by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) - Chinese government officials are continuing a campaign of surveillance and detention against the Linfen Holy Covenant Church in Shanxi province, holding church leaders and members on false charges, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.
Linfen Holy Covenant Church has been targeted by the CCP since August, when leaders were taken away on Aug. 19 and charged with “fraud” in late September, ICC reports. Since then, the CCP began harassing church members as well. Linfen Holy Covenant Church is affiliated with the heavily persecuted Shanxi Xuncheng (Zion) Reformed Church.
On October 27, church member Wu Tingting was placed under Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location (RSDL) for a trumped-up allegation of involvement in “fraud,” ICC said.
On November 1, police targeted Wang Qiang, another church member, and took him into custody without allowing him to speak to his family, ICC said. Wang’s pregnant wife Wen Huijuan was told by police the next day that her husband had been placed under RSDL for “fraud.”
Surveillance in China is among the most oppressive and sophisticated in the world. Church attendance is rigorously monitored, and many churches are being closed down—whether they are independent or belong to the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (the officially state-sanctioned Protestant church in China),” Open Doors explains in a website statement about Christian persecution in China. “Christian leaders are generally the main target of government surveillance, and a very small number have been abducted.”
Ruled by the authoritarian Chinese Communist Party (CCP), China ranks 17th on the US Open Doors World Watch List 2022 of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.