ICC Note: To avoid accusations of violating religious freedom, China uses civil law as a guise to shut down churches. Through the use of unfair licensing requirements and new restrictive regulations, the church in China is experiencing its strongest persecution in recent decades.

09/07/2018 China (World Watch Monitor) – China’s churches are experiencing the worst persecution in forty years with a government which uses ‘non-religious reasons’ and civil law to close houses of worship, according to the US-based St Charles Institute.

Pressure is applied “through opaque queries of fire protection measures, by questioning the legality of printed materials used by the church, through harsh and unfair applications of business licensing requirements, and so on. The common feature of these legal tactics is the effort to close houses of worship for “non-religious reasons,” and in so doing, sidestep the accusation of suppressing religious freedom,” the Christian rights agency said.

Under the revised religious regulations, that came into force on 1 February, religious organizations in China have to register with authorities to be able to meet and to establish a place for religious activities.

The punishment for refusing to do so ranges from harassment to closure or destruction of church buildings.

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