- Here to talk more about what's going on

in China's church crackdown

is Senior InternationalCorrespondent, Gary Lane.

Gary, Christians say itis the worst persecution

that they have seen since MaoZedong's Cultural Revolution.

Tell us when did this latestwave of persecution begin?

- Well of course, itdidn't start with COVID-19,

as you know, that's just theexcuse now as we mentioned.

But George this started back in 2015

and if you recall, I know youreported about it, I did too,

the removal of crosses from atop churches,

mostly in Zhejiang Province,hundreds of them were removed

and then raids on churchesand you know back in 2018,

you reported this Wang Yi.

Wang Yi was the head pastor

of the Early Rain Covenant Church.

On December 9th, 2018, he was arrested

and along with about 100members of his church,

the leadership there, most ofthem have been released now.

But he received nine years in prison,

simply for leading an unregistered church.

The church was growing andthat's what the communists

were worried about.

But we still don't know where he is

or what's happened to him,that's recent examples.

- You talked about the crosses

but can you talk aboutmore recent examples

of this latest crackdownagainst Christians.

- Well, we mentioned the twochurches in Zhejiang Province.

We had two of them on July 7th

where crosses were removed fromthe top of their buildings.

The Christians come out toprotest, they get beaten.

And 80-year-old man, George

was violently shoved to theground, an 80-year-old man.

Also, on July 5th, raidsof another church in Guilin

and some of the believersthere stood out in front

of the Public Security Bureau Office

and started singing hymnsas they awaited the release

of some of their leaders.

But this is ongoing.

- Yeah, and you talk aboutsome of these individuals,

are they actually beingarrested and charged

and sentenced to prison forcertain periods of time?

- Well, they're charged nowwhether they're sentenced

to prison, they have towait until they their trial

but what is happening, George,

this is all apart of sinicization,

which is, in other wordsit is China saying,

this is a new policy, wherebyto be a good citizen of China,

you must be faithful,you must show fidelity

to the communist party and to our leaders,

to our nation, you dothat by putting up posters

or portraits of our leaders.

Here's a church where youdon't see a cross there

but you see Mao and nextto him is Xi Jinping,

the president for life.

No cross in that church, alsoon the sides of the churches

things like propaganda posters and sayings

rather than quotes fromJesus and the Bible.

And this is happening toindividuals in their homes as well.

- Obviously very familiar to what's,

similar to what'shappening in North Korea,

with the leaders of theKim dynasty and so forth.

- Almost like a cult following.

- Exactly, I'm curious whatcan we in the United States,

what can the Presidentof the United States do?

- Well there isn't a lot you can do

but the president and Congress

have enacted the Hong Kong Autonomy Act,

in addition to thatfor the Uyghur Muslims,

the Uyghur Human Rights Act,

those things can punishthe Chinese and individuals

who are involved in violating human rights

of the people.

But Christians say weneed something like that,

well, there is the InternationalReligious Freedom Act

which grants the president

and members of Congress the authority

to enact legislation thatwould punish individuals

who violate human rights.

Beyond that George, I would say pray.

We as believers need topray for the Christians

like Pastor Wang Yi,nobody knows where he is.

He's suffering in prison.

Also, pray for revival in China.

- All right, terrific, Gary, as always

thank you so much forcoming on the broadcast.