Month: February 2021

On January 26, 2021, Hindu nationalists stormed a Catholic church in Indore. Church members were accused of conducting a mass religious conversion service and nine people were arrested. Today, all have been denied bail and remain in jail. The prohibition of religious conversions in Indore stems from a January 9 law which states religious conversions must be approved by the state government. According to authorities, a woman attending the service told authorities she was being forced to convert from Hindu to Christianity. Church members say the woman has never attended their services before and believe she was planted by Hindu nationalists in order to trap the church through the state's rigid Anti-Conversion laws. In Indian states where similar anti-conversion laws are currently enacted, including Odisha, Uttar Pradesh,

On February 1, 2020, the cross that adorns the top of the 100-year-old Shuixin Church in Wenzhou City was removed by dozens of Chinese security guards. Church attendees had recently rejected the government's request to remove the cross so Zhejiang Province officials forcibly removed it. Local reports indicate security guards entered the church several hours prior and detained the church's security guards before shutting off the electricity to the building. Several contractors then used a crane to hoist the cross from the church roof. One church member noted the cross had been removed by officials before. "The CCP has forcibly removed Shuixin church’s cross several times in the past. During the first cross removal at 2 pm on June 30, 2014, the Zhejiang government had launched a campaign