In an article in the CCP mouthpiece People's Daily on September 12, 2017, Wang Zuoan, Head of China’s religious affairs bureau, commented on the new rules regarding religion and said “the foreign use of religion to infiltrate (China) intensifies by the day and religious extremist thought is spreading in some areas.” He said “Issues with religion on the internet are starting to break out ... and illegal religious gatherings in some places continue despite bans.” He added that while freedom of religious faith is protected by the new rules, “At the same time, freedom of religious faith is not equal to religious activities taking place without legal restrictions.” Religion in China, he said, needed to be “sinicized” and that “These rules will help maintain the sinicization of religion in our country ... and keep to the correct path of adapting religion to a socialist society.”
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