China’s Persecution Has No Borders

By ICC Fellow Linda Burkle, PhD Fifteen years ago, I traveled to China with a friend and ministry partner to conduct a training conference for underground church leaders. This was our second trip to equip and encourage them. Whereas my friend lives in another state, we met at the international airport to fly to China. Each of us… The post China’s Persecution Has No Borders first appeared on International Christian Concern.

RCBU Mar 19, 2026 0 14 Add to Reading List

By ICC Fellow Linda Burkle, PhD

Fifteen years ago, I traveled to China with a friend and ministry partner to conduct a training conference for underground church leaders. This was our second trip to equip and encourage them. Whereas my friend lives in another state, we met at the international airport to fly to China. Each of us had one suitcase full of Chinese-language Christian discipleship books. 

When we landed in Beijing and entered the airport, we went through multiple checkpoints, then cleared customs and made our way to the baggage claim area. There was a throng of people waiting by the baggage belt to identify their luggage and be on their way. As the baggage belt circled, one by one, people collected their belongings and departed. After the final piece of luggage was collected, my friend and I stood there, not sure what to do, staring at a revolving empty baggage belt.

We began to pray, and within a short time, which seemed like forever, a Chinese man with a friendly face approached us. “I have your luggage,” he said in English. He then disappeared around the corner and reappeared shortly with our luggage. Unbelievably, he handed me my luggage and my friend hers without asking for identification, as though he knew who we were and which piece of luggage belonged to each of us.

After we thanked him, he turned to walk away. We looked back to thank him again, and he had disappeared. We stood there in amazement, thanking God for saving us from what we assumed would be arrest and detention. To this day, we still can’t explain what happened to our luggage, but we know it was God’s hand of protection.

Due to concerns of a government raid, we changed the venue for the training conference, and the event took place after dark. We did not speak as we climbed the six flights of stairs to a large apartment where pastors and other church leaders waited. We did not want to raise suspicion by speaking English lest someone hear. While presenting our messages, there were several interruptions and knocks at the door. All the while, we prayed, believing that authorities would raid the conference. Thankfully, that did not happen.

After that trip, we were no longer able to communicate by email as we had with the friends we had made in China. Initially, we were able to email without references to God, using other words as code. After the second trip, however, that was no longer possible. Since that time, there has been a dramatic increase in persecution of Christians, and we fear that many of them have faced arrest.

In China, underground believers are not surprised by arrest and imprisonment. The threat that Chinese Christians pose to the Chinese Communist Party is evidence of the power of the Lord and the Christian faith, which is one of the CCP’s greatest fears. They cannot eradicate the Holy Spirit and the spreading of the gospel, despite how hard they have tried. During my missions in China, I spoke with many people, such as Sister Wong and Brother Liu, who have been arrested multiple times and have undergone torture, which they view as the cost of being a follower of Jesus Christ.

The year after my last trip, in 2012, Xi Jinping became general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and chairman of the Central Military Commission. Then, in 2013, he became president of the People’s Republic of China and is currently serving his third term. Since that time, persecution of Christians and other religions has intensified.

“As per the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom: ‘Religious freedom conditions in China remained among the worst in the world. Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping continued to lead efforts to update and enforce China’s ‘Sinicization of religion’ policy, which requires the complete loyalty and subordination of recognized religious groups to the CCP, its political ideology, and its policy agenda.’ … ChinaAid details the expansive campaign, including ‘forced demolition of churches and other meeting places,’ ‘forced banning and closing of churches,’ ‘the imprisonment, arrest and sentencing of church leaders and members on unwarranted or fabricated charges, [and] prolonged detention,’ ‘multiple disruption of gatherings,’ ‘continued persecution of released church leaders,’ ‘administrative penalties, detention, fines,’ ‘abuse of detained church leaders,’ ‘restrictions on the involvement of the Church in external relations,’ and ‘harassment of church meetings.”(1)

The level of persecution is nothing that we have yet experienced in the West. The Open Door World Watch List consistently ranks China among the worst nations for persecution of Christians.(2) Since the inception of the Office of International Religious Freedom within the United States Department of State in 1999, China has been designated as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for severe, ongoing violations of religious freedom.(3) International Christian Concern (ICC) has long chronicled persecution in China and has listed the nation as a top persecutor in its annual Global Persecution Index.

The CCP spends a large share of its budget surveilling its own people through sophisticated technologies, including monitoring electronic communications and financial transactions, facial recognition, and other methods. Authorities carefully monitor everyone in China. We noticed police and military personnel, as well as cameras, everywhere. Their eyes are always on you. 

