China: Persecution of Protestant Christians in the Approach to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games
Introduction
The approach of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games has been accompanied by a significant deterioration in religious freedom for China’s unregistered Protestant Church, also known as the house church.
China continues to seriously restrict religious freedom, requiring religious activity to take place within the confines of the restrictive state-controlled bodies. Those practising their
faith outside these bodies risk sanction, with penalties including discrimination, fines,
confiscation and destruction of property, arrest, humiliating treatment, torture, imprisonment and forced labour. Alongside these punishments, meetings are raided, Bibles and religious materials are confiscated and churches are destroyed.
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