Chinese believers face new obstacles
![Iain Taylor](/media/images/Mugshot_jpg.2e16d0ba.fill-32x32.format-webp.webp)
Iain Taylor
Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) reports that authorities in Chengdu, in China’s Sichuan Province, have employed a series of ‘unlawful expedients’ to prevent Christians taking part in an online prayer meeting.
The prayers were held to mark the fifth anniversary of a government campaign against the Early Rain Covenant Church (ERCC), when over 100 members were arrested.
China bans unregulated online worship
![Iain Taylor](/media/images/Mugshot_jpg.2e16d0ba.fill-32x32.format-webp.webp)
Iain Taylor
Christians in China are facing a new digital
crackdown by the government, as it seeks to
control every type of content that churches
post on the internet.
The country’s unregistered house churches
have gone online to worship, and to survive
the pandemic and persecution. Now they are
having even that avenue of support stripped
away, according to persecuted church agency
Release International. The measure will hit
churches, seminaries and many other ministries.
China monitors Christians via 415 million cameras
Iain Taylor / Open Doors
The camera lens homes in and maps the man’s face – measuring the space between his eyes, the distance between the nose and mouth, the angle of his cheekbones, the shape of his chin. Instantly, that data is converted into a string of numbers called a ‘faceprint’. His face is recognised and compared instantly with millions of other images on a database. His identity is confirmed, without him even knowing it.
Open Doors was one of the first to alert the world to the implications of this mass Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology that China has developed. It is now one of the most powerful surveillance tools – and potential Christian persecution tactics – ever devised. 415 million high-tech surveillance cameras, linked to China’s police database and eventually its new ‘social credit system’ which monitors the political loyalty of its citizens, have already been installed on streets and in public venues. A recent BBC News report revealed that the authorities now place QR codes outside the doors of people’s homes, so they can easily know who’s supposed to be there – and who isn’t.