(Wuhan, Hubei Province – February 23, 2024) In a major city in China, the government-approved Committee of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement of the Protestant Churches in China and the China Christian Council, referred to as the “Two organizations of Christianity/Lianghui”, recently conducted a strict inspection of religious-related publications. A city-wide inspection of religious publications in churches has been conducted, and churches were prohibited from possessing “unofficial versions” of religious literature. It was stated that this action is done to ensure “ideological security.”
Members of the inspection team went deep into various churches and major venues for religious activities in the city to gain a detailed understanding of the channels for the obtainment and sales of religious publications at each venue, and to focus on checking whether there were unauthorized printing of books, newspapers, and internal informational publications, and whether there were cases of possession, retention, dissemination, or use of illegal publications. Additionally, they conducted propaganda on relevant laws, regulations, and policies.
The inspection team members requested that the responsible persons at each venue raise awareness, actively play their roles, educate believers to fully understand the harm of illegal religious publications, guide grassroots venues to consciously resist illegal religious publications, and ensure that unlawful religious publications are not printed, displayed, disseminated, but are promptly sealed and appropriately destroyed.
The specialized inspection, lasting half a month, visited 12 grassroots venues, with a total of 30 personnel conducting inspections.
The report stated: As of now, no illegal religious publications have been found in grassroots churches.
The inspection team stated that in the next step, the Christian community in Wuhan can expect “occasional visits to venues to be a normality,” there will also be annual inspections of publications, continuous purification of the cultural environment of grassroots venues, education of believers to stay away from illegal religious publications, and to ensure ideological security in the Christian ideological field of the city.
This inspection activity involves “illegal religious publications,” but there is no clear definition of what constitutes “illegal religious publications” and their scope. In China, due to extremely strict restrictions on religious publications, the types of books published by the Two Organizations of Christianity or Lianghui, headquartered in Shanghai, are very limited, and the variety of books is far from sufficient for in-depth reading of Chinese pastors or for the learning needs of believers.
If this type of inspection activity were to expand to the entire province or country, it would directly endanger the self-printed materials used by churches for non-profit learning, and the internal publications used for study, and restrict the circulation and use of unofficially printed theological materials. Strict restrictions on religious reading materials will affect the church’s understanding and contemplation of the Bible and theology.
According to the reports from the Two Organizations of Christianity or Lianghui of Wuhan, Hubei Province, the Two Organizations of Christianity conducted a specialized inspection on illegal religious publications, which lasted for half a month. This inspection was conducted in accordance with relevant laws and regulations such as the “Regulations on Religious Affairs” and the “Regulations on The Administration of Publication,” and in accordance with the requirements of the notice issued by the Hubei Provincial Two Organizations of Christianity on conducting self-inspection of illegal religious publications in its province.
The Two Organizations of Christianity of Wuhan, Hubei Province conducted inspections on the procurement, usage, and management of illegal religious publications, image products, and promotional materials in venues for Christian activities in the city; focusing on the inspection of theological books in churches and church periodicals.
