Yugan County () is a county in the north of

Jiangxi Jiangxi (; ; formerly romanized as Kiangsi or Chianghsi) is a landlocked province in the east of the People's Republic of China. Its major cities include Nanchang and Jiujiang. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze river in the north int ...

province,

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, containing part of the southern end of

Poyang Lake Poyang Lake (, Gan: Po-yong U), located in Jiujiang, is the largest freshwater lake in China. The lake is fed by the Gan, Xin, and Xiu rivers, which connect to the Yangtze through a channel. The area of Poyang Lake fluctuates dramatically be ...

. It is the westernmost

county-level division The administrative divisions of China have consisted of several levels since ancient times, due to China's large population and geographical area. The constitution of China provides for three levels of government. However in practice, there a ...

of the

prefecture-level city A prefecture-level city () or prefectural city is an administrative division of the People's Republic of China (PRC), ranking below a province and above a county in China's administrative structure. During the Republican era, many of China' ...

Shangrao Shangrao () is a medium-sized prefecture-level city located in the northeast of Jiangxi province, People's Republic of China. The city borders the province of Anhui to the north, the province of Zhejiang to the east, and the province of Fujian to t ...

Administrative divisions

In the present, Yugan County has 8 towns and 12 townships. ;8 towns ;12 townships

Demographics

The population of the district was in 1999.

Climate

Issues

In 2017, Christian villagers living there have been asked by the

Chinese government The Government of the People's Republic of China () is an authoritarian political system in the People's Republic of China under the exclusive political leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It consists of legislative, executive, mili ...

to replace religious artefacts with pictures of

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victoriou ...

general secretary Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...

Xi Jinping Xi Jinping ( ; ; ; born 15 June 1953) is a Chinese politician who has served as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), and thus as the paramount leader of China, s ...

. It is part of a poverty relief program funded by the

(CCP). According to ''Christianity Today'', "thousands of Christian villagers in China have been told to take down displays of Jesus, crosses, and gospel passages from their homes as part of a government propaganda effort to “transform believers in religion into believers in the party.”" It is found that some CPC members believe families’ faith is to blame for their financial woes, and the poster swaps in villagers’ homes represent the party’s desire to have residents look to their leaders, rather than their Savior, for assistance. SCMP, on the other hand, compares it to "a practice that hearkens back to the era of the personality cult around late chairman Mao Zedong, whose portraits were once ubiquitous in Chinese homes." In Huangjinbu Township, CCP cadres visited poor Christians’ homes and claimed that they had successfully "melted the hard ice in their hearts" while “transforming them from believing in religion to believing in the Party." As a result, more than 600 villagers “voluntarily” got rid of the religious texts and paintings they had in their homes while replacing them with 453 portraits of Xi. Qi Yan, member of the People's Congress at Huangjinbu, claimed that "it he programfocused on teaching Christian families how much the party had done to help eradicate poverty and how much concern Xi had shown for their well-being." He also claimed that "many poor households have plunged into poverty because of illness, and some resorted to believing in Jesus to cure their illnesses.” while also claiming that "the people who can really help them are the Communist Party and CCP General Secretary

.” A person named Liu told to

SCMP The ''South China Morning Post'' (''SCMP''), with its Sunday edition, the ''Sunday Morning Post'', is a Hong Kong-based English-language newspaper owned by Alibaba Group. Founded in 1903 by Tse Tsan-tai and Alfred Cunningham, it has remained ...

that "some villagers do not do it voluntarily", as opposed to what state media screamed. He also said that “they all have their belief and, of course, they didn’t want to take them down. But there is no way out. If they don’t agree to do so, they won’t be given their quota from the poverty-relief fund.” Three years later, from April 18 through April 30, 2020, 48 state-owned Three Self churches in the county was shut down by the government, also part of a crackdown on Christians in China. Furthermore, it is part of a five-year plan Xi announced at 2018. According to Barnabas Fund, "in a series of repressive measures, hundreds of “three-self” churches and “house churches” (i.e. unregistered congregations) have been closed, pastors have been arrested and imprisoned and surveillance cameras installed inside churches."

Notes and references

{{authority control Shangrao County-level divisions of Jiangxi