According to a watchdog group, Christians in China who have been persecuted throughout last year have seen the pressure escalating as the Chinese Communist Party has clamped down on churches and online religious content while demanding allegiance to Chinese President Xi Jinping.
U.S.-based non-governmental organisation ChinaAid warned that the Chinese government is using charges of “fraud” to financially suffocate the house church movement, which consists of Christian congregations that have not registered with China’s official Protestant church.
Authorities are using the traditional Christian practise of giving tithes and offerings to trump up charges against house churches under the “Measures for the Financial Management of Religious Activity Venues,” which were updated last June, according to the report.
The report also notes that multiple house church pastors and elders have been jailed and could potentially face years in prison.
Bob Fu, ChinaAid president and founder, said in a statement that his organisation is also “gravely concerned” with how state-sanctioned churches are being treated in China, which has approximately 96.7 million Christians, this according to persecution watchdog Open Doors.
“By using the new measures against religious content online and the infamous “zero-COVID” policy, authorities limited or eliminated Christian gatherings,” said Fu.
ChinaAid said that the Chinese government is also trying to “remove Christianity from cyberspace” by cracking down on Christian websites and apps.
The report said that since the “Administrative Measures for Internet Religious Information and Services” were put into place in 2022, there has been a “never-before-seen” level of censorship of online Christian content, even in group chats.
CathAssist, which became China’s first Christian phone app in 2013, was among those that were shut down under the new regulations because they were unable to obtain a license. ChinaAid’s report said the app “did not meet the government’s requirements for the license, despite having taken various actions, including suspending sharing, changing its name, and modifying content.”
Fu also said that the Chinese government has been demanding loyalty to the Communist Party for a long time, but in the last few years, it has been putting more emphasis on loyalty to Jinping.
“Before, during, and after the opening of the Congress, China’s state-run religious groups lavished compliments and praise on Xi with more extravagant words and phrases than China’s state-run media, showing that religious Sinicization is evolving from supporting the CCP to worshipping and pledging allegiance to Xi Jinping,” the report said.
“Their goal is not only to curate a ‘socialist-friendly’ church; they hope to erase it,” said Fu. “The international community needs to know about these trends and developments as China continues to rise on the global stage.”
Source: Fox News