Dr. Bob Fu of ChinaAid called it what it is. State-sponsored religious persecution. When a government mobilizes riot police and heavy equipment against a peaceful congregation, it is not enforcing laws. It is enforcing ideology.
And that ideology has a name.
President Xi Jinping calls it Sinicisation. It sounds academic. It sounds harmless. In practice, it means every expression of faith must bow to the Chinese Communist Party. Sermons must align with party doctrine. Churches must register under state control. Pastors must preach only through government-approved platforms. Scripture itself must be filtered, reframed, and neutered.
There are two kinds of churches in China. The Three Self churches, which operate with government permission and government supervision, and the underground or house churches, which operate under the conviction that Christ, not the Party, is Lord. The latter have been targeted for decades, but the crackdown has intensified. The internet is now tightly regulated. Clergy are warned not to attract attention. Evangelism is treated like a contagion. //
What stands out in this latest wave of arrests is not just the brutality, but the clarity. The CCP is no longer pretending to tolerate independent faith. It is openly moving to crush it.
And where is the international outcry?
Muted. Careful. Managed.
We issue statements. We express concern. We keep trade flowing. We schedule summits. We talk about cooperation. Meanwhile, Chinese believers are dragged from their homes, churches are dismantled piece by piece, and crosses are wrapped in scaffolding like crime scenes. //
The question is not whether Chinese Christians will endure. They will.
The question is whether the free world will have the courage to stand with them, or whether we will keep pretending that bulldozers and prison cells are just part of doing business with Beijing.
