The Chinese Communist Party is mandating that practicing Christians renounce their faith or they will be cut off from benefits given to them by the state.
Bitter Winter, a magazine that covers religious liberty and human rights in China reports:
“A Catholic from Fuzhou city in the southeastern province of Jiangxi has been receiving monthly 250 RMB (about $ 35) from the government since 2018, the year her husband died. At the end of 2019, local government officials threatened the woman, in her 60s, that the subsidy would be withdrawn unless she removes images of Jesus from her home.
“‘Because the Communist Party feeds you,’ they told the woman, ‘you must only believe in it, not God.’ Two months later, the pension was canceled because she refused to remove the symbols,” the report said.
A government official instructed widows in an area of China to stay home on Sundays and not attend Church services. He also ridiculed their religious practices saying, “The Chinese government gives you 160 RMB (about $23). How much money does Jesus Christ give you?'”
The Chinese government has long been repressive to the free exercise of religion. By global estimates there are about 1 million Uyghar Muslims interned in concentration camps in the country right now. These individuals are being “re-educated” in efforts to “combat extremism,” the government says.