Chinese Christians have accused police of using a crackdown on “evil cults” as a cover to intensify their persecution of the country’s underground church.
High-profile “anti-cult” campaigns have been rolled out across China since June when five cult members beat a woman to death in a McDonald’s restaurant after she rejected their attempts to recruit her.
Two of the perpetrators, who were members of the notorious Eastern Lightning cult, were sentenced to death earlier this month.
More than 1,000 members of the group – which is also known as the Church of Almighty God – were “captured” between June and September, state media reported this week.
However, members of China’s “house church” movement – an officially illegal but generally tolerated community made up of tens of millions of Christians – claim their members have also been caught up in the police action.
Authorities were “using the crackdown on cults as an opportunity to crack down on house churches,” said one Christian leader from Guizhou province, who asked not to be named. Other Christian leaders said they believed poorly trained police were targeting orthodox congregations they had confused with potentially dangerous cults.
Since the anti-cult crackdown began, there has been a spike in reports of raids on house churches spanning at least nine provinces or regions.
The Guizhou pastor said his church had recently been surrounded by up to 200 police officers who detained 12 church members on charges of “illegal assembly” and spreading “cult propaganda”.
A Christian leader from Shandong, who also asked not to be named, said members of his church had been holding choir practice when a dozen police arrived at their place of worship, “some carrying guns”.
“They forced us into a corner and made us squat while they were searching the room,” the pastor said. “They didn’t show us any kind of warrant and accused us of illegal assembly and cult activity.”
Twenty-two Christians were detained during the police operation and two remain in custody accused of involvement in “evil” religious activity.
A preacher from Yunnan said police harassment had “intensified considerably” since May and a Beijing-based preacher said Christians in northern China faced similar scrutiny. A Christian leader from Guangdong said police there were labelling some churches as cults “without investigation”.
“They can’t simply wage a blind crackdown on any religious activity they deem to be wrong,” said the Shandong pastor, who claimed his congregation would support a genuine crackdown on dangerous cults. “Police make no distinction between right and wrong. They are unprofessional and reckless in dealing with religious affairs.”
Carsten Vala, an academic at Loyola University, Maryland, who is writing a book on the house church movement, said similar reports of the churches “being caught up in police dragnets” had followed a Communist Party clampdown on the Falun Gong spiritual group after it was outlawed in 1999. Leaders from government-sanctioned churches sometimes shielded underground congregations from harassment by asking the police to protect “trustworthy” churches.
However, “jealous” leaders from the official Church might also encourage police to raid house churches they saw as rivals or “sheep stealers” by telling authorities they were cults.
China’s latest anti-cult drive began in June following the murder of 37-year-old Wu Shuoyan, who was beaten to death after refusing to give her telephone number to Eastern Lightning members when they approached her in a McDonald’s restaurant in the city of Zhaoyuan.
Following that murder, China’s Anti-Cult Association published a list of 20 “active cult organisations” that needed fighting, including Eastern Lightning.
Beijing unveiled plans for more severe punishments for those involved in proscribed cults this week. Under new draft laws, a person will face three to seven years in prison for organising “a religious institution or cult organisation” that spreads “superstition to undermine national laws or regulations”. In more severe cases “such as acts resulting in a mass incident or causing the death or serious injury of others” sentences will range from seven years to the death penalty, the China Daily reported.