CHINA
CRACKS DOWN: On Tuesday, March 1st, China enacted a new law that bans
online house churches by mandating that all religious groups have a
license to post religious internet content.
China’s new “Measures
for the Administration of Internet Religious Information Services”
states that without a license “no organization or individual may upload
teachings on the Internet, conduct religious education and training,
publish lectures and sermons, or forward or link religion-related
content.”
A new “Internet Religious Information Service License”
will only be granted to Christian groups that belong to state-approved
religious organizations: the Protestant Three-Self Patriotic Movement
and the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association.
Approved
religious groups with licenses will still be monitored by the Chinese
Communist Party (CCP). Churches that drift from CCP values and China’s
“sinicization” campaign will lose their licenses and their ability to
post content online.
Groups and individuals that do not belong to
a state-approved organization are barred from getting a license. They
will be banned from posting and sharing religious online content, such
as photos, videos and livestreams of prayer meetings or baptisms.
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