ICC Note:

China is enforcing a new policy of requiring churches to install CCTV cameras inside and outside their buildings. A Catholic priest said that Zhejiang province had issued notices to all of their churches in their region by March 15th that they were required to allow the installation. This not only applies to church building, but to underground churches as well. Churches have also been required to fly the national flag. These are the latest in an attempt by the Chinese government to “maintain social order.” This move follows a cross removal campaign in which roughly 1,700 crosses were removed from churches.

3/22/2017 China (UCA News) – China’s ruling Communist Party has stepped up efforts to control the number of Christians by forcing Catholic and Protestant churches in the heavily Christian province of Zhejiang to install CCTV cameras inside and outside their buildings.

The government wants the underground and open Catholic communities in Zhejiang’s Wenzhou Diocese to install surveillance cameras in their parish compounds by the end of March.

The authorities had already sent some technicians to install CCTV cameras starting in 2016 to “maintain social order,” Father Francis, an underground priest, told ucanews.com. By March 15, all the parishes that Father Francis serves had received installation notices.

…