ICC Note: Lou Yuanqi, a Christian in China’s northwestern Xinjiang was questioned by police for 10 hours on Christmas day last year, after neighbors of the church reported them for holding Christmas celebrations. Chinese government has been tightening control on unregistered churches, threatening to close or destroy their churches if they don’t apply to be state-sanctioned churches. This last Christmas, the local authorities also included Three-Self churches in its crackdown on Christmas celebration. 

01/05/2018 (China Aid) – Residents in China’s northwestern Xinjiang turned in their neighbors for holding festivities on Christmas Eve, resulting in the lengthy questioning of one of the attendees.

Lou Yuanqi spent 10 hours on Christmas Day at the police station for his church’s activities the night before after many people living in the vicinity reported them to the officials, who told Lou too many attended the gathering. They day before, government agents warned Christians not to meet in places unapproved by authorities and even threatened to destroy Lou’s church’s building.

This is not the first time Lou has been targeted for his faith. In mid-February last year, Xinjiang police asked Lou to sign a Letter of Undertaking that guaranteed he would not leave the locality. If he wants to travel, he must first apply for the police’s permission.

A local Christian informed ChinaAid that Three-Self Churches in the area have been “greeted” by the government and warned not to celebrate Christmas, which the Communist Party views as a dangerous holiday due to unfounded fears that Western countries are trying to infiltrate China via religion.

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