• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Elizabeth Scalia
          • Michael R. Heinlein
          • Effie Caldarola
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Mark Viviano
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
        • CR Radio
        • Protagonistas de Fe
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
A computer network cable is seen above a Chinese flag in this July 12, 2017, illustration photo. The Chinese Communist Party is seeking to expand its apparatus to monitor and curb religious activities in cyberspace through training and deploying hundreds of "auditors" across the country, triggering concerns from rights groups. (CNS photo/Thomas White, Reuters)

China deploys hundreds of auditors to monitor religious activities online

July 6, 2022
By Catholic News Service
Catholic News Service
Filed Under: News, Religious Freedom, World News

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

HONG KONG (CNS) — The Chinese Communist Party is seeking to expand its apparatus to monitor and curb religious activities in cyberspace through training and deploying hundreds of “auditors” across the country, triggering concerns from rights groups.

Under the guidance of the Communist Party, the Ethnic and Religious Commission of Guangdong Province in southern China held a test for the first group of auditors for the state-run Internet Religious Information Services in early June, the China Christian Daily reported.

Ucanews.com, reporting on the China Christian Daily story, said the result of the test was announced at the end of June and showed 127 people qualified for auditor posts.

The Internet Religious Information Services agency was formed in March after China’s State Administration for Religious Affairs announced the “Administrative Measures for Internet Religious Information Services” late last year.

The measures have been formulated by several state agencies in line with existing legislation in China such as the “Cybersecurity Law of the People’s Republic of China,” “Administrative Measures for Internet Information Services,” and the revised “Regulations on Religious Affairs.”

International Christian Concern, a U.S.-based Christian rights group, termed the move to deploy auditors as a “part of a wider effort to crack down on the spreading of religious information online.”

The regulation concerning internet religious information services insists on “the integration of the protection of citizens’ freedom of religion with the maintenance of national ideological security, and the combination of the safeguarding of the legitimate rights and interests of religious believers with the practice of core socialist values,” John Wang, a reporter and commentator for the China Christian Daily, wrote Dec. 23, 2021.

Besides detailing measures for standardizing internet-based religious information services, the regulation says online preaching should be organized and performed by religious groups, religious schools, temples, and churches that have obtained an “Internet Religious Information Service License.”

No organization or individual is allowed to carry out virtual missionary work and religious education and training, post the content of sermons or forward related content except for conditions specified in Articles 15 and 16 of the regulation, Wang said. It also bans organizing, live broadcasts and recordings of online religious activities.

Despite recognizing the legal presence of five religions — Buddhism, Islam, Taoism, Catholicism and Protestantism — China controls all religious activities through state-sanctioned bodies that report to communist officials at local and central levels.

Since President Xi Jinping came to power, both legal and illegal religious groups have been facing a renewed crackdown under the pretext of several policies, including the 2018 Regulation on Religious Affairs.

In its latest religious freedom report, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom criticized China for the deterioration of religious freedom conditions.

“The communist Chinese government has created a high-tech surveillance state, utilizing facial recognition and artificial intelligence to monitor and harass Christians, Tibetan Buddhists, Falun Gong and other religions,” the commission noted.

Independent experts estimate that between 900,000 and 1.8 million Uighur, Kazakh, Kyrgyz and other Muslims have been detained in more than 1,300 concentration camps in Xinjiang, it added.

Read More Religious Freedom

Kidnapped Nigerian priest who served in Alaska freed

Huckabee demands Israel punish settlers for ‘act of terror’ on West Bank church

Myanmar opposition court sentences 9 men to 20 years for killing priest

FBI to investigate anti-Catholic, antisemitic vandalism at Pittsburgh area church

Proof of life for kidnapped Nigerian priest received by Alaska diocese where he served

Mahmoud v. Taylor: A Supreme Court victory for parents, freedom

Copyright © 2022 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

Print Print

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

Primary Sidebar

Catholic News Service

Click here to view all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • Prince of Peace merges with St. Francis de Sales in Harford County

  • Detroit archbishop fires theologians Ralph Martin, Eduardo Echeverría from seminary

  • Construction underway on new north addition to St. Joseph’s Nursing Home 

  • Archdiocese of Baltimore offers resources for parishes to assist migrants

  • Archbishop Wenski leads Knights on Bikes to pray rosary at Alligator Alcatraz

| Latest Local News |

Archdiocese of Baltimore offers resources for parishes to assist migrants

Third annual gun buyback scheduled for Aug. 9

Driver arrested after crashing into entrance of Esperanza Center

Construction underway on new north addition to St. Joseph’s Nursing Home 

Prince of Peace merges with St. Francis de Sales in Harford County

| Latest World News |

Jubilee of Youth chance to celebrate hope, fraternity in world at war, panel says

New York archdiocese sees hundreds of responses to ‘Called By Name’ program

Can’t afford a Catholic college? Think again. Many offer full tuition options

Detroit archbishop fires theologians Ralph Martin, Eduardo Echeverría from seminary

LA archbishop, joined by business leaders, starts fund to help families affected by ICE raids

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Jubilee of Youth chance to celebrate hope, fraternity in world at war, panel says
  • New York archdiocese sees hundreds of responses to ‘Called By Name’ program
  • Can’t afford a Catholic college? Think again. Many offer full tuition options
  • Detroit archbishop fires theologians Ralph Martin, Eduardo Echeverría from seminary
  • LA archbishop, joined by business leaders, starts fund to help families affected by ICE raids
  • FBI surveilled SSPX priest amid probe of suspected neo-Nazi’s plans for violence
  • Poland’s ‘living memorial’ to St. John Paul II marks 25 years of transforming lives
  • Our faith is not afraid of questions
  • Catholic ‘American Ninja Warrior’ fights world hunger, one obstacle at a time

Search

Membership

Catholic Media Assocation

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2025 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

en Englishes Spanish
en en