(LifeSiteNews) — China has banned unauthorized online religious services, including streamed liturgies and children’s catechesis, from both Chinese natives and foreigners.
The new regulations, published September 15, are the latest blow against religious freedom in China and part of its ongoing process of “sinicization,” the subordination of all religious activity in the country to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The Code of Conduct aims “to standardize the online behavior of religious clergy,” per its text, published by China News Network.
“Religious teachers and officials who carry out online behavior should love the motherland, support the leadership of the Communist Party of China, support the socialist system, abide by national laws and regulations,” Article 2 of the Code states.
Minors in China are special targets of religious suppression and have not been allowed to attend religious services, receive catechesis, or otherwise participate in formal religious activities under its constitution. The new Code of Conduct seeks to quash a potential loophole in this rule by forbidding these activities for minors online as well.
“Religious teachers shall not instill religious ideas to minors through the Internet, induce religious belief, or organize minors to participate in religious education and training, summer (winter) camps, etc., or organize or force minors to participate in religious activities,” the Code states.
The streaming of Masses and transmission of evangelization and religious materials online conducted through platforms without an Internet Religious Information Service License have also been banned.
Unauthorized “preach(ing) through online live broadcasts, short videos, online meetings,” and “online Dharma meetings, worship, Mass and other religious activities” are prohibited.
Or may Chinese nationals cooperate in foreign religious activities aimed at people in their own country: “Religious teachers shall not collude with foreign forces through the Internet to support and participate in overseas religious infiltration activities,” the Code stipulates.
Raising funds online in order to build centers for religious activities is banned as well.
“If religious teachers and officials violate this code, the religious affairs department shall order them to make corrections within a time limit; if they refuse to make corrections, the religious affairs department shall … punish them in accordance with the provisions of relevant laws and administrative regulations,” the Code warns.
Catholic clerics in China told The Pillar that the Code threatens Catholics, even if they are not the main target of the suppressive policy.
“It’s possible that these (rules) are not even primarily aimed at (Catholics) but rather primarily intended to crack down on other religions and sects like Buddhism and the Falun Gong, and corrupt local officials soliciting overseas money,” one cleric said. “But it will still be easy for us to get killed in the crossfire.’
However, Catholics have already been directly and acutely targeted by China’s sinicization, including through recent arrests of religious and the shutdown of “underground” chapels where Masses have been offered. In fact, according to a July report from the magazine Bitter Winter, 90% of Catholic underground worship sites are now closed.
Another Chinese cleric told The Pillar that the Code could potentially criminalize standard episcopal communication with Rome.
“If you are a mainland bishop and you have any kind of ordinary communication with the Vatican which acknowledges Rome’s jurisdiction on ecclesiastical affairs, if you do it by email you could be found guilty of ‘foreign collusion,’” he said. “If any cleric was caught having anything to do with a missionary, that’s ‘infiltration.’ As always with these regulations, the aim is to criminalize anything from outside China.”
“We’re getting to the point where ordinary expressions of communion could be a national security breach,” the cleric warned.
