Nobody does the “War on Christmas” better than the communists. Over in China, the northern city of Langfang has issued a ban on all Christmas decorations and Christmas sales.
According to Fox News, the citywide ban “threatens to punish anyone selling Christmas trees, wreaths, stockings or even Santa Claus figures.”
In a statement obtained by the South China Morning Post, city officials said, “Shops are strictly prohibited from holding Christmas performances or promotional sales.”
Posters and banners will not be allowed in stores for advertising any Christmas sales. Any and all outdoor performances related to Christmas have also been banned. Anyone guilty of “spreading religion” in parks or squares is to be reported immediately to authorities, officials say. No specifications were made if the religion was Christianity or faith in general.
“The city’s urban management bureau claims the ban is in place to help maintain a clean city environment for an upcoming awards competition,” reports Fox News. “An employee at the bureau, who refused to be identified, told the Communist Party-run paper The Global Times the crackdown was being made in order to maintain a ‘clean environment’ to be able to pass the annual rating of ‘National Civilized Cities’ that’s presented every three years.”
The National Civilized Cities title reportedly extols a Chinese city’s “overall strength and comprehensive competitiveness” that reflect the region’s social and economic development.
The bureau employee also told The Global Times that Christmas is a high time for regulating illegal activity among roadside stalls and migrant vendors, who routinely use the holiday to sell goods.
Unfortunately, Christmas is not the only expression of Christianity being expressed in China; the country has been cracking down on Christianity in general over the past few months. Just recently, over 100 Christians were arrested while the pastor faces up to five years in prison. From The Daily Wire’s Jacob Airey:
Chinese Pastor Wang Yi and over 100 of his congregation were arrested by law enforcement officials earlier this month, raising more concerns about the communist government’s religious crackdown.
According to a Morning Star News report, security forces raided the 800-member “unofficial” Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. They took Pastor Wang Yi and his wife Jiang Rong into custody and arrested several church leaders on charges of “inciting subversion of state power” and for operating without registering with the authorities.
CNN reports that the intimidation of “unofficial” churches is commonplace for the communist government, which has also been cracking down on Uyghur Muslims.
Last November, a faithful Catholic bishop was kidnapped following the Pope Francis-approved Vatican-China deal, which gave the Chinese communist government a prominent role in the selection of bishops while encouraging the underground Catholic church to join the state-sanctioned Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA).
It was the fifth kidnapping of Pietro Shao Zhumin of Wenzhou since he was appointed bishop in 2016. He was “coerced to submit to the religious policy of China, which requires registration with the government and membership of the Patriotic Association (PA),” according to Asia News, which first broke the story.
LifeSiteNews reports that the Chinese government’s persecution of the Catholic Church has remained in “full effect” since the Vatican signed the deal that many faithful Catholics in China denounced as a betrayal.