China Aid, which reports on religious freedom issues in China, said late last week that the new restrictions are aimed at dispersing Christian house churches and silencing Tibetan and Xinjiang separatists.

The Revised Draft of Regulations on Religious Affairs is expected to formally come into effect early in October, and includes prohibitions on “organizing citizens to attend religious training, conferences and activities abroad,” “preaching, organizing religious activities, and establishing religious institutions or religious sites at schools,” and “providing religious services through the internet.”

In order to combat what the government describes as terrorism and the influence of foreign powers, the new restrictions will also make it harder to accept teaching posts in foreign countries, or for house churches to gather for worship services.

“The government wants to control everything, even the smallest aspects. One characteristic of this draft is the empowerment of local government bodies all the way down to the communities,” one pastor, identified as Zhou, told China Aid.

“This revision will further reduce the possibility of loosening religious control in China. It is becoming impossible.”

Pastor Gao Baosheng of a U.S.-based Chinese church added that the laws “are becoming more and more specific and detailed when suppressing Christian family churches, Catholicism, and all other underground religions.”

Gao warned that the regulations will serve as a legal base for future suppression.

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