China on Monday (Sept. 15) published regulations that forbid online religious content on unapproved platforms and use of the internet to instruct children or form youth groups, among other restrictions.
Based on prior laws and regulations, the articles released by the National Religious Affairs Administration significantly restrict faith content online, religious rights magazine Bitter Winter reported.
“This is not the first time China has tightened its grip on religious life, but it may be one of the most technologically invasive,” the group reported. “In the age of digital ministry, where sermons stream and prayers ping, the regulation feels like a deliberate attempt to unplug the sacred from the social.”
In a translation of the regulations by Bitter Winter, Article 5 states that clergy may only preach or provide religious education and online training through registered religious organizations’ websites, applications, forums and platforms that have an “Internet Religious Information Services License.”
“Personal social media accounts, livestreams, WeChat groups or informal forums are strictly off-limits for religious instruction,” the online magazine noted. “Self-promotion is banned, and clergy may not use religious identity to attract followers or traffic. Foreign entanglements are forbidden: no supporting or participating in ‘overseas religious infiltration.’”
Article 10 forbids clergy from spreading religious ideas to minors or “inducing beliefs” in them through the internet and bans organizing children to participate in religious education, training and camps.
“Clergy may not evangelize to underage users or organize youth religious camps or training,” Bitter Winter reported. “Commercialization is a no-go. There should be no fundraising, selling religious merchandise, or monetizing religious activities online. AI evangelism is also off the table. Clergy may not use generative AI to produce or disseminate religious content.”
Violators may face administrative penalties, including suspension of religious credentials, closure of online accounts and criminal investigation, Bitter Winter noted.
“Platforms hosting non-compliant content may be ordered to restrict, warn or shut down offending accounts,” it stated.
As with regulations for “Sinicizing” in-person religious teaching, the regulations for online instruction require ideological alignment. Article 7 of the regulations states, “All information produced, copied, stored, published and shared by religious personnel via the internet must not contain content that incites subversion of state power, opposes the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, undermines the socialist system, national unity, ethnic harmony, social stability, or interferes with the enforcement of national judicial, educational, marriage, and social management systems.”
“Clergy are required to uphold the leadership of the Communist Party, promote socialist values, and support the “Sinicization” of religion – a term that, in practice, means aligning religious doctrine with state ideology,” Bitter Winter stated. “In other words, religious expression must be patriotic, party-friendly and culturally sanitized, a ‘preaching with Chinese characteristics.’”
The regulations effectively criminalize spontaneous religious expression online, isolate clergy from international religious discourse and subject faith speech to state censors, the rights magazine asserted.
The regulations apply to all national and foreign clergy whose content reaches China, including Hong Kong and Macau, as well as Taiwan, according to Bitter Winter. Article 8 states clergy “must not collude with foreign forces over the internet, nor support or participate in foreign religious infiltration activities.”
Article 6 requires clergy to resist online negativity and forbids them from self-promotion or using religious topics and content to attract attention and traffic. Nor should religious leaders say anything that could offend another; in Article 12’s ban on false information, clergy “shall not incite discord” or “create confrontation.”
“They shall avoid destroying harmonious coexistence between different religions and within the same religion and shall not discriminate against or insult religious or non-religious citizens,” Article 12 states.
Article 13 states that, except through registered channels as specified in Article 5, clergy shall not preach through live broadcasts, short videos, online meetings, WeChat groups, WeChat Moments, etc., nor “organize or participate in online religious activities such as ceremonies, worship, and masses, as well as religious rituals such as burning incense, offering to Buddha, chanting scriptures, receiving precepts, and baptism…”
The article also forbids leaders from carrying out online learning and training with religious overtones or content, such as “meditation,” “purification” and “healing.”
The ban on fund-raising appears in Article 14, which states religious leaders must not generate income online, solicit donations digitally in the name of building religious venues or conduct religious activities; nor can they organize or engage in business activities such as product marketing, live streaming, offering rewards or participating in “commercial performances and performing arts activities.”
A blunt prohibition against clergy distributing or sharing internal religious publications or “illegal publications” through the internet occurs in Article 15.
If the regulations are violated, Article 17 provides that the Religious Affairs Department shall order them to correct their behavior within a specified period; if they refuse, the department shall, with the Internet Information Office, the Telecommunications Department, public security organs, state security organs and other relevant departments, impose penalties according to applicable laws and regulations.
“In severe cases, the department shall recommend that the relevant religious group, religious school, or activity venue suspend their religious activities or revoke the clergy’s status, holding accountable those responsible,” Article 17 states. “If violating clergy are registered users on an online religious information platform, the department shall collaborate with the Internet Information Office and public security organs to require the platform provider to take measures such as warnings, corrections, restrictions or account closures in accordance with law and contract.”
Even “religious clergy who engage in online activities through overseas website platforms must comply with these regulations,” Article 18 states. “Religious clergy from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, as well as foreign religious clergy, should refer to these regulations when conducting online activities within the country.”
China ranked 15th on Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List of the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian.
