China Bans Kids from Attending Church, Threatens Parents Who Break Law: Watchdog

 By Michael Foust - Posted at Christian Headlines:

The eyes of the world may be on Beijing for the 2022 Winter Olympics, but the head of a religious liberty watchdog says China's persecution of Christians is nevertheless escalating.

"It is getting worse," David Curry, president and CEO of Open Doors, told Christian Headlines.

China was No. 17 on this year's 2022 World Watch List, which ranks the countries of the world according to the danger level for Christians. The report said Christians "are facing increased pressure from the Chinese authorities," due partially to the "most oppressive and sophisticated" surveillance system in the world.

Chinese Communist Party Chairman Xi Jinping "knows that he cannot stamp out" the nation's Christians, Curry said. There are an estimated 96 million Christians in China, the report says.

"And so he is slowly strangling Christian faith, and he's doing it with high-tech surveillance. They watch, and they track everybody in what they're doing – through facial recognition and other things. Imagine if the IRS owned every camera in every restaurant on every street in America. We would be very concerned that the IRS has that. China has that plus other means of surveilling, and so they have the ability to track and to score behavior."

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