ChinaAid, a Texas-based Christian nonprofit organization that monitors religious freedom in China, said in its 2012 annual report this week that the Chinese government continues its increase of persecution against Christians for the seventh consecutive year, the Christian Post reports. The report examined 132 persecution cases involving 4,919 people and found that persecution incidences rose 41.9 percent from 2011. Additionally, the number of people sentenced in cases relating to religious persecution jumped 125 percent from 2011. "If the Chinese government had its druthers, religion would not be practiced at all within its borders," ChinaAid said. "Beijing fears a higher authority, and it's also horrified by any group that is able to organize, particularly around an ideology or belief." According to the report, methods for suppressing Christianity in China include "forcibly banning and sealing up churches, pressuring churches to join the official 'Three-Self' church system, detaining church leaders and sending them to labor camps on the pretext of 'suspicion of organizing and using a cult to undermine law enforcement' and strictly restricting the spread of the Christian faith among students." However, ChinaAid added, "The church ... is still standing firm, flourishing like the cedars of Lebanon and fruit trees planted by the streams, bearing much fruit at the appointed time."
