Bibles pulled from online stores as China increases control of religion

The Bible appears to have been removed from online marketplaces in China, as Beijing clamps down on how its citizens practice religion.

China has always controlled sales of the Bible, only allowing it to be distributed and printed by state-sanctioned churches, but in recent years it had been available to buy online.

That loophole now appears to be firmly closed. Searches for "Holy Bible" did not return results on JD.com, and results on Amazon.cn did not include the main text, but did include study guides and the Koran.

On Taobao, China's biggest online marketplace, a search returned results for the "baby food bible" and the "autoimmune disease healing bible," but not the Christian scripture, though some related products such as an illustrated set of children's Bible stories were still available.

We are in the Springtime of soul growth right now. These are very special times as the increase in the presence of the Holy Spirit is awakening people like the spring sun awakens the trees and flowers..(and the weeds). The spark of God is awakening worldwide, within people. This is why the most powerful weapon against evil is prayer, it changes people within. We don’t need to go to war with China, not even a trade war. We just need to facilitate the spiritual growth of the common man(and women & children), and the problem will take care of itself. Communist governments hate religion as they want to be the people’s religion. True religion frees people. If we merely step back and follow Jesus guidance that you will know the goodness of the tree by the fruit it bears, it is easy to see that communism, abortion, government suppression of religion, creating fear in people if they break the government’s rules..... these are all tools of evil. I recently read an old book on Chairman Mao’s use of Sun Tzu’s “Art of War as his textbook for the Chinese revolution. It is an excellent read as it explains satan’s war strategy. It is the reason that Jesus stressed “Love God & Love Your Neighbor as Yourself.” These laws will overcome all evil as they will cause everyone to grow in the Springtime, while evil is afraid of the Light (Holy Spirit)and tries to create darkness to hide. We are having “Global Warming,” as evil loves darkness and perceives the increased presence of God as their being in hell. They hold on to fear while we seek God’s Love that casts out fear.

Per the article:

Sarah Cook, senior research analyst for East Asia at Freedom House, said the sales ban “is an important example of how internet censorship intersects with restrictions on religious freedom.”

“Sensitive religious topics and groups are among the most censored in China,” she said. “In our research we found the Chinese authorities increasingly using more high-tech methods to control religion and punish believers — including surveillance and arrest of believers for sharing information online.”

Religious practice in China is tightly controlled by the government, with the five recognized faiths — Chinese Buddhism, Islam, Catholicism, Protestantism and Taoism — supervised by official organizations such as the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Church or the Buddhist Association of China.

According to a recent five-year plan on Christianity in China, published by the State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA), maintaining the “principle of independence and self-management” is important due to the “humiliating history of the Chinese people” and the use of Christianity by the powers of “colonialism and imperialism.”

Chinese Catholic bishops are not appointed by the Pope, which has been a key sticking point between Beijing and the Vatican since relations broke down in 1951.

CNN's chart in the article is totally wrong. Here are others.

Per the freedom House Website:

Executive Summary

A Taoist disciple joins the order without knowing when he will be admitted to priesthood. Dozens of Christians are barred from celebrating Christmas together. Tibetan monks are forced to learn reinterpretations of Buddhist doctrine during a “patriotic reeducation” session. A Uighur Muslim farmer is sentenced to nine years in prison for praying in a field. And a 45-year-old father in northeastern China dies in custody days after being detained for practicing Falun Gong.

These are a small sample of the obstacles that Chinese believers encounter when they seek to peacefully practice their faith—products of the ruling Communist Party’s multifaceted apparatus of control. Combining both violent and nonviolent methods, the party’s policies are designed to curb the rapid growth of religious communities and eliminate certain beliefs and practices, while also harnessing aspects of religion that could serve the regime’s political and economic interests.

Since Xi Jinping took the helm of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in November 2012, the authorities have intensified many of their restrictions, resulting in an overall increase in religious persecution. But believers have responded with a surprising degree of resistance, including in faith communities that have generally enjoyed cooperative relationships with state and party officials.

This escalating cycle of repression and pushback illustrates a fundamental failure of the Chinese authorities’ religious policies. Rather than checking religion’s natural expansion and keeping it under political control, the CCP’s rigid constraints have essentially created an enormous black market, forcing many believers to operate outside the law and to view the regime as unreasonable, unjust, or illegitimate.

The present study is a detailed examination of the dynamics of religious revival, repression, and resistance in China today, as well as their recent evolution and broader implications. The report focuses on seven communities that together account for over 350 million believers: the country’s officially recognized religions—Buddhism (Chinese and Tibetan), Taoism, Catholicism, Protestantism, and Islam—as well as Falun Gong, the largest of several banned qigong practices, new religious movements, and quasi-Christian sects.

According to a new government white paper on religious freedoms, published this week, faiths must “adapt themselves to the socialist society.”

“Religious believers and non-believers respect each other, and live in harmony, committing themselves to reform and opening up and the socialist modernization, and contribute to the realization of the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation,” the paper said, listing official Communist Party policies.

“(There is) a broader trend under President Xi Jinping to more tightly control religion, especially Christianity,” Amnesty’s Nee said. “It’s absurd that the government claims to promote religious freedom at the same time that they’re banning the sale of Bibles.”

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