A local pastor in the Chinese city of
Wuhan, the origin of the novel coronavirus,
was taken away by police for interrogation
while he was leading an online meeting of
Christians on evangelism and church
planting, according to the Chinese Christian
Fellowship of Righteousness.
The Zoom meeting , “Proclaim Jesus
Gospel Gathering,” was underway when the
police in Hubei province’s Wuhan city came
over, looked for evangelism materials or
publications, and took away the pastor,
identified only as Luo, from Nanjing Road
Church, the U.S.-based Christian
persecution watchdog International
Christian Concern learned from the Chinese
Christian Fellowship of Righteousness,
which speaks out in public as Christians.
Pastor Luo was taken to a police station
and interrogated for more than four hours.
Not afraid, Luo told the police that
Christians served the city during Wuhan’s
most difficult moments, leaving policemen
speechless.
“I rebuke them, calling them out that they
are not minding business that they should
be minding,” Luo was quoted as saying.
“Christians disregarded their own lives to
do good things, yet the police treat them as
the bad guys, this is unreasonable.
“I also told them a few times in all
seriousness, I will only live for Christ, I will
not argue on other matters. However, I will
never change [my persistence] about
evangelism.”
The officials then let the pastor go.
Earlier this month, police violently raided a
house church in Xiamen city in China’s
Fujian province during Sunday worship,
injuring several worshipers in the process.
Dozens of security guards and officers
from the local Ethnic and Religious Bureau
arrived at Xingguang Church, which meets
at a residence, calling the gathering
“illegal.”
All the churches outside of the
government-controlled Three-Self Patriotic
Movement are considered illegal by the
Chinese Communist Party.
Though male church members attempted to
block the door, police stormed into the
room, yelling at church members while
demanding them to stop recording with
their cell phones.
When church members refused, police
dragged several members out the door and
snatched their cell phones. In
a video shared by preacher Yang Xibo from
Xunsiding Church, the police could be seen
pressing church members’ heads down to
the ground while authorities yelled, “Stop
filming!”
The church was previously raided by
authorities from five different departments
on April 19. Additionally, the church’s
preacher, Titus Yu, received advance notice
of administrative punishment for “violating
several articles of the religious
regulations.”
Last month, several members of China’s
heavily persecuted Early Rain Covenant
Church were arrested for participating in an
online Easter worship service on Zoom and
ordered to cease all religious activity.
The 5,000-member Sichuan house church,
led by pastor Wang Yi, had not been able to
gather in person since the communist
regime shut down the church in 2018 and
arrested their pastor and other leaders.
Since then, it had opted to gather online.
Early Rain Covenant Church was first
raided during a Sunday evening service in
December 2018 after authorities claimed it
violated religious regulations because it
was not registered with the government.
Wang was detained along with his wife,
Jiang Rong, and more than 100 members
of his congregation.
Pastor Wang was later sentenced to nine
years in prison on charges of subversion
of power and illegal business operations.
According to Gina Goh, ICC’s regional
manager for Southeast Asia, China has
clearly resumed its crackdown on
Christianity after the threat posed by the
coronavirus pandemic has reduced.
“In recent weeks, we have seen an
increased number of church demolitions
and cross removals on state-sanctioned
churches across China, as house church
gatherings continue to face interruption and
harassment. It is deplorable that the local
authorities not only conducted this raid
without proper procedure but deployed
excessive use of force against church
members and bystanders,” she said. “ICC
calls on the international community and
the U.S. government to condemn China’s
constant human rights abuses.”
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