China: Christian man fined over $20,000 for illegal religious activity

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – A Christian man in China was fined $20,850 last month for allegedly “carrying out religious training without authorization,” International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.

A resident of Panlong District, Kunmin, Ji Chun’gang was accused of having conducted illegal Christian training on June 28; he was fined an exorbitant amount on September 13, ICC reports. Chun’gang’s activities were found to be contrary to CCP’s efforts to impose Chinese nationalism and communist ideology across the nation.

Evangelical churches have been driven largely underground, as only state-controlled Three-Self movement churches which incorporate communist teaching into their religious teaching are approved for public service.

On 1 September this year, the government rolled out the new “Administrative Measures for Internet Religious Information Services,” which severely restrict religious activity online.

“The new laws, comprised of five chapters and thirty-six articles, say that online preaching and the sharing of religious content should be organized and performed by religious organizations that have obtained the ‘Internet Religious Information Service License,’” ICC said in its report.

“Please pray for Christians in China who are suffering under these regulations,” ICC requested.

Ruled by the authoritarian Chinese Communist Party (CCP), China ranks 17th on the US Open Doors World Watch List 2022 of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.

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