by Luke Booker, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – Nine Chinese Christians have been sentenced to up to four years in prison and fined amounts up to a million yuan (more than $136,000), according to a religious liberty and human rights magazine.
The charges stem from 2021 arrests, when Christians bought legally published Bibles in Nanjing but were accused by the Chinese government of running a criminal evangelistic enterprise by purposely reselling them below cost, according to Bitter Winter.
The Christians were convicted of illegal business operations because, although the Bibles were legally published, they belonged to an unregistered house church that refused to join China’s government-controlled Three-Self Patriotic Movement, according to the International Christian Concern.
Earlier this year, the Chinese government boasted about its intensified crackdown on independent religious groups in 2024. “China’s public security authorities intensified efforts to dismantle cult organizations in 2024,” the state-run Global Times reported. “They have worked to curb the growth and spread of cult organizations, mitigating potential threats to national political security and maintaining social stability.”
In the 2025 World Watch List by Open Doors, China is ranked 15th out of 50 for severe Christian persecution, up four spots from the previous year. This rise is due to stricter regulatory enforcement, resulting in the shutdown of unregistered churches and heightened scrutiny of official ones. Open Doors estimates there are about 96.7 million Christians in China.
Since the People’s Republic of China was established in 1949, Christianity has experienced significant growth, increasing from 4 million Christians to an estimated 58 million Protestants and 9 million Catholics by 2010.
Despite ongoing intense persecution and strict government controls, current estimates suggest that there are between 80 and 100 million Christians in China, including both officially registered members and those in unregistered house church communities.
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
More Worthy News
Russian authorities say at least 13 people were killed and 39 others wounded Monday in Ukrainian drone attacks on an industrial city about 900 kilometers, or 600 miles, east of Moscow. The latest strikes signaled a further escalation of Ukraine’s campaign of air attacks deep inside Russia.
A powerful magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck western Colombia Monday, collapsing buildings, trapping residents beneath rubble, disrupting airports and sending tremors across much of the country and into neighboring Venezuela.
Archaeologists in modern-day Turkey have uncovered remains of an ancient church believed to be connected to the historic site where the First Council of Nicaea was held in A.D. 325, drawing fresh attention to one of the most consequential turning points in the history of Christianity.
President Donald Trump’s sweeping “Make D.C. Safe Again” law-enforcement campaign is approaching its first anniversary with more than 16,000 arrests, as the administration says its unprecedented federal-local partnership is changing the security landscape of the nation’s capital.
President Donald Trump appears prepared to let Iran’s worsening economic crisis intensify rather than immediately launch another major military offensive, as the Islamic Republic struggles with a collapsing currency, soaring inflation, disrupted trade and growing pressure from a U.S. naval blockade.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday formally launched a national artificial intelligence initiative aimed at making Israel one of the world’s leading AI powers, declaring that the Jewish state intends to help shape the technological future rather than merely respond to it.
Overnight drone and missile strikes killed at least eight people and injured dozens more in Ukraine and Russia on Sunday as both sides stepped up strikes in the more than four-year-long war.