Pastor Wang Yi is seen with wife Jiang Rong in this undated photograph. Both members of the evangelical Early Rain Covenant Church, they were taken by Chinese authorities on December 9. Photo: Early Rain Covenant Church via Facebook
Source:
https://scmp.com/comment/letters/article/2178358/christmas-season-remember-chinas-besieged-christians Letters
This Christmas season, remember China’s besieged Christians
Hong Kong concern groups march on December 15 from the Western Police Station in Sai Ying Pun to the central government’s liaison office, in support of Wang Yi, a pastor facing subversion charges in mainland China after a raid on his church. Photo: Edmond So
Christmas in China will be unsettling for the country’s Christians in the midst of the Communist Party’s anti-church campaign (“China shuts leading underground Christian church, third this winter”, December 16). Since term limits were abolished for President Xi Jinping, the government’s crackdown on Christianity appears to be growing by leaps and bounds.
Among the faithful who have been rounded up for reportedly “inciting subversion of state power” is Wang Yi, pastor of the Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu (“Pastor Wang Yi faces subversion charges in China after raid on church”, December 13).
Western media coverage of China’s beleaguered Christians until lately had been overshadowed by the Uygur rights crisis in the Xinjiang autonomous region. But the case of Mr Wang is a stark reminder that Christianity has been under siege in China for decades. As he was quoted in The Wall Street Journal as saying, the party’s current ideology is “morally incompatible” with the Christian faith.
This Advent season, Americans would do well to remember the pastor who visited the White House in 2006. Perhaps, as an act of goodwill, China will release Mr Wang, and his fellow believers, just in time for Christmas.
Brian Stuckey, Denver