4/17/2025 China (International Christian Concern) — Nine Chinese Christians have received prison sentences and large fines for re-selling and distributing Bibles in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia. International Christian Concern (ICC) has followed this case for several years now.  

On April 10, the religious freedom magazine Bitter Winter reported that prison sentences of up to four years and fines ranging from 500 Yuan ($68) to 1 million Yuan (more than $136,000) have been handed down to these Christians.  

The sentences stem from charges and arrests in 2021, where the Christians bought legally published Bibles in Nanjing but ended up re-selling and distributing them at much lower prices as they wanted to share God’s Word as a means of evangelism. 

The Christians were found guilty of illegal business operations because even though the actual Bibles were legally published, the group was part of a house church that was unregistered and that refused to join the government-sanctioned and controlled Three-Self Patriotic Movement in China. 

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