CHINA-RELIGION: ADMINISTRATIVE MEASURES FOR RELIGIOUS CLERGY IN CHINA CAME IN TO FORCE ON MAY 2

The “Administrative Measures of Religious Clergy” promulgated by China’s State Administration of Religious Affairs (SARA) on February 9, 2021, came into effect on May 1. The Administrative Measures comprise seven chapters and 52 articles, that define the “rights and obligations” of China’s religious clergy and regulate their behaviour. Article 3 states that religious clergy should “love the motherland, support the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and support the socialist system.” They should also “practice the core socialist values,” and adhere to the principle of “independence and self-management of religion” and the “direction of the localization of religions.” Almost immediately after the implementation of these “Administrative Measures,” on May 2, a video and several photos taken in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, went viral on the Internet showing a local Christian clergyman preaching using a local dialect, and quoting the Bible to explain Xi Jinping’s political propaganda slogan, which includes “the main mission during the era of Xi Jinping.” Radio Free Asia on May 4 quoted Pastor Liu Yi, now living in California who is also the founder of the Chinese Christian Fellowship of Righteousness, as commenting that many so-called Christian pastors and preachers are "not preaching the Bible, but rather, the propaganda of the Communist Party.”





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