I. The CCP's All-Out Persecution of Christianity 1) The Early Rain Covenant Church Incident On December 9, 2018, Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu was suddenly raided by a large contingent of local police. Pastor Wang Yi and his wife Jiang Rong were subsequently criminally detained on suspicion of "inciting subversion of state power"; Li Yingqiang and 17 others were criminally detained on suspicion of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble" or "illegal business operations"; nearly 700 church members were summoned by police stations or placed under surveillance, tailing, and threats by neighborhood and workplace security offices; and the church's facilities were seized. This became known worldwide as the "12/9 Church Case." It followed the closure of Beijing's Zion Church on September 9, 2018, as another severe crackdown on Christians. 2) New Regulations and Guidelines Aimed at Crushing Christianity Wholesale In fact, the CCP's Regulations on Religious Affairs, issued on February 1, 2018, and the Five-Year Work Plan Outline for Advancing the Sinicization of Christianity in China, launched on March 28, had already signaled a full-scale escalation of the crackdown on house-church Christians. 3) The Brutal Persecution of Christians Some churches were raided by local law enforcement; some had their venue leases forcibly terminated; some church buildings were demolished; some church-run schools were shut down; some churches were ordered to remove their crosses. Large numbers of Christians were summoned for questioning and forced to sign pledges renouncing further participation in church activities, while other Christians were compelled to attend services instead at officially sanctioned Three-Self churches. In some Chinese provinces, believers were made to receive forms and sign them renouncing their faith — something that had not happened since 1949, apart from during the Cultural Revolution. Starting in March 2018, sales of the Bible were banned on online retail platforms, and copies were subsequently pulled from the shelves of physical bookstores nationwide as well. At Guangcai Church in Nanyang, Henan, a group of police, without showing any identification, not only tore down the church's cross but confiscated all of its furniture, books, Bibles, and hymnals, and the authorities then burned the confiscated Bibles and hymnals. Such burning of the Bible has occurred only four times in Chinese history: once during the Boxer Rebellion; a second time during the "Anti-Christian Movement" of the 1920s, which also had the Communist Party's hand behind it; a third time, of course, during the Cultural Revolution; and this now marks a fourth instance — the open burning of Bibles and hymnals. In 2018, many localities across China banned the celebration of Christmas. II. The CCP's Brutal Suppression of Tibetan Buddhism In CCP-ruled Tibet, monks are forced to sing revolutionary "red songs" and raise the national flag. Buddhist monks are traditionally supposed to stand "outside the five elements" of worldly affairs, having renounced the mundane world by taking monastic vows — yet today no religion is allowed to stand outside the Party's leadership. Monks are even made to chant "Without the Communist Party, there would be no Buddha" — an absurd slogan hung as a banner inside temples, which is thoroughly ridiculous. As is widely known, in light of this repression, a wave of self-immolations by Tibetans has occurred in traditional Tibetan areas of China since February 2009. As of November 2017, at least 150 reported self-immolations by monks, nuns, and Tibetans including farmers and herders had taken place, at least 126 of them fatal — described by Tibetan writer Woeser as "the greatest and most tragic wave of political protest in modern history." The main purpose of these self-immolations was to protest the Chinese government's repressive rule over Tibetan areas, its restrictions on religion, and its assimilationist policies, and to demand the return to Tibet of the exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. III. The CCP's Persecution of Over a Million Muslims in Xinjiang Through Concentration Camps China has detained more than a million Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang in mass internment sites known as "re-education" camps, subjecting them to "re-education" and forcing them to renounce their Islamic faith and betray their own ethnic identity, provoking outrage around the world. China deploys mass surveillance technologies, such as recognition software, across large areas of Xinjiang, where human rights advocates face "arbitrary detention, imprisonment, and enforced disappearance." IV. Why Does the Persecution Target Religion? And to What Effect? 1) A Standard Move in the Return to Totalitarianism: Controlling the Soul The resurgence of the Cultural Revolution's "god-making movement" has returned: Xi Jinping is following in Mao Zedong's footsteps, repeating the same disastrous pattern of fusing the roles of sovereign and spiritual teacher into one. From controlling behavior to controlling the soul itself, the goal is to bring about a world straight out of 1984. 2) The Effect of Religious Persecution: The Making of Martyrs Early Rain Covenant Church, led by Pastor Wang Yi in Chengdu, Sichuan, has shown an unbending will never to bow to evil. We have seen their recently published "Statement on the Christian Faith," signed by a growing number of pastors — the latest, fourth version already bears the signatures of 279 pastors. Their courage in speaking out and standing firm also reveals the true nature of our faith. Below are a few lines from Pastor Wang Yi's own statement — "My Declaration of Faithful Disobedience" — drafted on September 21, 2018, before his detention by the CCP, revised on October 4, and released by the church 48 hours after his detention: "I must point out that the persecution of the Lord's Church and of all Chinese who believe in Jesus Christ is the most evil, the most terrifying evil in Chinese society. This is a crime not only against Christians, but against all non-Christians as well — for there is no greater sin in this world than a government brutally and cruelly threatening people and blocking them from coming before Jesus. If one day this regime is overturned by God's own hand, there will be no other reason for it — it will surely come as God's just punishment and retribution for all this evil. For on this earth, there have only ever been thousand-year churches, never thousand-year regimes. There is only eternal faith, never eternal power. Those who imprison me will one day be imprisoned by angels. Those who interrogate me will one day be interrogated by Christ. Reflecting on this, the Lord fills me with compassion and sorrow for those who intend to imprison me and those who are imprisoning me now. I ask the Lord to use me, to grant me patience and wisdom, so that I might bring the gospel to them. Those in power can tear my family apart, destroy my reputation, and bring ruin upon my household. But making me abandon my faith, making me change who I am at my core, or raising me from the dead — these are things no one on this earth has the power to do."