Photo: Subpoena to Huang Yuanda from the Jimei District Court of Xiamen (ChinaAid source)
(Xiamen, China—November 10, 2022) Huang Yuanda, a Christian from the Xunsiding Church in Xiamen, was fined ¥100,000 (~$13,800) by the Xiamen Siming District Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau for providing a rented house for the church school to use.
The Religious Affairs Bureau of Siming District, Xiamen City imposed an administrative penalty of ¥100,000 on Huang Yuanda (the lessee of the house) in January because he carried out religious education and training without authorization. After going through the process of administrative reconsideration, the case entered the stage of administrative litigation and was held in court on the afternoon of November 8.
The administrative penalty decision made by the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau of Siming District, Xiamen City on Huang Yuanda states:
This agency has found out by the law that your unauthorized conduct of religious education and training in Room 701, No. 752, Longhushan Road, violated the provisions of Article 41, paragraph 2, of the Regulations on Religious Affairs. The above facts include: inquiry records, on-site inspection records (November 4, 2021), “Xiamen City Housing Lease Contract” (Contract No. 400001005423), relevant photos and videos, etc. as evidence.
According to the provisions of Article 70 of the “Regulations on Religious Affairs”, this organ has decided to impose the following administrative penalties on you: an order to stop your activities, and the imposition of a fine of RMB 100,000.
You should, within 15 days from the date of receipt of this decision, pay the fine at the bank where you opened your account with the “Notice of Payment of Non-tax Income” (ICBC, Agricultural Bank, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, China Merchants Bank, China CITIC Bank, Minsheng Bank, China Everbright Bank, and Industrial Bank can handle it). If the fine is not paid within the time limit, the bureau will impose a daily fine of 3% of the fine amount by the provisions of Article 72, paragraph 1 (1) of the Administrative Penalty Law of the People’s Republic of China.
If you are not satisfied with this decision, you can apply for administrative reconsideration to the Xiamen Municipal Bureau of Ethnic and Religious Affairs or the People’s Government of Siming District, Xiamen within 60 days from the date of receipt of this decision and file an administrative lawsuit. If you are unsatisfied with the decision made at the administrative reconsideration, you can file for an administrative lawsuit against the People’s Court of Jimei District, Xiamen City, Fujian Province. The hearing will be held at 3:00 p.m. on November 8, 2022, and the venue will be Room A410, Trial Chamber 11, Jimei District People’s Court, Xiamen City.
Photo: The administrative penalty decision for Huang Yuanda (ChinaAid source)
There have been numerous legal cases against Christians in Xiamen in recent years, especially many incidents of persecution of Christian house churches. In particular, the Siming District Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau, the court, and the district government have repeatedly imposed heavy fines on house church preachers and other Christians. For example, on Thanksgiving last year, Preacher Yang Xibo of the Xunsiding Church received two fines, one was an administrative reconsideration decision from the Siming District People’s Government, imposing a fine of ¥200,000 (~$26,500) on Yang Xibo and his wife. Another fine came from the Siming District Court, which ruled that Yang Xibo’s 2019 fines, totaling ¥50,650 ($6,994), would be enforced.
Another example is from April 23, 2021, when lawyer Yang Hui received an “Advance Notice of Administrative Punishment” from the Comprehensive Law Enforcement Brigade of Xiamen Cultural Market. Because lawyer Yang Hui had registered, purchased, and sold second-hand books on the Confucius Second-hand Books website, he was fined seven times the price of the books sold, with a cost reaching ¥283,497.20 (~$39,146.80). Lawyer Yang Hui is a Christian from a house church in Xiamen. He has been involved in Christian rights protection cases for a long time. He was the attorney for the “Early Rain Covenant Church’s December 9 Case” and the defense attorney for Pastor John Cao. He was interviewed many times by Yousi for his involvement in sensitive cases. In the winter of 2020, he also participated in the defense of the famous case, “12 Hong Kongers Case.”
Yet another example is that of You Guanda, a preacher of the Xiamen Dianqian Church who insisted on educating his children at home. In September 2020, the government sued him on the grounds of a “custody dispute,” demanding that You Guanda and his wife be deprived of the guardianship of their children. On August 17, 2021, the case was closed in the Court of First Instance. The Jimei District People’s Court ruled that Preacher You and his wife won, and the plaintiff’s request from a town government in Xiamen City to force Preacher You and his wife to send their children to public schools was rejected. But in the end, the Christians ultimately lost this case.
In recent years, the Chinese government has stepped up its crackdown on Christian education. There have been frequent cases of Christian schools being shut down and teachers being arrested. The government has also introduced a series of regulations to control homeschooling.
On October 23, 2021, the 31st Meeting of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress passed the “Family Education Promotion Law of the People’s Republic of China,” which came into force on January 1, 2022. The passage of this law means that the Chinese government is actively enacting tough measures to pry control from parents in order to control and brainwash the next generation. Christians have made up the majority of home schools in China. In recent years, more and more Christian schools have been banned.
Xunsiding Church issued a letter of intercession, asking brothers and sisters to pray for them:
We pray that God will provide the lawyers wisdom to defend the case; We pray for God’s name to be exalted in court; We firmly believe that He will execute judgment among all the nations and all the people.
~Yu Bing, Special Correspondent of ChinaAid
