Chinese Authorities Barge Into Church Service, Arrest Dozens Including Children
Chinese authorities have raided a small in-person gathering of Early Rain Covenant Church members in Chenghua District in the Sichuan Province’s Chengdu. Someone had sent in a tip to local authorities, who proceeded to break apart the meeting and detain its attendees, which included children.
“On the morning of August 22, 2021, during Sunday worship at Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu, police illegally raided the Tashui Small Group as they were meeting offline in Chenghua District,” an August 21 update on the Facebook page of Pray for Early Rain Covenant Church read. “The police claimed to have received a call reporting an illegal gathering there.”
According to CBN News, the update also reported that Pastoral intern Dai Zhichao sought a police warrant from the Chinese authorities, who he said were “rough” and had ordered to see the people’s ID cards. In the commotion, Dai’s arm was scratched and his mobile phone was confiscated. However, the Chinese authorities allowed the attendees of the gathering to have lunch before they were taken away.
After the meal, Chinese authorities from the Chenghua District Mengzhuiwan Police Station arrested almost all the attendees at the small gathering of the Early Rain Covenant Church, which included over 10 children. Only an 80 year old woman, a blind man, and his wife and brother were not taken by the police.
An August 23 update from the Pray for Early Rain Covenant Church Facebook page revealed that Dai and his brother He Shan were placed in administrative detention for 14 days and are being fined 1,000 RMB or about $154.
Religious persecution of Christians in China remains rampant. According to persecution watchdog International Christian Concern (ICC), detainees were often being physically beaten and abused by Chinese authorities while under their custody.
Children were reportedly hit on the head if caught playing. The youth are banned from attending Christian religious activities in China. Instead, children aged 6 to 14 years old are required to join “Young Pioneers of China,” which is sponsored by the Communist Youth League. Here, they are being taught the communist state’s ideologies with the aim of preventing them from joining other religions and grow up to be detractors of the Chinese Communist Party.
“No one under the age of 18 is allowed in a church building, or they will face serious consequences,” China Aid President Bob Fu said of the “war against religious education for children. “In every school, children are not allowed to get any religious education or participate in religious activities.”
Chinese authorities continue to crack down on house churches that gather to pray or read the bible together. These gatherings are tagged by police as “illegal religious activities,” attendants of which are taken, detained, and often charged with crimes.
Gina Goh, ICC’s Regional Manager for Southeast Asia described it as a “worrying trend” as house churches continue to be subjected to “harassment” in the name of “law enforcement.” She also described how the “legally flawed Revised Regulations on Religious Affairs” has been used by Chinese authorities to crackdown on house churches and gatherings of religious minorities.
U.S. Economic Confidence Dips as More Say Economy Worsening
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Economic Confidence Index slips to -12, from -6 in July and +2 in April
- Ratings of current economy stable; more see economy getting worse in future
(Gallup) Gallup’s Economic Confidence Index dropped to -12 from -6 in July and is now back to the level it was at in February. The index remains better than its pandemic low point of -33 in April 2020 but is still well below the +41 Gallup measured right before the pandemic took hold.
Line graph. Recent trend in Gallup’s Economic Confidence Index. The index summarizes Americans’ ratings of current economic conditions and their views of whether the economy is getting better or worse. It has a theoretical range of -100 to +100. The index was consistently positive in 2019 and early 2020, ranging from +16 to +32. It fell to -33 in late April 2020 and has mostly recovered since then, hitting positive territory at +2 in April 2021. Since then it has slid back to -12, the lowest since -13 in February 2021.
Gallup’s Economic Confidence Index summarizes Americans’ views of the economy, including their evaluation of current economic conditions and their perception of whether the economy is getting better or getting worse. It has a theoretical range of -100 to +100, the former occurring if all Americans rated economic conditions as poor and thought the economy was getting worse, and the latter if all Americans rated conditions as excellent or good and believed the economy was getting better.
The Aug. 2-17 survey finds Americans are less confident in the economy because they are more likely to perceive the economy is getting worse than they were in July. Their assessment of current economic conditions is statistically unchanged.
In the latest survey, 37% of U.S. adults say the economy is getting better and 60% say it is getting worse, yielding a net -23 score for the “economic outlook” component of the index. In July, 41% believed the economy was getting better and 54% worse, for a -13 economic outlook score.
In August, 28% of Americans rate current economic conditions as excellent or good, 42% as fair and 29% as poor. This results in a -1 score on the “current conditions” component of the index — based on the percentage of excellent and good ratings minus the percentage of poor ratings. Last month, the current conditions index score was +1 (28% excellent or good, 27% poor).
Line graph. Recent trends in Gallup’s Economic Confidence Index components. Both components have a theoretical range of -100 to +100. The current conditions component score is at -1 in August 2021. The economic outlook component score is currently at -23.
Economic confidence fell among Republicans and independents in August, but not among Democrats. Republicans’ ratings of both current conditions and economic outlook worsened, while independents only showed a decline in their economic outlook. Changes in Economic Confidence Ratings, by Political Party, July vs. August 2021
The decline in confidence appears likely tied to the recent increase in coronavirus infections. The August survey found the percentage of Americans naming COVID-19 as the most important problem facing the country doubling, and it is once again the top overall problem mentioned. Meanwhile, mentions of economic problems such as the economy in general, unemployment or inflation showed no meaningful change.
Bottom Line
The pandemic has brought a number of shocks to the U.S. economy. The recovery from widespread business shutdowns in the spring of 2020 has been solid at times and uneven at others. Currently, the economic growth as measured by gross domestic product is healthy, the unemployment rate is decreasing and stock values are at record levels.
At the same time, the U.S. is still well short of the number of jobs it had before the pandemic, and employers are struggling to fill the openings they do have. The latest events in the pandemic may be dampening Americans’ economic optimism if they assume rising infections will cause consumer and hiring activity to slow, as occurred last spring.
