Chinese Police Torture Elderly Christian Man for 24 Hours

Officers under the authority of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) tortured an elderly Christian man for 24 hours in an effort to make him “fabricate charges” against the pastors of his church, ChinaAid reported this week.

The elderly man, identified only as “Brother Wang,” is a member of Xi’an Church of Abundance in Shanxi province. The church’s Pastor Lian Changnian, his son Pastor Lian Xuliang, and Fu Juan, a church coworker, were all arrested on charges of fraud last August 17, 2022. The three were held under Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location (RSDL) where they, too, suffered torture.

Church representatives said that undercover police officers driving an unmarked vehicle picked up Brother Wang at his place of work on the morning of March 1. The officers drove him to a small hotel where they tied his hands and feet to a chair and began threatening him.

Two police officers named Wei and Zhang reportedly interrogated Brother Wang, untying him momentarily to turn on a camera and film him, after which he was immediately bound again.

Brother Wang was tied to the chair for a period of 24 hours during which he drank no water, ate no food, and was not allowed to sleep, but he never betrayed the pastors of his church. Authorities released Wang on the morning of March 2.

During his captivity, Wang’s family searched for him and eventually learned from police that he had been detained by national security officers of the Chanba Bureau of Public Security.

According to ChinaAid, Wang’s case is unfortunately not unusual, as police have tortured many Christians, including the church’s pastors, during their investigation of Xi’an Church of Abundance.

Crackdowns on Christian churches have intensified under the regime of President Xi Jinping, with the CCP exercising ever greater control over church practices.

As Breitbart News reported, the CCP has now begun requiring Christians to register on a government “Smart Religion” app in order to attend worship services in the Henan province.

A separate reservation must be made each time a person wishes to go to church and verified before entering, so the government can also monitor the frequency of worship. This added barrier to worship has reportedly deterred many from going to church, especially older Christians who are unfamiliar with smart phone usage.

Thomas D. Williams is Breitbart Rome Bureau Chief and the author of The Coming Christian Persecution.