by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) - In ongoing efforts to suppress Christianity in China, officials from the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on October 31 raided yet another church, detaining its pastor and four congregants, China Aid reports. China ranks 17 on the 2021 US Open Doors Watch List of top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.
The October 31 raid took place during Sunday service at the Daoen Presbyterian Church in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, China Aid reports. Founded in 1992, began to meet secretly after being shut down by local government authorities for refusing to become a government-sanctioned Three-Self Patriotic Church or register with the Bureau of Ethnic and Religious Affairs. The church has been repeatedly raided after authorities discovered the believers were still congregating.
“Since August 12, 2018, agents from the Bureau of Ethnic and Religious Affairs regularly disrupt Sunday gatherings, labeling their crimes as “organizing illegitimate religious events,” China Aid said in its report of November 2, 2021.
“The cycle of being shut down, continuing to gather, being raided regularly, and being arrested becomes normal to house churches in mainland China,” China Aid added.
Raids on churches and arrests of Christians are part of a Sinicization program being conducted by the CCP to impose Chinese culture on the population as a means of maintaining control: Christianity is viewed as a Westernized threat to China’s communist regime.