On the heels of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) praising China for becoming “a respectable nation” — a line trumpeted by Beijing — local government authorities in the communist country are continuing to ransack churches, tearing down crosses and other Christian symbolism.
According to a post from Bitter Winter, a publication the U.S. Department of State has cited in official government reports, authorities from the Yongjia county government in Wenzhou, part of the Zhejiang province, dispatched more than 100 personnel to Yongfu village, where they removed crosses from two churches at a little past 4 a.m. on July 7.
While officials were removing one of the crosses, they reportedly got into a scuffle with a man in his 80s. Ultimately, the elderly resident was pushed to the ground and injured, the publication noted.
Local believers said the two crosses removed in early July escaped the crackdowns on Zhejiang churches in 2014 and 2015, when Chinese authorities stripped the province of more than 1,700 crosses.
The lingering crosses were, at the time, protected by Christians. They were unable to safeguard them this time, though.
Bitter Winter posted footage that purportedly shows the elderly man on the ground in the fetal position after attempting to defend one of the crosses.
Video footage of the discriminatory actions taken by the Chinese government comes right after Feinstein heaped praise on the communist nation.
During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week, the California lawmaker argued against allowing Americans to file lawsuits against China over the spread of the coronavirus. Arguing China is a major trading partner to the U.S., Feinstein lauded President Xi Jinping’s regime for pulling “tens of millions of people out of poverty in a short period of time,” claiming China is “growing into a respectable nation among nations.”
Her words have since been echoed by China Daily, an English-language newspaper owned and operated by the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China.
Meanwhile, the violent persecution of Christians and Muslims in China continues.
Faithwire and CBN News have long documented the atrocities committed against Christians and minority Muslims in the communist nation. What the Xi regime is doing to its Muslim community is genocidal.
And in the last 12 months alone, schools in China have indoctrinated kids against the “evil cult” of Christianity, urging them to report their believing parents; the government has demanded the rewriting of Scripture to promote communist ideals; officials continue arresting, tormenting, and charging Christian ministers for no reason; and Xi’s regime has systematically scrubbed Christian symbolism from churches, ordering crosses and statues and images of Jesus to be replaced with propaganda promoting his government.
Xi’s regime is also continuing to tighten its grip on the once-autonomous Hong Kong. His government has implemented a new, oppressive security law, giving mainland China legal authority to arrest anyone accused of doing or saying anything Beijing believes to be anti-government.
Please continue to pray for Christians and Muslims in China.