ICC NEWS RELEASE: ICC Releases Latest Report on Christian Persecution in China

The Chinese government uses many tactics to oppress

        Source:                     www.persecution.org
Date:                         October 7, 2022

The Chinese government uses many tactics to oppress 

10/07/2022 Washington, D.C. (International Christian Concern) –International Christian Concern (ICC) released its third report in a series on Thursday that details growing Christian persecution in China, including raids on schools and 32 cases of arrests or detainments. 

Reporting on the topic is challenging given the closed nature of the country. This latest publication is an essential element of the larger NGO effort to shed light on human rights atrocities in China. 

Picking up where ICC’s 2021 report left off—at the beginning of July 2021—this report summarizes ICC's reporting on the topic in the last year. The continued rise of persecution in China and the government’s heavy crackdown against Chinese Christians fueled the creation of this latest report. Most cases in this report come from ChinaAid, Union of Catholic Asia News, Radio Free Asia, and ICC reporting, among other sources. 

"ICC's incident report continues to be a testament to China's intensified crackdown against Chinese Christians and churches despite Beijing's repeated claim that 'respecting and protecting freedom of religious belief is the basic policy of the CCP and the Chinese government in dealing with religion.' In every aspect of a Christian's religious life, the CCP wants to interfere and insert its ideology, a control that is detrimental to China's religious liberty," said Gina Goh, ICC's regional manager for Southeast Asia. 

It is worth noting that the number of incidents recorded in the report does not reflect the full scope of Christian persecution that took place during the reporting period. For example, the removal of 90 crosses from Chinese Christian boats on Qushan Island is reported as one case. In addition, many cases were not captured and recorded because it is difficult to receive information from China. 

The ICC report chronicles 20 cases of the Sinicization of churches in the reporting period and five cases of raids at Christian schools. It also includes 39 incidents related to social pressure. With total control in mind, Beijing employs various measures to coerce house church Christians to join CCP-vetted churches. These methods include pressuring landlords to cancel rental agreements and surveying Christian students at school. 

There are 32 cases of arrests or detainments of Christians recorded in this report. 

“The international community must pay attention to China’s ongoing campaign against religion,” said Jay Church, ICC’s advocacy manager for Southeast Asia and a contributing author on the report. “There’s no excuse for continued inaction. The Chinese government does not allow religion except to the extent it can manipulate religion into a tool to increase the power of the CCP. It is to be hoped that this report will serve to increase the volume on an issue that is too often quietly ignored in halls of power around the world.” 

To download the full report, click here.

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