Christians in China are facing a new digital crackdown by the government, as it seeks to control every type of content that churches post on the internet.
The country’s unregistered house churches have gone online to worship, and to survive the pandemic and persecution. Now they are having even that avenue of support stripped away, according to persecuted church agency Release International. The measure will hit churches, seminaries and many other ministries.
Late last year, the Chinese Government announced that all religious information on the internet will be forbidden, unless organisations wanting to post content first obtained government permission. This is simply not a viable option for those house churches.
China Aid says all religious content posted on the internet – every word, image and video – must now be approved by the authorities. Failure to obtain that approval will result in the government simply shutting down the church’s internet service. ‘This indicates that the Chinese Government has dramatically tightened its control on religion. Implementing these new regulations will severely crack down on freedom of speech and religion which is – in theory – protected by the [Chinese] Constitution.’
The Global Times explained that, without specific permission, a church organisation or individual will be forbidden from carrying out missionary work online, conducting religious education and training, publishing preaching content or posting online live or recorded religious services.
Release International said: ‘During a Covid outbreak, one church leader said let’s have a time of prayer and fasting, and he put that online. He was then arrested. China is a totalitarian state which seeks to control its citizens. What it can’t control, it fears, and then simply tightens its controls on it. And there are literally millions of online police spies. They report any suspicious online religious activity. So even a prayer meeting could be detected and sometimes reported, and homes could and will be raided.’
