Religion · Nationwide · August 17, 2026
China Detains Seven Christians Over Refusal to Remove Church Cross
What Alinsky tactic is being used
3 of the thirteen rules are in play here — campaigns rarely run just one.
Rule 13
“Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.”
The Zhejiang campaign has stripped crosses from more than 1,200 buildings, but the criminal case is aimed at two named people: Pastor Bao Guohua and his wife Xing Wenxiang, frozen in place by detention, personalized in a police statement built around their supposed lifestyle, and polarized against their own congregation by the claim that they 'incited unrest' and hid accounts. The point of prosecuting individuals rather than defending the policy is to make the story about two allegedly crooked pastors instead of about 1,200 crosses. Denying them access to lawyers keeps the target frozen and unable to answer.
Counter-Rule 13 · Radical Solidarity
Stand publicly with whoever has been singled out. Isolation is the whole mechanism; refusing it disarms the tactic.
Refuse the isolation by putting their names on public record where records are kept: pray for Bao Guohua, Xing Wenxiang and their coworkers by name in your congregation's public intercession this month, and write to your own representative and senators naming the individuals rather than 'persecution in China' in general. USCIRF's Frank R. Wolf victims list and the CECC's Political Prisoner Database both accept documented case information from the public — a named, sourced case is harder to disappear than a statistic.
Rule 5
“Ridicule is man's most potent weapon.”
The police statement was titled 'Honest pastors' greedy lives,' and state media alleged embezzlement, hidden accounts and luxury spending. That is ridicule aimed at making a pastor contemptible rather than a martyr — a man mocked for greed cannot be honored for refusing to take down a cross. It also fishes for an angry, absolute reaction from believers abroad that can then be cited as proof of 'incitement.'
Counter-Rule 5 · Dignity as Armor
Do not supply the angry reaction the ridicule is fishing for. Composure denies it the thing it feeds on.
When you retell this case — in a Sunday school class, a letter, a social post — answer the smear with the record rather than with heat: the church was a state-sanctioned Three-Self congregation, the dispute began with a refusal to remove a rooftop cross, the couple's lawyers were dismissed, and a Jinhua court handed down long sentences in February 2016. Do not claim more than that, and do not repeat unverified numbers. Composure plus documentation is what denies the mockery its return.
Rule 3
“Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy.”
The fight the church chose was about a cross; the fight the state gave it was about accounting vouchers, ledgers, 'illegal business operation' and embezzlement — ground where pastors have no expertise and, having been denied counsel, no help either. Moving from religious-affairs regulation to financial crime lets officials avoid ever defending the demolition order in public.
Counter-Rule 3 · Preparation and Width
Prepare the unfamiliar ground before you are dragged onto it. "I don't know, I'll find out and come back" beats an improvised answer.
Prepare the unglamorous ground before it is used against you: ask your own church treasurer or finance committee this month whether the books are independently reviewed or audited, whether property permits and minutes are filed and retrievable, and who the congregation would call for counsel if a permit or tax question arrived. When you speak about this case, say 'I don't know, I'll find out' about the financial allegations rather than improvising a defense — then go find the court and monitoring records.
Chapter 3 sets out the rules; Chapter 15 answers each of them in turn. This is that pairing applied to this story.
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