China Raids Church Zoom Online Worship Service

The Chinese Communist Party forcibly stopped a pastor and elder from preaching during the service.

QUICK FACTS:
  • Shenzhen Trinity Gospel Harvest Church’s Zoom online worship service was raided on the morning of July 11 by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) security agents, police officers, and religious affairs bureau officials, according to U.S.-based ChinaAid and CBN News.
  • Authorities forced Pastor Mao Zhibin and Elder Chu Yanqing to stop preaching.
  • Other CCP officials reportedly surrounded the Church building.
WHAT ONE CONGREGANT SAID:

A member of another church who was in attendance during the raid said, “At that time I was also in the Zoom call, but there was a long period of time where I did not hear a thing.” Thinking it was a “network connection issue at first,” they then “heard a quarrel erupt. Our co-worker Wang Jun was questioning some people, [saying], ‘Who are you to do this [to us]?'”

BACKGROUND:
  • Trinity Gospel Harvest is located in Guangdong Province.
  • It advocates for justice in China.
  • The raid occurred about three months after a church member, Shi Minglei (known as Hope), had fled to the United States.
  • Open Doors USA, which monitors persecution in over 60 countries, estimates that there are about 97 million Christians in China, a large percentage of whom worship in what China considers to be “illegal” and unregistered underground house churches, according to The Christian Post.
  • China is ranked 17th on Open Doors’ 2021 World Watch List of countries where Christians suffer the most persecution, notes CBN.