China planning further crackdown on religious groups: Report
Dec 15, 2021
Taipei [Taiwan], December 16 : China is pushing forward with amending the Chinese Communist Party's doctrine on the religious policy as it tightens control on religious groups throughout the country, Taiwanese media reported.
According to Taiwan News, a recent report by China Christian Daily covered a two-day conference held in Beijing earlier this month with CCP cadres who insisted on "sinicising religion in China" and prepared a range of new ideological concepts aimed at doing so.
According to the report, the emphasis was also reportedly placed on guiding religion to "adapt to the socialist society."
The new push comes after authorities arrested Christians from the Early Rain Qingcaodi Church in the Sichuanese city of Deyang last month, according to a ChinaAid report.
Among those rounded up on "fraud," charges were Church pastors, community leaders, and volunteers.
The church is a faction of the Western China Reformed Presbytery group and has been under pressure from the government for years.
The trouble really began after a former elder in the church signed a joint statement in 2018 calling for the freedom of Christian churches throughout the country.
The statement eventually garnered signatures from over 400 Chinese pastors. Many were later tracked down and faced criminal charges or were jailed, per a Licas report.
In March 2021, provincial authorities in Sichuan put the Early Rain Qingcaodi Church on their blacklist of illegal organizations. Now their leadership has been taken in, the church has been forced to go underground.
