The suppression of religious belief in China continues to deepen, with a “full-scale institutional restructuring” making many church activities illegal on grounds of national security, according to new research.
According to ChinaAid’s annual report concerning religious freedom in China for 2025, the nation’s government has moved from a “high-pressure stability maintenance” model to a new approach of “institutional reconstruction”, which has seen them embed control over religious activity “into the core of regime operations” through a variety of legal, technological, cultural and international means.
The report reveals how they have implemented laws making many ordinary religious activities, including online sermons, Bible distribution and house church services, illegal, with underground churches and unregistered faith groups specifically targeted for persecution.
The report’s key findings disclosed various points of concern, including that the state’s religious policies have been altered to become “a highly institutionalised and technocratic system of repression”, and that much normal religious activity has been banned under the “legal guise”, on grounds of anti-espionage laws and supposed national security and infiltration concerns. China’s rulers have also sought to redefine religious practices, dictating that their beliefs, locations and officials must “align with the Party” or face opposition and potential closure.
Additionally, the authorities are also using various technological methods to oppose religious groups who do not align with Chinese Communist Party values, including facial recognition, data tracking and content filtering. They are also preventing organisations from having any correspondence with religious contacts out of the country, in an attempt to leave the Chinese church “isolated in terms of information, resources and international support”.
The report’s summary said: “This systemic suppression is not merely an attack on individual groups but a strategic reconfiguration and domestication of the entire religious ecosystem.”
