In Depth:  Roger Weil

I had been visiting House Churches in eastern China for several years, when I was shown a report commissioned by a department of the Chinese Government on the recent rapid growth of Christianity.

It was published in 2010, while Hu Jintao was the leader of the Chinese Government. It seems to have been largely ignored until Xi Jinping became leader and now he is acting vigorously on its warnings and recommendations. Dual portraits of him and Chairman Mao now appearing in public show that he is pursuing a similar path to his notorious predecessor. Churches have been destroyed, House Churches declared illegal and many of their leaders imprisoned or ‘disappeared’. Not since the days of Mao has there been such a determined attempt by the Government to eradicate Christianity, which Xi Jinping has declared to be a foreign religion.