Citing a late-December ruling by CCP leaders, China Aid reports a deadline has been set for March 1 for the nation’s five approved religions to obtain an “Internet Religious Information Service License” in order to disseminate religious content on the Internet.
Those five recognized religions, China Aid says, are already policed by the CCP and allowed to post only State-approved content. This new license means that freedom-robbing censorship will only tighten.
Jonathan Dingler of China Aid tells American Family News the crackdown is coming from China’s top leader, President Xi Jinpin, who has said he views religious influence as a “thorn” in his country.
“But it's really just with religious content being on the Internet, it's spreading Christianity and these other religions,” Dingler says, “which usurp the authority of the Chinese Communist Party. And I think that's something they've been afraid of.”
Religion and faith have always been Enemy No. 1 of communist regimes, where the masses are taught the State is their god, and where intimidation, arrest, torture, and murder have attempted – but failed – to stamp out religious beliefs.
China is reportedly home to tens of millions of Christian believers.
According to China Aid, the new licensing law threatens to yank Internet access if a state-approved religious university, for example, is accused of “inducing” minors to follow its beliefs.
According to Dingler, the CCP is “infamous” for monitoring its own citizens via the Internet, and through apps such as WeChat. So it is not difficult to predict hated Christians and other religions will be watched even more closely in coming months. A violation, he says, means a jail cell and torture.
