The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has activated measures to drastically restrict the availability of Christian content on the internet, Open Doors reported this week.
Last December, China’s State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA) announced its upcoming “Measures for the Administration of Internet Religious Information Services,” a series of regulations designed to eliminate any online religious message that fails to conform to the principles of the CCP.
Without express government permission, no organization or individual “shall preach on the Internet, carry out religious education and training, publish sermon content, forward or link to related content, organize and conduct religious activities on the Internet, or live broadcast or post recorded videos of religious rituals,” the CCP declared at the time.
The new measures went into force on March 1 and the effects are already being felt by Christians throughout China, reported Open Doors, which monitors Christian persecution around the globe.
Online Christian ministry has been restricted to CCP-approved groups with special permits, which are only issued to state-controlled religious institutions, such as the Three Self Patriotic Movement.
The CCP has approved the state-sanctioned Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association and the Bishops’ Conference of the Catholic Church in China, for example, but not the underground Catholic Church faithful to Rome.
Hellbound and Down 