For the entire rule of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), it has brutally oppressed religious beliefs, and the Party has been making another major push to Sinicize religion since Xi Jinping came to power. It has unrelentingly increased its efforts to suppress religion, not only investigating and eradicating house churches in all regions and madly arresting and persecuting Christians, but also wantonly demolishing Three-Self churches and tearing down crosses atop churches. Some Christians have been forced to flee China to democratic countries where they apply for asylum in order to escape the CCP’s persecution. On November 16, 2018, a film screening entitled “Reasons Behind Chinese Religious Refugees’ Flights” was held in the German town of Buchen, organized by the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests, with the aim of allowing more people to understand and pay attention to the plight of Chinese Christians who are brutally suppressed and persecuted by the CCP; it was also a call to the German government to handle Christians’ refugee applications carefully. Christians of Chinese Christian house churches were invited to participate and Christians from The Church of Almighty God were also special guests. The film shown, “The Long Road of Exile,” is a part of the Chronicles of Religious Persecution in China series; it is a documentary made based on Chinese Christians’ real-life experiences of persecution. It drew the attendance of a number of local Christians.

Reported by correspondent Li Minhui