Under Chinese leader Xi Jinping, the CCP has ramped up its suppression of Christians.
Christians in China, who have faced constant persecution under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), have been meeting in underground churches for years since the state officially prohibited all churches outside the CCP-controlled “Three-Self Patriotic Movement” churches. Those who refuse to attend the state church continue to meet in private homes and other venues.
According to ChinaAid, in 2022, the CCP’s persecution of underground Christians has been escalating day by day. The environment has become increasingly hostile to foreign missionaries since the CCP views their activities as “Western influence.” In July, China’s new Anti-Espionage Law defined “illegal religious activities” as espionage and foreign nationals can face lengthy jail terms under the new law.
Christianity Under Xi’s Regime
Under Chinese leader Xi Jinping, the CCP has implemented an unprecedented suppression of Christians. ChinaAid expressed concern over the CCP demanding loyalty to Xi Jinping from state-sanctioned churches, and the situation for “house churches” is much worse.
Under the CCP, the regime implemented the “Three-Self Patriotic Movement” which organized Christian churches under a CCP-supervised entity. What is taught at these state-sanctioned churches must be approved by the CCP. On the other hand, house churches, or underground churches, function independently from the state, often in private homes and apartments, and are targeted by the regime.
“It has always been bad, but it started to get much worse in 2018 when President Xi changed the constitution and became president in perpetuity,” Pastor Luigi Bilucaglia, an independent Baptist missionary from Quebec, Canada, to China for 18 years, told The Epoch Times. “He [effectively] became emperor, and the Xi dynasty began. They started attacking churches severely at the time. I had to go early to our church on Sundays, and I looked to see if there’s police where we’re located.”
Mr. Bilucaglia and his family were expelled from China in late 2021 after having lived in the country since 2003 as a missionary. CCP authorities raided his church and detained him for interrogation about his activities in China.
“They brought me in for interrogation,” he said. “The lead interrogator punched me in the back of my head and told the others (Chinese Christians) that they were in there because of me. They were trying to divide us so that someone might incriminate themselves. After they decided to expel me instead of imprison me, I was given seven days to leave the country, and during those seven days they brought me to five different police stations and interrogated me, in the hopes that they could entrap me in my testimony and associate me with some foreign entity, so that I could be accused of espionage.”
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