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
At least 11 Christians were killed and 18 others seriously wounded when a drone operated by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) struck civilians traveling to Christmas celebrations in South Kordofan state on Dec. 25, according to local sources.
A Christian pastor was seriously injured after being attacked by a group of Muslim assailants wielding sharp objects in eastern Uganda, according to an exclusive report by Morning Star News.
Iranian security forces confronted large demonstrations at Tehran’s Grand Bazaar on Tuesday with tear gas and a heavy police presence, as nationwide protests entered a second week and the country’s currency plunged to a historic low.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers during a closed briefing Monday that recent White House rhetoric about Greenland does not signal an imminent U.S. invasion, emphasizing instead that the administration’s preferred goal is to purchase the island from Denmark, according to people familiar with the discussion.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said Tuesday that a federal crime crackdown in the nation’s capital has led to dramatic reductions in violent crime, crediting the effort to President Donald Trump’s public safety initiative.
Israel, Syria and the United States have agreed to establish a new “joint fusion mechanism” aimed at enhancing security coordination, intelligence sharing and military de-escalation, marking the most significant formal cooperation between Jerusalem and Damascus in decades.
The White House marked the fifth anniversary of the January 6, 2021, Capitol breach by launching a new website aimed at challenging what it says is a Democrat-driven distortion of events and years of politically motivated prosecutions against Americans who participated in protests that day.