Chinese authorities have launched a new strategy to limit religious activities considered illegal. According to the newspaper ‘China Christian Daily’, in Heilongjiang province, located in the northeast of the country, a system of rewards for those who make these reports came into effect recently, and may receive a sum of up to 1,000 yuan, in other words, around 130 euros.
This system aims to detect the illegal infiltration of foreigners, but may also allow access to communist authorities on “unauthorized transregional activities, preaching and distribution of printed religious works and audiovisual products outside places of worship”, as well as “unauthorized donations, or meetings in private homes”.
Complaints can be made by phone, ’email’ or by letter. In the most recent report published by the ACN on religious freedom in China and published in April this year, this country is experiencing “the most serious repression since the Cultural Revolution”. “Politics is more centralized, repression is more intense and widespread, and technology is being perfected for the creation of a surveillance state”, according to the aforementioned report.
The report recognizes that “under the current leadership of Xi Jinping, prospects for religious freedom, and human rights in general, are becoming increasingly fragile” and that “without significant political liberalization in sight, repression and persecution will continue and, with the instruments of modern technology, will become even more intrusive and pervasive.”