Chinese Christian jailed for distributing Bibles

A court in China’s Inner Mongolia province sentenced a Protestant Christian to five years imprisonment for alleged illegal sales of Bibles on behalf of a house Church not affiliated with a state-run body, says a report.

The Hohhot Huimin District Court in provincial capital Hohhot found Ban Yanhong guilty of “illegal business operations” for selling Bibles to the local Christian community, says a report in Bitter Winter magazine dated April 29.

Ban is among ten Christians arrested in April 2021 for distributing Bibles among Christians in Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region in northern China.

They denied any wrongdoing saying that they purchased the legally printed Bibles from an organization in Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu province.

The organization is reportedly not affiliated with the Three-Self Church, a state-sanctioned body tasked with overseeing the affairs of all government-recognized Protestant Churches in the Communist-ruled country.

Their prosecutor argued that Bibles are “legal” and that selling them did not constitute a crime as per Chinese law.

The Christians actually lost money instead of making any profit from sales, the unnamed prosecutor said.

The defendants said their distribution was not for commercial purposes but for evangelism, as they sold Bibles for 75 percent of the price compared to 95 percent of the original cover price, Bitter Winter reported.

Ban Yanhong’s husband Ji Heying alleged that she was considered a key figure of the group, and she remained in detention while others were released on bail.

Nonetheless, the bailed Christians must face court trial until a verdict is delivered, the report said.

Local Christians say the Church drew the ire of the authorities for refusing to register with the Three-Self Church.