This week is significant for Christians worldwide, including myself, as we commemorate Jesus Christ’s death and sacrifice on Good Friday and celebrate his resurrection on Easter Sunday. However, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has announced new regulations that will severely restrict foreign missionaries in China starting May 1. Citing the need to combat “extremism” and protect national security, these measures threaten religious freedoms.
Under the new regulation, foreign missionaries must obtain government approval for lectures, sermons, and group activities, facing a burdensome application process that details the date, time, location, and attendees.
Additionally, the regulation includes a comprehensive set of restrictions that prohibit foreign missionaries from engaging in activities such as “Recruiting religious believers among Chinese citizens and appointing religious clergy,” “Organizing and carrying out religious education and training,” “accepting religious donations from Chinese organizations and citizens,” and producing, distributing, and selling religious materials. Violators of these restrictions may face criminal charges depending on the severity of the offense. According to Breitbart, this new regulation is designed to formally end foreign missionary activities in China.
The new regulation is the latest example of the CCP’s deep-seated animosity toward all religions, especially Christianity. Between the 1980s and early 2000s, China’s Christian population surged significantly, with estimates in 2018 indicating it may range from 100 to 200 million — outnumbering the nearly 100 million members of the CCP itself. The CCP, an atheist organization, is alarmed by the rapid growth of Christians. One of the CCP’s worst fears is that the devotion to God could erode loyalty to the party and thus threaten its very legitimacy. As a result, the CCP sees Christianity as an existential threat.
Since assuming leadership of the CCP in 2013, Xi Jinping has implemented a three-pronged strategy against all religions, particularly Christianity. This strategy involves the sinicization of religion, which entails aligning religion with Chinese culture and communism, and ensuring loyalty to the CCP. It also includes the ruthless persecution of religious believers who refuse to conform to the sinicization of religion and instead remain steadfast in their actual religious beliefs and practices. The third leg of this strategy is using laws and regulations to curb the future growth and expansion of religion.
A well-known instance of the sinicization of Christianity is the CCP’s insistence on selecting Catholic bishops. This practice clearly violates the Catholic Church’s principle that only the pope has the authority to appoint bishops. Other examples of Sinicization include authorities’ instruction that both Catholic and Protestant congregations must prioritize patriotism over religion. In some impoverished areas, local officials compelled villagers to replace posters of Jesus with portraits of Xi Jinping and Chairman Mao, despite Mao in particular being responsible for the worst mass murders in human history. Additionally, the CCP reportedly has plans to “retranslate and annotate the Bible to align with socialism and establish a correct understanding of the text.”
Hellbound and Down 