Top countries where Christians are suffering, experiencing supernatural: 'Count the cost'

China: 'Dictatorial paranoia'

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which governs China's 1.4 billion people, has been tightening its grip on churches and other Christian institutions that seek to escape its totalitarian monitoring for alignment with communist ideology.

"The Chinese government has really sought to close down a number of the unregistered churches, those that were not officially aligned with the Communist Party, and close those churches out," Open Doors US CEO Ryan Brown told CP earlier this week, adding that the CCP is also regulating online behavior by banning Bible apps and any live videos with religious or Christian intent.

"It's not as visible as the violence or churches being lit on fire, but churches are being closed," he said. "Christians are being told that they can't engage in worship or engage in community with one another."

CCP authorities made headlines earlier this month for erecting scaffolding around the prominent Yayang Christian Church in the port city of Wenzhou after imprisoning prominent pastors. They removed the church's cross after forcibly dispersing or arresting nearby Christian residents.

Weeks before, more than 1,000 police, SWAT and paramilitary units spent days cracking down on Christian churches across at least 12 congregations in Yayang Town, whose Christian community has been tussling with government authorities since they first started breaking crosses off their church buildings in 2014.

The CCP seems especially concerned with capturing the minds of the youth, banning minors under 18 from entering churches or participating in religious activities following the implementation of its revised Regulations on Religious Affairs in 2018. Open Doors noted that ministry leaders "focused on the next generation of Christians" are special targets of state hostility.

A Chinese Christian called Da Wei, who is passionate about discipling young people and was first arrested for being involved with a Christian school, told Open Doors that Chinese authorities compiled a report on him and his coworkers that spanned 23 pages and "even recorded incidents that we almost forgot."

After their school relocated multiple times in an attempt to evade authorities, an undercover officer discovered them evangelizing in public, which led to a six-hour raid of their school and extensive police interrogation. As in neighboring North Korea, the Chinese suffer under the boot of "dictatorial paranoia" and are encouraged to snitch on those they suspect might not be toeing the CCP line, according to Open Doors.

Bob Fu, a Christian who escaped China in 1996 and founded the U.S.-based nonprofit watchdog group ChinaAid, told Fox News in 2023 that Christian persecution in China has worsened to a point not seen since the Cultural Revolution under Mao Zedong.

According to a ChinaAid report released that year, Chinese Christians are routinely imprisoned and tortured, and the government has used the practice of tithes and offerings to trump up fraud charges against unregistered house churches to "financially suffocate" them.

Fu said the Chinese are increasingly expected to declare allegiance not just to the CCP, but to Chinese President Xi Jinping himself. Xi reportedly unleashed a major persecution of Christians ahead of President Donald Trump's visit to the country last fall.