{"id":560,"date":"2019-02-28T12:35:20","date_gmt":"2019-02-28T17:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=560"},"modified":"2019-02-28T12:50:42","modified_gmt":"2019-02-28T17:50:42","slug":"christianity-crackdown-china-forbids-print-shops-printing-anything-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2019\/02\/christianity-crackdown-china-forbids-print-shops-printing-anything-jesus.html","title":{"rendered":"Christianity Crackdown: China Forbids Print Shops From Printing Anything About Jesus"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_428\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-428\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-428\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2018\/12\/Chinese_flag_Beijing_-_IMG_1104-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Wikimedia Commons\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-428\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Christians hoping to celebrate the New Year with a religious calendar are in for a nasty surprise. Those living in China\u2019s Henan province recently learned that such things have been forbidden by the regime as part of its ever increasing crackdown on Christianity.<\/p>\n<p>A member of Xigong district\u2019s De\u2019en Church said that his congregation had prepared a Christ-centered calendar for members of the church. When they went to get it printed, however, the local shop told them that they could not have it printed as faith-based calendars had been forbidden by the government. This rule was not only applied to this single town or district either. Print shops across the communist country have been ordered to cease printing any material that has ties to religion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA desk calendar or a picture to hang on the wall,\u201d said the owner of one small print shop, \u201cWe\u2019re not allowed to print anything if it has any content related to Jesus.\u201d The owner also said that the government is keeping a close eye on print shops to ensure the regulation is followed. Officials from the Bureau for Industry and Commerce, the owner said, \u201cfrequently&#8221; visit the shop to check he is obeying the rule.<\/p>\n<p>The ban is not only limited to small, local establishments either. A larger print shop manager stated, \u201cThe government doesn\u2019t allow printing of materials related to religions like Buddhism and Christianity. Sometimes, a small printing house secretly prints religious materials. As soon as the government catches them, a fine will be imposed. Formal print shops never dare to print [religious materials],\u201d the manager said. \u201cIf anyone is found [to have printed religious materials], they will be fined a large amount of money. The print shops that have been cracked down on and forcibly closed are not in the minority.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>China has always been hostile to religion, but the recent crackdown by Xi has taken things to a new level.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey have always prohibited us from printing such things,\u201d the owner of a small print shop said. \u201cIf they discover that we have printed religion-related items, the government will punish us according to the quantity printed. Now, the control is even stricter. If anyone dares to print religious materials secretly and is caught, in minor cases, they will be fined, and their shops will be closed down; in severe cases, they will face the prospect of being detained.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Detainment, of course, has become almost routine for Christians and other religious Chinese recently. Hundreds of Christians have been arrested, detained and tortured for following their faith, and China\u2019s internment of Uighur Muslims in so-called reeducation camps has made international news.<\/p>\n<p>Sadly, none of this is surprising. China\u2019s record of oppression is clear, and it only continues today. One can only hope things will change soon, but it is best not to hold your breath. You could be holding it for a long time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Christians hoping to celebrate the New Year with a religious calendar are in for a nasty surprise. Those living in China\u2019s Henan province recently learned that such things have been forbidden by the regime as part of its ever increasing crackdown on Christianity. A member of Xigong district\u2019s De\u2019en Church said that his congregation had&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":616,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[302,189,137],"tags":[167,138,329,272],"class_list":["post-560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia","category-china","category-christian-persecution","tag-china","tag-christian-persecution","tag-christianity-in-asia","tag-christians-in-china"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Christianity Crackdown: China Forbids Print Shops From Printing Anything About Jesus<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Chinese print shops have been forbidden from printing \u201cany content related to Jesus\u201d as part of Xi\u2019s continuing crackdown on 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