China Aid Association
(Haikou, Hainan–June 1, 2013) The Chinese government has shut down at least a dozen house churches in the southern province of Hainan in recent weeks and many others have been threatened with closure, a sign that little has changed under the new leadership of Xi Jinping.
On May 26, while the Sanya Hosanna Church was holding a morning worship service, seven or eight people from the Religious Affairs Bureau and the neighborhood committee came to deliver a document with the title “Announcement by the Hongqi Street Community of the Voluntary Dissolution of Irregular and Illegal Religious Meeting Sites.” They told the believers to go to the city’s registered religious meeting sites, and said if the believers met again the next week, then the officials would take measures and would hold the believers accountable for the consequences.
The local neighborhood committee also exerted pressure on the landlord to stop renting the meeting site to the church and gave them 15 days’ notice to move out. The leader of the church was also restricted from going to Hong Kong to attend a special conference; the reason given was that it might jeopardize national security and national interests.
Also on May 26, three other house Sanya churches — Elim Church, Bethel Church, and Xinju Church — also faced the same kind of persecution. Two weeks earlier, Sanya’s Mengai Church, Hexing Church, and three others house churches were also shut down. A church in Haikou has also faced the same situation, and seven or eight other churches have been shut down. Some churches in Baoting county have also been shut down.
“Closing a dozen churches in Hainan is an alarming sign that little has changed with Xi Jinping as president,” said ChinaAid founder and president Bob Fu. “The government is carrying out its plans to ‘eradicate’ the independent house church movement, a crackdown that would affect up to 100 million people. China must end this repression if it wants global respect as a rising power. We urge President Obama to raise this issue at the upcoming summit with President Xi.”
ChinaAid expresses its shock and concern that the relevant administrative departments of the Hainan government are systematically closing down house churches. Recent reports from many other provinces and regions indicate that the same thing is happening to house churches elsewhere as well, further confirming ChinaAid’s report last year of the intensification of the Chinese government’s secret 10-year plan to eradicate house churches. We will be paying close attention to China’s worsening religious persecution and call upon the global church and good-hearted people of the world to pray for the church in China. We should use prayers and action to show those in power the Apostle Paul’s warning in Acts 26:14, “It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” God’s church will be eternally victorious!
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Website: www.ChinaAid.org | www.MonitorChina.org
