(ETH) – China is so hell-bent on destroying Christianity that the Communist authorities in China have now reportedly abducted and tortured a 46-year-old priest in the southeastern province of Fujian for refusing to join the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, according to a report from the Christian Post.

Bitter Winter, which is a magazine publication that reports on religious liberty and human rights in China state that Father Liu Maochun from the Diocese of Mindong was ruthlessly tortured.  The details of the report indicated that Officers banged a “gong beside his ear and shone a bright light into his eyes for several consecutive days—a torture method known as ‘exhausting an eagle’ when people are deprived of sleep for a long time,”

Then Liu Maochun, who assists the diocese’s auxiliary bishop Guo Xijin, was then taken away by Chinese police on Sept. 1st while he was visiting patients in a hospital. He was then taken to a detention house in the county-level city of Fu’an. “The government claimed that Fr. Liu Maochun has disobeyed its rule and was ‘ideologically radical,’” the source was quoted as saying.

The Bishop also refused to join the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, This comes as the government had earlier pressured one of the deacons in the diocese, threatening to demolish his house and sack his children if he further supported Guo’s refusal to join the Patriotic Church, according to the shocking report. The report also stated that Fr. Maochun may have shared information with foreign media about another priest, Fr. Huang, who too was tortured for not joining the Patriotic Church. China continues cracking down on underground churches and Christian activists and has been for years.