Ding Zhongfu woke to pounding on his door in November. Five policemen greeted him. They searched the apartment he shares with his wife, Ge Yunxia, and their six-year-old daughter in central Anhui province, China. The officers then arrested Ding, who is an elder of the Ganquan house church.
What was his crime? In early December, officers told Ding’s wife that he is being investigated for fraud.
Four other senior members of the Ganquan house church also were detained. A bulletin from a Christian prayer group reports all those arrested were accused of fraud.
Ding’s family members deny he is guilty and plead for his release. They say that Chinese authorities are engaging in a wider crackdown on religious freedom.
Bob Fu is the founder of the U.S.-based Christian rights group, ChinaAid. “Under the fabricated charge of ‘fraud,’ many Christians faced harsh persecution,” he says. ChinaAid is working for Ding’s release.
Only churches that register with the state are permitted to practice Christianity in China. In 2018, Chinese leader Xi Jinping issued a five-year plan to “Sinicize” all the nation’s officially allowed religions. To Sinicize means to make something more Chinese in character. Islam, Christianity, and Buddhism must all be infused with “Chinese characteristics.” That includes loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party. Local governments started shutting down house churches through evictions, police interrogations, and arrests.
Many members of house churches say that joining a state church means worshiping the supremacy of the Communist government over God. House churches that reject this extreme political allegiance take huge risks.
Ding’s wife says the Ganquan house church has had to move multiple times in the past decade. The congregants pooled money to buy property so they could use it as a place of worship. Ding and two other church members had the deeds to the land under their names.
But police forbade church members from using the property. Officers arrived ahead of services to prevent people from entering.
In recent years, the church has been meeting at random locations to avoid police. There are about 400 to 500 worshippers.
Ding’s family had been preparing to move to the United States in December to join his daughter, Wanlin Ding. Wanlin did not realize her father was in such danger. “It wasn’t until this event that I realized how serious it was,” she says. She had hoped he could participate in her wedding in the spring.
Despite oppression of Christians, God is growing the church in China. Read Chinese Church Thrives to learn more.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? — Romans 8:35
