Authorities from the Chinese Communist Party reportedly interrupted a church service even though it was only held online via Zoom.
ChinaAid reported that the CCP "forcibly" interrupted Pastor Mao Zhibin who was preaching via Zoom on the mid-morning of July 11.
"Chinese Communist Party (CCP) security agents, police officers, and religious affairs bureau officials, accompanied by subdistrict office staff, raided Shenzhen Trinity Gospel Harvest Church's Zoom online worship service. Simultaneously during the raid, as authorities forced Pastor Mao Zhibin and Elder Chu Yanqing to stop preaching, other CCP officials surrounded the Church building," ChinaAid said.
As per ChinaAid, a video of the July 11 raid, posted to Twitter, showed Pastor Mao and Elder Chu being interrupted while speaking by two plain-clothes officials of the CCP. The video shows Pastor Mao and Elder Chu leaving the room followed by the two officials at the end of the video.
"Despite CCP authorities infringing on this church's rights to worship, Pastor Mao and Elder Chu, as well as Christian Brothers and Sisters reportedly remain safe," ChinaAid added.
ChinaAid revealed that this wasn't the first time this happened. They said that Shi Minglei also known as Hope and a former Shenzhen Trinity Gospel harvest Church member fled to America because the CCP together with the religious affairs bureau officials and some police officers forcibly stopped their church's online worship service via Zoom.
According to ChinaAid, the Shenzen Trinity Gospel was founded four years ago and is growing in its members because it "strongly supports justice." The church's pastor and Elder Shen Ling have also joined other ministers in support of a statement against Christian persecution that was spearheaded by Pastor Wang Yi.
The statement, which is entitled, "A Joint Statement by Pastors: A Declaration for the Sake of the Christian Faith," is said to be a regular target of the CCP and the Shenzen municipal government's authorities.
ChinaAid also disclosed another incident that happened on April 25 where authorities raided the Sunday service of the Shenzhen Trinity Gospel Harvest Church without presenting any legal documents. The authorities ordered everyone that attended the service to leave and then banned the church. The authorities then transported seven Christians, the church's pastors that included Pastor Mao, and Elder Chu to the police station in Bantian.
"Today, joint force officials from the religious affairs bureau, public security department personnel, and national security agency authorities banned our church. We have not faced such a serious situation as this since we founded our church four years ago," ChinaAid quoted Pastor Mao in announcing the incident.
The CCP celebrated its 100th anniversary last July 1. In March, it was reported that they planned to use their anniversary to enforce greater control on Catholics. This the CCP initiated by holding a symposium among Chinese bishops and the Chinese Patriotic Association leaders "in memory of the centenary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party."
This is said to be a "facade" of the sinicization the CCP wants to implement on all religions in China, especially for the Catholic Church there. The CCP also released a set of policies called "Administrative Measures For Religious Clergy" in February that it expects all Catholics and Christians will carry out.
In line with its attempt to remove all forms of religion in China and replace it with communism, the CCP was also reported to remove a cross from a century-old church in Zheijang Province last February. They also made arrests in June that sparked fears of increasing Christian persecution in China.
