Such steep punishment for promoting and adhering to a religion is all too common in China today. Faith is increasingly under attack in President Xi Jinping’s China. As religious expression becomes more dangerous there, people around the world should be speaking up in defense of China’s persecuted believers.

In addition to Chen’s fine and imprisonment, the court ordered local police in the Zhejiang province to destroy 12,864 religious books from his online bookstore. Make no mistake—this is a regime that is deeply afraid of the growth of Christianity.

The estimated 100 million Christians in China make the eradication of Christianity from China difficult. Chairman Mao tried and was unsuccessful. President Xi prefers a more subtle tactic than Mao’s, a campaign to “Sinicize” religion to make it more compatible with the teachings of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).