The Chinese government intensified its pressure against Christians in 2010 for a “fifth straight year of escalating persecution,” according to ChinaAid Association, a Christian human rights organization based in Washington.
Beatings, torture, arrests, harassment and church demolitions are among the 90 recorded cases of persecution, a nearly 17 percent increase over 2009, according to a report released by ChinaAid on March 31.
The cases “are just the tip of the iceberg,” according to a ChinaAid news release.
“The Chinese government’s stranglehold on information and the authoritarian regime’s other security measures make getting a true picture of the extent of persecution impossible. Nevertheless, the fact that the documented incidences of persecution came from all parts of China and involved people from all levels of society makes the report a useful guide.”
The report suggests the increase in persecution may have been triggered by the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Chinese dissident Liu Xiabao and the thwarted attendance by more than 200 delegates from Chinese house churches at the Lausanne Congress on Global Evangelization in South Africa.
The report states that Chinese authorities, in addition to continuing to target house churches and their leaders in urban areas, are adopting three additional tactics of persecution:
• The government is severely cracking down on Christian human rights lawyers, who have increasingly defended persecuted Christians in the country’s court system.
More than two-thirds of persecution cases in Beijing involved such lawyers, who are subjected to harassment, beating and abduction.
• While the government is decreasing official prison sentences against Christians who can defend themselves against such measures in the legal system, mafia-type violence and intimidation (some people have simply disappeared) is being used, which leaves Christians no legal recourse.
• The government is punishing Three-Self Patriotic Movement churches (official churches) that have failed to submit to its complete control.
Congregants are beaten, churches forced to disband and some buildings torn down.
The report documented 3,343 people who were persecuted in 2010, a nearly 14 percent increase from 2009.
Detentions increased by 43 percent, and 336 house church leaders were persecuted. Overall, the report said persecution was more than 193 percent worse in 2010 than 2006. (BP)
Share with others: