A Chinese vocational college has reportedly mandated students to declare themselves atheists through a mobile app required for enrollment, according to a recent report by ChinaAid. The app, used by Tianjin Vocational College of Mechanics and Electricity, instructs students to check “no religious belief” under the personal information section, effectively forcing them to deny any faith affiliation. The requirement, labeled as “Point 4” in the app’s guidelines, directly violates students’ freedom of religion and belief. This move aligns with the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) official atheist stance and its ongoing campaign to suppress religious expression, especially Christianity. Reports continue to emerge of crosses being removed from churches, Bibles censored, and images of Jesus or Mary replaced with portraits of President Xi Jinping—all under the CCP’s policy of “sinicization,” which demands that religion conform to party ideology.

According to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), Chinese authorities target both Protestant and Catholic believers by enforcing propaganda, rewriting religious materials, and compelling clergy to preach party loyalty. Minors under 18 are barred from attending religious services, Bible camps, or Sunday school, while schools aggressively promote atheism and encourage children to join CCP-affiliated youth groups. President Xi has openly described Christianity as a potential tool of “foreign infiltration” and has urged the nation to ensure that all religions become “thoroughly Chinese.” The growing hostility toward faith in China reveals a government determined to replace worship of God with allegiance to the state—a fulfillment of the authoritarian impulse to control not just actions, but conscience itself.

SOURCE: ICC