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China: New Rules for Radio and TV Programs Ban Dissent, Religion

September 13, 2022

The Chinese Communist Party is working actively to destroy Christianity and replace it in the hearts, minds, and souls of the people of China.

For background on Orthodox Christianity in China, see here.

For previous ChristianPersecution.com coverage of the persecution of Christians in China, see here.

“China’s New Rules for Radio and TV Programs Ban Dissent, Religion,” by Zhou Kexin, Bitter Winter, September 9, 2022:

The State Administration of Radio and Television has published last month its new “Provisions on the Administration of Radio, Television, and Online A/V Program Production and Business.” The publication is called a “draft for solicitation of comments,” which might have been submitted until September 8. As usual, this exercise in pseudo-democracy will produce only minimal changes to the text (if any).

One after the other, all sectors of the Internet and of entertainment are being subject to stricter regulations, in accordance with comments by Xi Jinping himself, who has claimed that these sectors are “chaotic” and not fully controlled by the CCP.

Besides preventing foreigners from producing audiovisual programs for radio, TV, or Internet broadcasting in China, and limiting production to explicitly authorized companies only, the new regulations include a laundry list of prohibited content.

The most relevant items are included in numbers 1 to 6 of Article 18 of the new regulations, which states that, “The production or distribution of programs with the following content is prohibited:…

(E) being contrary to national religious policy, or promoting xie jiao and superstition;…

The usual formula excludes religion, since it refers to the “national religious policy” which prohibits religious activities and information through any media, unless specifically authorized, while any non-negative reference to groups banned as xie jiao or to the very broad field of “superstition”is prohibited.

Finally, the category of “endangering social morality, disturbing social order, undermining social stability” is a catch-all, authorizing the authorities to crack down on any dissent or criticism of the CCP, even if not explicitly listed.