Chinese authorities have reportedly ordered Christians to renounce their faith and replace the crosses, images of Jesus in churches with portraits of Chairman Mao and President Xi Jinping or risk losing welfare benefits.
According to a report published in Daily Mail, a concerted attempt is being made by the Chinese officials to suppress the manifestation of religion in the country. In what appears to be state-sanctioned persecution against the Christian minorities, Chinese officials have recently demolished religious symbols by force in churches in multiple provinces, including Anhui, Jiangsu, Hebei and Zhejiang.
Quoting independent outlet Bitter Winter, the report published in Daily Mail asserted that authorities of Shanxi province have ordered the Christian residents to take down religious images and replace them with the pictures of Communist leaders.
A local pastor from Linfen, a town in Shanxi province, was quoted by Bitter Winter saying that Chinese authorities have insidiously moved to curtail the religious liberties of the Christians in his town by asking them to remove images, posters that represent Christianity and supplant them with images of Mao Zedong and other Communist leaders.
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