Your daily reminder about the dystopia that is China:
According to The Christian Post, the nine evangelists were arrested in 2021 and charged with illegally reselling legally published Bibles through an unregistered home church in the city of Hohhot, Inner Mongolia.
After spending years in prison and in court, they have been handed jail sentences for their "crime." While their sentences were actually given in November 2024, the government had withheld them from the public until this month.
Though the Bibles were officially authorized and printed in Nanjing, authorities prosecuted the group for conducting unauthorized distribution through their house church.
Prosecutors contended that even legally printed religious texts became illegal when sold outside officially approved channels.
While authorities claimed that the evangelists treated the incident as an illegal business transaction, the defendants were quick to point out that they were not looking to make a profit on the Bibles.
During court proceedings, the defendants underlined that their intentions were purely evangelistic rather than commercial. They reported financial losses, having purchased the Bibles at 95% of their cover price but reselling them at only 75% to facilitate broader distribution.
That doesn't matter in China: Unable to stop the spread of Christianity, the communist government sanctioned a state-approved denomination called the "Three-Self Patriotic Movement," also known as the "Three-Self Church."
The religious freedom watchdog International Christian Concern noted that the Christians re-sold and distributed Bibles at much lower prices as they wanted to share God's Word as a means of evangelism. They were arrested because the group refused to join the government-sanctioned and controlled Three-Self Patriotic Movement.
The evangelists were sentenced to varying prison terms and fine amounts, with the most severe penalty being given to Wang Honglan, who was sentenced to 4 years and 10 months in prison and fined well over the equivalent of $100,000. Wang is a 70-year-old grandmother. Her 73-year-old husband Ji Heying, her son Ji Guolong, and her nephew Wang Jiale were also arrested.
Bob Fu, a senior fellow at the Family Research Council's Religious Liberty Center, reported a summary of the sentences from Ning Meng of ChinaAid:
• Wang Honglan: 4 years and 10 months, fined 1,000,000 yuan [$137,000]; to be released on February 14, 2026.
• Wang Jiale: 4 years and 6 months, fined 200,000 yuan; to be released on October 14, 2025.
• Liu Minna: 4 years and 6 months, fined 200,000 yuan; to be released on October 14, 2025.
• Yang Zhijun: 4 years and 3 months, fined 150,000 yuan; to be released on July 19, 2025.
• Ji Heying: 3 years, fined 20,000 yuan.
• Ji Guolong: 3 years, fined 20,000 yuan.
• Zhang Wang: 3 years, fined 20,000 yuan.
• Liu Wei: 3 years, fined 20,000 yuan.
(The above four were released in 2024, with prison terms ending on April 14, 2024.)
• Li Chao: 1 year, fined 5,000 yuan; released on April 14, 2022, after being granted bail in 2022.
When Wang is released in 2026, she will have spent nearly 5 years in jail for the crime of sharing God's Word.
To add insult to injury, the commies kept the defendants waiting to hear their fates for months after the verdict had already been decided:
The original sentencing was scheduled for December 5, 2024, but was canceled last minute due to the presiding judge falling ill. On November 28, 2024, the defense attorney received a court notice that the verdict would be issued on December 5. Yet again, on the day before, families were informed of another cancellation. A new sentencing date was scheduled for March 27, 2025, but this too was called off without explanation. It was not until recently that the court announced the verdict had, in fact, been finalized back in November 2024.
For more context on this story, see this 2024 article from Bitter Winter, a magazine that covers religious liberty.
One more note from The Christian Post before I go:
China recently banned foreign missionaries from preaching and establishing religious organizations, justifying the move as necessary for national security. The latest restrictions, announced by the Chinese Communist Party, will take effect on May 1, intensifying the crackdown on Christianity in the country.
Pray for the growing number of Christians in China.
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