In 2011, the same year of our second and final trip to China, protests swept the Middle East, inspiring the Jasmine Revolution, a small and quickly squashed Uprising in China. In response, the CCP increased its domestic security budget by 13.8% to 624 billion yuan, eclipsing its military budget for the first time. Since then, it has set aside more for internal security than the military, even as the CCP’s international surveillance has increased.

“China’s ‘public safety’ spending, which is used to maintain public order and control speech at home, reached $210 billion in 2020. The amount more than doubled in 10 years. China’s national defense spending is growing rapidly and closing in on that of the United States. But China’s public safety spending was as much as 7% higher than its national defense spending in 2020.”(4)

The CCP has a long reach and tentacles everywhere. Even if Chinese refugees are not living within the country, they cannot escape the long arm of the CCP, which will track them down. “According to one assessment, at least 102 known or suspected Chinese overseas police stations are currently active in 53 countries. The real number is undoubtedly higher. In the U.S., stations have been identified in New York City, Los Angeles, Houston, and San Francisco, as well as smaller cities in Nebraska and Minnesota.”(5) This reality hits close to home, whereas I live in Nebraska.

I know a dear Chinese brother who came to America as a student 20 years ago and stayed here to work as a researcher at one of the universities. He met his wife, also Chinese, while in graduate school, and they settled here. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2019. Although there is a local Chinese Christian congregation, he and his family are afraid to attend due to his concern that there are CCP spies planted within the group. There’s always a level of distrust because of the CCP’s far-reaching surveillance; it seems like they’re everywhere, watching. 

Without regard for the sovereignty of other countries, in 2014, the CCP launched “Operation Fox Hunt” to repatriate overseas Chinese fugitives whom it deems to be “corrupt” officials. Six hundred eighty fugitives were reportedly returned to China within the first six months. The following year, in 2015, Operation Sky Net was implemented as a parallel program to apprehend overseas Chinese dissidents accused of financial crimes. These operations included detaining family members back in China to outright kidnappings abroad. 

“Since 2014, Chinese police have reportedly made some 10,000 Chinese fugitives abroad return to China. This shows that the CCP doesn’t recognize international borders and brazenly violates the sovereignty of the U.S. and other countries by sending police officers far outside their jurisdiction.  

“The CCP will target those it wishes to oppress, particularly the Chinese diaspora population, whom they surveil and harass in violation of the laws of the countries where they conduct these activities. If they feel empowered enough to open secret police stations in New York City, you can imagine what they’re doing in Brussels, Canberra, New Delhi, and virtually any major city with a sizable Chinese population.”(6)

Before these initiatives, though, China’s international reach to capture dissidents had a decades-long history. I recently attended the annual International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington, DC. Presenters and attendees included government officials, human rights advocates, religious leaders, and other experts from many countries.

However, the most powerful speakers were victims of persecution, sharing their personal experiences and those of family members still imprisoned. One such presenter was Dr. Wang Bingwu, whose brother, Dr. Wang Bingzhang, was abducted in 2002 while traveling abroad. He has been in solitary confinement for more than 20 years. I was moved to tears hearing Dr. Wang’s plea for the release of his brother. Here is a summary of his case as presented.

“My name is Dr. Wang Bingwu. I am here to raise my concerns about the well-being of my dear brother, Dr. Wang Bingzhan, who is imprisoned for life in Shaoguan Prison, China, on fabricated espionage charges. He has been in solitary confinement for 23 years. Both of us are Christians.”

“In September 1982, Bingzhang surprised me on the day when he obtained his doctorate by telling me that he’s giving up his medical career and devoted his life to the freedom and justice of the people of China. In 2002, while traveling in Vietnam, he was kidnapped by the CCP police and abducted into China, and subsequently sentenced to life in prison.

The espionage charge was overturned in 2013 after official documents from the Taiwan government, obtained with the help of ChinaAid, were released. Unfortunately, there is no sign of his release.”(7) ChinaAid is an international non-profit human rights advocacy organization promoting religious freedom.

Dr. Wang Bingwu shared that his brother’s physical and mental health conditions have seriously declined. While incarcerated, their parents died, six grandchildren were born, and a sister recently passed away. The U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD), as well as the governments of Canada and the U.S., issued statements urging the CCP to release Dr. Wang Bingzhang, which China has ignored.(8)

Sadly, Dr. Wang Bingwu is one of countless Christians globally arrested and imprisoned simply because of their faith. Others, unnamed and unknown, languish in prisons under horrific conditions, often where isolation and torture are commonplace.

I urge everyone to pray and advocate for this brother and others who are arbitrarily detained and imprisoned solely because they follow Jesus Christ.

Sources

To read more news stories, visit the ICC Newsroom. For interviews, please email press@persecution.org. To support ICC’s work around the world, please give to our Where Most Needed Fund.

The post China’s Persecution Has No Borders first appeared on International Christian Concern.