unclear if that number includes those who attend the many underground churches.
The Party has long pressured Christians to join only state-sanctioned churches led by government-approved pastors.
But Christian groups say the grip has tightened noticeably, with arrests becoming more common and prompt. At least two church leaders in China have told the BBC that authorities are swiftly arresting unauthorised church leaders, while in the past, these individuals would first be warned, then fined and finally detained if they still refuse to comply with orders.
Just weeks ago, Li Yingqiang, the current leader of Early Rain Covenant Church, had said he “sensed a storm gathering” and referred to “the imminent prospect of… another large-scale crackdown”.
“I dearly hope that none of our families shall ever again endure such a storm. Yet as an elder appointed by the Lord to stand among you… it is my duty to remind you all to prepare yourselves before the storm returns,” he wrote in a letter to church members in November.
Li and his wife Zhang Xinyue are among the four who remain in detention. Their church described the arrests as a “concerted operation” but said the grounds for arrest, and whether those detained have been charged, remain unclear. It added that it had lost contact with two other members but did not say they had been detained.
“The situation is ongoing, with specific details yet to be fully confirmed,” Early Rain Covenant Church (ERCC) said in a statement to members and supporters. It also also sought prayers for its members’ safety and their perseverance in the Christian faith.
In Wenzhou, local authorities brought in bulldozers, cranes and heavy machinery earlier this week, and started taking down part of the Yayang Church building, as seen in the video. ChinaAid said it was told by multiple sources that hundreds of armed and special police officers have been deployed to stand guard outside the building.
Sometimes known as “the Jerusalem of China”, Wenzhou has more Christians than any other city in the country. Residents living near Yayang Church have been “driven away”, while those working in the area has been instructed not to take photographs or record video, ChinaAid said.
“The massive mobilisation against the two major independent church networks shows the central government is determined to stamp out Christian churches entirely, unless the church is totally indoctrinated into the party’s ideology,” said Bob Fu, who founded ChinaAid.
bbc.com
