Communist authorities in a central Chinese province require Christians to fill out an online form to attend religious services.
Newsroom(10/03/2023 2:15 PM, Gaudium Press) China’s communist regime has invented a new way to control Christians who wish to participate in any religious ceremony in churches. They must register online through the “Smart Religion” application to obtain permission. Thus, believers must fill in personal information, including name, phone number, identification number, permanent residence, occupation, and date of birth, before making a reservation for the approval of the provincial religious department.
The app, developed by the Henan Province Ethnic and Religious Affairs Commission, does not allow religious keywords such as temple, mosque, Christianity and Catholicism.
Henan is the third most populous province and has one of the largest Christian populations in China. About seven million of the province’s more than 98 million inhabitants are Christian, according to official data.
According to ChinaAid, a Christian charity based in the United States, the number of Christians attending church services has dropped due to the requirement of this permit. The development and launch of this app is part of the Communist government’s efforts to “strictly manage religion comprehensively,” in part by collecting data on religious believers, and to get their followers to follow and implement the party’s ideologies and political purposes.
Compiled by Teresa Joseph
