(Morning Star News) – China has tightened its “choke-hold” on churches across the country in recent weeks, according to advocacy group China Aid. Recent bans on unregistered church worship and on teaching Christianity to children, “as if intending to eliminate all house churches at once,” have startled Christians, a China Aid source reported. In Guangzhou, […]
China Tightens Control on Churches, Enforces Law Against Teaching Children
Officials order house-church members to stay home.
September 15, 2017 By - 1 Comment
Pakistan’s Calculated Spin on Apparent Killing of Chinese Evangelists
Interior ministry’s statement sends chilling message to foreign Christians.
July 11, 2017 By - Leave a Comment
(Morning Star News) – Islamabad’s claim that “violations” of business visas contributed to the murder of two Chinese evangelists last month served key government purposes. Lee Zing Yang (Li Xinheng is said to be the more accurate rendering), 24, and Meng Li Si (Meng Lisi), 26, were teaching Chinese to people in Pakistan, and, like […]
China’s New Policy Expected to Lead to More Religious Persecution
‘Sinicization’ a catalyst for attacking faith communities.
March 13, 2017 By - Leave a Comment
March 13, 2017 (Morning Star News) – China Aid’s 2016 Annual Persecution Report details a seismic shift in the Chinese government’s approach to religious policy that is expected to lead to further persecution. The report’s core subject tracks a deviation in the Chinese government’s ideological approach to religious management. During the National Conference of Religious […]
Morning Star News’ Top 10 Persecution Stories of 2016
Jihadists fight under the radar in Africa.
January 6, 2017 By - Leave a Comment
(Morning Star News) – While war in the Middle East dominated international headlines, Islamic extremists in the shadows were taking jihad to Christian civilians in Africa with unprecedented intensity in 2016. In Nigeria, Muslim ethnic Fulanis looked less like nomadic herdsmen and more like well-armed, well-funded jihadist militants. Close Muslim relatives and Islamist village mobs […]
Pastor in China Upholds Faith after Nearly Year in Prison
Authorities strip another church leader of his position.
November 21, 2016 By - Leave a Comment
(Morning Star News) – A pastor in southwestern China, jailed for nearly a year on fabricated charges and suffering a liver disease, focuses on trusting God in a letter of encouragement to his wife, according to China Aid. Authorities took pastor Li Guozhi, better known as Yang Hua, into custody after a raid on his […]
Persecution of Church in China to Escalate as Zhejiang Experiment Goes National
Draft regulations on religion portend broader clamp-down.
October 14, 2016 By - 1 Comment
(Morning Star News) – In October 2012, the South China Morning Post ran a series of articles on China’s looming leadership transition. One line might prove prophetic, although not in the way intended: “For clues about how China’s leader-in-waiting Xi Jinping might manage the world’s second-largest economy, Zhejiang Province is a good place to start looking.” […]
House-Church Leader among Four Pro-Democracy Activists Sentenced in China
Hu Shigen given seven and a half years in prison.
August 8, 2016 By - Leave a Comment
(Morning Star News) – Two Christians were among four activists convicted under fabricated charges of “subverting state power” in China last week. The Tianjin No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court sentenced house-church leader Hu Shigen, 61, on Wednesday (Aug. 3) to seven and a half years in prison on charges of “subverting state power” for his […]
Woman in China Killed after Demolition Crew Buries Her and Husband Alive
Couple tried to stop bulldozer from destroying church building.
April 19, 2016 By - Leave a Comment
(Morning Star News) – A government-backed demolition team in Henan Province, China last week buried a Christian couple alive as they tried to protect their church building, killing the wife, according to China Aid. Ding Cuimei and her husband, Li Jiangong, on Thursday (April 14) stepped in front of a bulldozer the demolition company had […]
Human Rights Attorney Zhang Kai Freed from ‘Black Jail’ in China
Conditions of release unclear.
March 23, 2016 By - Leave a Comment
(Morning Star News) – China Aid has confirmed with relatives of Zhang Kai that the human rights attorney was released on Wednesday (March 23) after his arrest in August 2015 for defending churches. Zhang wrote on social media that he returned to his home in Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region of China, on Wednesday, the […]
China Cracks Down on Official Church Leaders, Religious Rights Attorneys
Christians suffer harsh sentences, coerced ‘confessions.’
March 18, 2016 By - Leave a Comment
(Morning Star News) – China’s crack-down on state-approved churches continued last month with a harsh sentence given to a pastor of an official church in Zhejiang Province after he criticized authorities’ demolition of church crosses. Pastor Bao Guohua of Holy Love Christian Church in Jinhua received a sentence of 14 years in prison, and his […]