Chinese authorities are reportedly developing a new app that will compel citizens to pre-register before attending religious services, Faithwire has quoted an official of The Voice of Martyrs as saying.
It is coming on the heels of a report that the country’s authorities are planning to rewrite the Bible in its own image.
These are moves to make religion restrictive in the country. The new move is not restricted to churches alone but also mosques, Buddhist temples and other religious places.
“This spring in Henan province, they rolled out an app to get approval to go to any kind of religious service. What this means is, you need to have the app on your phone,” Todd Nettleton, chief media relations for The Voice of Martyrs, said.
“You need to pre-register in order to go to a religious gathering, give the Chinese government all of your information, tell them who you are, where you live, your ID information, and so forth.”
The Chinese will get approval to attend the gathering after going through the process. However, it is only available for churches registered with the CPP, house churches. Other unrecognised gatherings are not permitted.
Nettleton further explained, “If the authorities come into a church service…they simply ask everyone, Hey, pull your phone, open up the app. We want to see…did you sign up beforehand? Did you get approval beforehand?”