400+ Protestant Venues Destroyed or Closed in Shangrao City

Bitter Winter ^ | 7/12/20 | Tang Zhe

[marshmallow]

The CCP continues cracking down on house churches and state-approved venues in the southeastern province of Jiangxi.

China’s regime did not cease suppressing places of worship across the country even amid the coronavirus outbreak. In Jiangxi Province’s Shangrao city alone, at least 400 Three-Self and house church venues were suppressed in the spring—some demolished, while others closed or repurposed, their crosses destroyed. In the city’s Yugan county, 234 churches and venues were recently shut down; 48 Three-Self sites were closed between April 18 and 30.

“The central and provincial governments planned to send a team to focus on rectifying Christianity in Yugan county,” a local preacher told Bitter Winter. He added that his church’s cross was ordered to be removed. “If we didn’t do it, the church could have been demolished when the team came,” the preacher explained.

The director of another Three-Self church revealed to Bitter Winter that the local government ordered to rectify all state-run churches without exception, claiming that the order came from the central government. He added that all churches built or approved after 2014, even those holding all necessary permits, were ordered to be closed.

Both Three-Self and house churches in Guangxin and Guangfeng districts of Shangrao were relentlessly suppressed, resulting in at least 85 closed or demolished venues.

A venue of the old Local Church in Guangxin was demolished on May 7. It was built with over 200,000 RMB (about $28,000) donated by the congregation on the land they have purchased.

[elbook]

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ChiCom style ‘religious freedom’

Leftist will allow no competitors in ‘moral’ judgement.

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