Police persecution of Xiamen Xunsiding Church “backfires”

Police during raid on Xiamen Xunsiding Church.

(Photo: ChinaAid resource)

(Xiamen, Fujian Province—April 19, 2021) On April 17, police again raided Xiamen
Xunsiding Church at the newly rented venue in Pacific
Rim Hotel. As dozens of police officers blocked the entrance to the conference hall, they
checked each church member’s temperature, noted their ID numbers, and
photographed them without their face mask. 

Police officers rudely shouted at Christians attending the service: “What’s your name?” One female Christian complained: “Police were shouting at us as if we were criminals.” Later, police detained more than 100 Christians in one room with no access to a restroom. Minister Yang Xibo video recorded the process with his cell phone.

When Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials forced Xiamen Xunsiding Church (formerly Xiagang Chapel) to close in the mid 1950’s, Yang Huaide invited church members to meet in his home. Later, CCP authorities imprisoned Mr. Yang’s grandchildren, Yang Xinfei and Yang
Yuanzhang for 15 years and five years for sharing “the Gospel.” When officials released them from prison, however, Ms. Yang and Mr. Yang continued to lead house church gatherings. They resumed Sunday services at No. 5 Xunsiding Lane in
1977. 

On May 19,
2019, the CCP banned the Xiamen Xunsiding Church. Afterward, church members had to frequently change venues. Nevertheless, whether the church gathered in a residential or business building, a hotel, or on the beach, police repeatedly discovered the locations and regularly raided the church.

Police detain more than 100 Christians in one room. 

(Photo: ChinaAid resource)

• demolished church buildings,
• raided churches during Sunday services,
• beat up and arrested Christians, 
• forced Christians to send their children to public schools, and 
• destroyed foreign missionaries’ tombstones.