Yichun House Churches Banned

China Aid Association
(HEILONGJIANG — October 29, 2008) ChinaAid sources report that all house churches in Yichun city, Heilongjiang province were banned in mid-October. According to sources in the area, officials have warned all house churches in the city to cease operation because of a verbal directive from both the provincial and central governments which had been passed down to different levels of government agencies.
Yichun city is located in northeast China in Heilongjiang province, which shares a border with Russia. The city has an area of about 22,617 square miles and a population of approximately 1,000,000. Mainly Han-Chinese, there are several minority groups including: Korean, Manchu, Muslim, Oroqen and others. In 2005, The United Nations declared Yichun city “Green Yichun”, due to its development of urban forest ecological protection.