The Chinese government announced an updated set of regulations to govern the religious activities of foreign personnel. These regulations went into effect on May 1 and apply to all foreigners living in or visiting China and their religious activities.
Under Xi…steps toward liberalization have ended and even reversed…. Xi has removed term limits on his rule, called upon the media to serve the party, arrested outspoken lawyers and feminists, and renewed pressure on house and official churches; all sectors…have fallen under the CCP’s oversight and control.
Despite China’s growing global economic power, it is becoming increasingly closed and hostile to foreign influence from outside and foreign people inside the country. How, then, does the church in China maintain ties with the global church? We remain open to the leading of the Holy Spirit and pray for discernment to interact wisely with Chinese brothers and sisters.
One…reason for [the] drop in the number of publications [is] the measures introduced to combat the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in…less direct contact. However…the decline started before the arrival of the pandemic and secondly, the Communist Party had…been busy for many years…to control the information environment, even before the watershed 2018 regulations came into force.
References for your further reading that cover national level changes in China in regulations and administrative measures pertaining directly to religion.
What's really new in the "new normal" of today's China?
Chinese Christians are asking how they should respond to the new religious regulations. Here is one pastor's response.
Much has been written the past few weeks about the draft revision to the Regulations on Religious Affairs, the main policy document that spells out how religion is to be managed in China.
In April of this year, President Xi Jinping gave a speech at a national conference on religion in which he outlined his vision for the role religion can and should play in Chinese society. As is often the case with speeches from top leaders, his themes were painted in broad strokes, with very little specifics. Those are typically revealed in subsequent regulations.