Control of Religion in China through Digital Authoritarianism

Under Xi Jinping’s leadership, PRC officials continue to assert far-reaching control over China’s diverse religious communities. As more religious activity and resources move online, especially in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, PRC authorities have expanded use of digital tools to surveil and suppress online religious expression. Invasive surveillance technologies track and monitor religious groups and individual believers that authorities deem a threat. On March 1, 2022, new Measures for the Administration of Internet Religious Information Services went into effect, which require a government-issued permit to post religious content online and ban the online broadcasting of religious ceremonies, rites, and worship services, among a host of other restrictions infringing upon Chinese citizens’ freedom of religion or belief.

This hearing will assess the shifting landscape for religious freedom in China and the PRC’s use of digital repression to bolster Chinese Communist Party control of religion. Witnesses will address the many ways that digital and biometric technologies targeting religious believers in China are applied more broadly for social control, and the potential for like-minded authoritarian states to adopt the PRC’s model of technology-enhanced religious repression.

The hearing can be viewed on the CECC’s YouTube channel.

Hearing Transcript (PDF)