The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has intensified its crackdown on Christianity, implementing new regulations that tighten control over both foreign missionaries and the worship practices of local believers. The updated laws strictly prohibit unapproved religious activity by foreigners and push government-approved churches to align their worship services with communist ideology. New mandates include rewriting hymns to glorify the CCP and requiring that songs praising communist leaders be sung before any worship directed at Christ. According to ChinaAid’s Bob Fu, believers in state-sanctioned churches must now participate in services that blend religious expression with government propaganda. Meanwhile, unregistered house churches and independent Catholic congregations face mounting pressure through arrests, closures, and coercive efforts to force them under the authority of state-managed institutions like the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) and the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA).

The CCP views independent religious activity as a threat to its ideological dominance and seeks to eliminate spiritual allegiance not sanctioned by the state. This has led to the replacement of traditional religious structures with Party-controlled alternatives that propagate communist doctrine, including the recent unilateral appointment of bishops in defiance of Vatican authority. Despite a 2018 secretive agreement between the Vatican and China aimed at cooperation on bishop selection, Beijing has continued to assert unilateral control over the Catholic Church in China. These developments are part of a larger pattern of surveillance, forced compliance, and religious persecution, with Christians among the many faith groups targeted. Surveillance technology is weaponized to track, monitor, and suppress those who worship outside the CCP's control. In China today, worship that is not tethered to the Party line is increasingly criminalized, creating an atmosphere where religious conviction is treated as subversion.

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SOURCE: International Christian Concern