
It was an early January morning when a homeschool co-op in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu became the focus of government officials intending to shut it down.
Two weeks ago, the communist Chinese government raided the home of a Christian homeschool co-op affiliated with a local church. The co-op served as part of an education program offered by Early Rain Covenant Church, which hosts schools and various other educational sessions. But Beijing cracked down on the homeschool for not conforming to its state-run indoctrination standards.
The concerted crackdown that surrounded the homeschool home included several agents of the communist Chinese government, according to CBN News. Wasting no daylight, the communist enforcers showed up at the Christian home around the break of dawn on January 14, according to a social media post:
"Urgent prayer request: At 7:00 this morning, a large group of police officers, education bureau officials, national security officers, and urban management officers surrounded a home where homeschooled children of Early Rain Covenant Church were playing together," a Facebook post announced shortly after the raid. "The police are now raiding the home. There are a large number of police officers outside and inside of brother Liang Huali and Sister Shu Qiong's home, and they are currently removing brother Liang's personal belongings. Please pray!"
A continuing trend …
Christian persecution in China has been commonplace for decades, as the communist government has incessantly cracked down on the house church movement and churches that have not bowed down to the state's Three-Self Church, which puts worship of communist officials above God.
"[China] ranks as one of the top 20 most dangerous countries for being a Christian," Christianheadlines.com reported. "China has a quarter of all jailed Christians globally and leads the world in church closures – comprising of the overwhelming majority of church closures globally, as well. This is coupled with reports that Chinese pastors have gone into hiding to avoid the regime's intensive spy measures, which include forcing the general population to adopt special key cards that can be used to track everyone's whereabouts at once."
The Trump administration's State Department – along with other governing bodies – had condemned the Chinese government's persecution of Christians, including the introduction of a House resolution that denounced the persecution of Christians in China.
"Since 1999, China has been designated as a 'Country of Particular Concern' (CPC) under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 for having engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom," Trump's State Department declared in 2019.
"On December 18, the Secretary of State redesignated China as a CPC and identified the following sanction that accompanied the designation: the existing ongoing restriction on exports to China of crime control and detection instruments and equipment, under the Foreign Relations Authorization Act of 1990 and 1991 …"
With the onset of President Joe Biden's new administration – coupled with the Democratic Party's persistent defense of China and refusal to hold its communist government accountable for Christian and Muslim persecution, slave labor and for creating and spreading the Wuhan coronavirus while covering up its culpability – many are concerned that the U.S. will look past China's atrocities over the next few years in the interest of Democrats' continued business ventures in the country.