{"id":19196,"date":"2024-10-01T18:14:29","date_gmt":"2024-10-01T17:14:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.opendoorsuk.org\/?post_type=news&#038;p=19196"},"modified":"2024-10-01T18:14:29","modified_gmt":"2024-10-01T17:14:29","slug":"china-ruojie-bibles","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/connect.opendoorsuk.org\/ireland\/blog\/news\/latest-news\/china-ruojie-bibles\/","title":{"rendered":"Believer\u2019s imprisonment for selling Bibles in China takes its toll\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"930\" height=\"399\" src=\"https:\/\/connect.opendoorsuk.org\/ireland\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/10\/01.10.24-China930-399.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19197\" srcset=\"https:\/\/connect.opendoorsuk.org\/ireland\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/10\/01.10.24-China930-399.jpg 930w, https:\/\/connect.opendoorsuk.org\/ireland\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/10\/01.10.24-China930-399-300x129.jpg 300w, https:\/\/connect.opendoorsuk.org\/ireland\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/10\/01.10.24-China930-399-768x329.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 930px) 100vw, 930px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Ruojie and his family are receiving support through local Open Doors partners<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A believer who was imprisoned in China last year for \u2018illegal business operations\u2019 is due to be released at the end of this year.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ruojie*, a Sunday school teacher and businessman, was arrested for selling Bibles, Sunday school materials and other biblical resources in early 2023 and sentenced to two years\u2019 imprisonment.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Government cracks down on sale of Bibles&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Li*, a local Open Doors partner, recently visited Ruojie\u2019s mother, Chen*, who shared more about her son\u2019s arrest. \u201cMy son\u2019s book-selling business was across the country,\u201d she says. \u201cHe discreetly sold books at different provinces.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But he was later discovered by the authorities when they traced one of his buyers through the courier company that delivers his products. \u201cIt was found that he owned more than 10,000 books in his house and another 10,000 in the warehouse,\u201d shares Li.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In China, it\u2019s not illegal to possess a Bible or other Christian literary materials. However, the laws around selling and purchasing these resources have become much stricter in recent years. In 2018, the Chinese Government banned buying and selling Bibles online. They can only be sold legally in churches and bookstores affiliated with government-controlled churches and organisations, such as the China Christian Council (CCC) or the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM). Although the implementation of these laws vary from province to province, it still makes it more difficult for believers to purchase Bibles and other Christian resources.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ruojie loses his freedom and his fianc\u00e9e&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ruojie\u2019s imprisonment has taken its toll on Ruojie and his family. Although his mother and brother can now visit him, it wasn\u2019t always that way.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cFor a time, the local authorities did not allow us \u2013 his family \u2013 to visit him,\u201d says Chen. \u201cThey also searched his house multiple times, and they talked to people in his network, aiming to collect more evidence.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And Ruojie has not only lost his freedom. \u201cHe was engaged to his fianc\u00e9e and planned to get married this year,\u201d says Chen. \u201cUnfortunately, when he was imprisoned, his fianc\u00e9e decided to leave him. She broke up with him when she went to visit him. He was shocked and unprepared for it. Though he doubted why, there\u2019s nothing else he could do.\u201d Ruojie and his fianc\u00e9e used to serve in the Sunday school together.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cChen is worried about her son\u2019s marriage, since it\u2019s hard for him to find the right spouse, given his financially-poor background,\u201d Li explains.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After Ruojie\u2019s arrest, his church withdrew their support and cut ties with the family, out of fear \u2013 and this is not uncommon. Li admits that he struggles when he encounters cases like Chen\u2019s and Ruojie\u2019s \u2013 but says that your prayers for the believers and for him go a long way. \u201cI feel quite helpless sometimes that I don\u2019t know what else I can do practically,\u201d he says. \u201cBut what we do is bring comfort to them by visiting and praying with them.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">*<em>Names changed for security reasons<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Please pray for Ruojie, a Sunday school teacher and businessman who was imprisoned last year for selling Bibles. He\u2019s due to be released at the end of this year, but his future is uncertain. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":19197,"parent":8268,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":""},"categories":[36,228],"tags":[122],"class_list":["post-19196","news","type-news","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-story","tag-china"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v20.8 (Yoast SEO v28.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Believer\u2019s imprisonment for selling Bibles in China takes its toll\u00a0 - Open Doors Ireland<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Please pray for Ruojie, a Sunday school teacher and businessman who was imprisoned last year for selling Bibles.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Believer\u2019s imprisonment for selling Bibles in China takes its toll\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Please pray for Ruojie, a Sunday school teacher and businessman who was imprisoned last year for selling Bibles.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/connect.opendoorsuk.org\/ireland\/news\/latest-news\/china-ruojie-bibles\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Open Doors Ireland\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/connect.opendoorsuk.org\/ireland\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/10\/01.10.24-China930-399.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"930\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"399\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/connect.opendoorsuk.org\\\/ireland\\\/news\\\/latest-news\\\/china-ruojie-bibles\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/connect.opendoorsuk.org\\\/ireland\\\/news\\\/latest-news\\\/china-ruojie-bibles\\\/\",\"name\":\"Believer\u2019s imprisonment for selling Bibles in China takes its toll\u00a0 - 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He\u2019s due to be released at the end of this year, but his future is uncertain.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/connect.opendoorsuk.org\/ireland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/19196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/connect.opendoorsuk.org\/ireland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/connect.opendoorsuk.org\/ireland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/connect.opendoorsuk.org\/ireland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/connect.opendoorsuk.org\/ireland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/8268"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/connect.opendoorsuk.org\/ireland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/connect.opendoorsuk.org\/ireland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/connect.opendoorsuk.org\/ireland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/connect.opendoorsuk.org\/ireland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}