China New Restrictions On Christian Contents On The Internet To Commence March 1st 2022

China New Restrictions On Christian Contents On The Internet To Commence March 1st 2022

According to a source, the Chinese Communist Party, which has been chastised for targeting Christians and exerting its internet censorship power through huge tech companies, is imposing even more limitations on individuals’ religious freedom with a new rule governing online religious content.

Bitter Winter, a newspaper created by the Center for Studies on New Religion that studies human rights concerns in China, states that the new regulation, known as Administrative Measures for Internet Religious Information Services, which was promulgated last month, will be enacted on March 1.

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Any religious organization that wants to spread religious content on the internet must get an “Internet Religious Information Service License” under the law. However, it states that only “legally created” organizations can do so, implying that only organisations affiliated with China’s five official religions can use the internet to transmit religious content.

China New Restrictions On Christian Contents On The Internet

Open Doors the USA, which covers persecution in over 60 countries, estimates that China has more than 97 million Christians, many of whom worship in unregistered or so-called “illegal” underground churches.

The five state-sanctioned religious groups in China are the Buddhist Association of China, the Chinese Taoist Association, the Islamic Association of China, the Protestant Three-Self Patriotic Movement and the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association.

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Even the organizations within the five authorized religions are subject to surveillance and limitations, Bitter Winter reports.

“[T]hey can broadcast sermons and classes, but these will be examined by the authorities for their ‘Sinicized’ content, to ensure that they promote socialist principles and support the party, and are not meant as proselytization instruments,” according to the new law. Only their students may receive content from religious universities and colleges via the internet. Any attempt to ‘induce minors to believe in religion’ or promote religious content to minors will result in the license being revoked.”

China New Restrictions On Christian Contents On The Internet

Sharing photographs or remarks on “religious rites such as worshipping Buddha, burning incense, taking ordination, chanting, worship, mass, and baptisms” will be strictly forbidden without the license.

President Xi Jinping has complained that prohibiting the use of the internet to “advertise” religion is insufficient to prevent “religious propaganda.”

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When a new set of religious laws went into force in China last May, communist officials took down Bible apps and Christian WeChat public accounts, including “Gospel League” and “Life Quarterly,” according to the United States-based persecution watchdog International Christian Concern.

The state-sanctioned Three-self churches’ bookstores were increasingly selling literature that promoted President Xi Jinping’s ideas and communist doctrine, according to the ICC.

China New Restrictions On Christian Contents On The Internet

According to China Aid, internet restriction against Christians in China grew so severe in October 2020 that even officially sanctioned Christian organisations began using the Chinese Pinyin letters “JD” to replace Chinese characters for “Christ.”