An official church in China’s eastern Jiangsu Province is attempting to obtain the license for Internet religious information service as the new Internet regulations went into effect on March 1.
Issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs last December, the Administrative Measures for Internet Religious Information Services states that religious groups should apply to provincial departments of religious affairs before sharing information on the Internet.
The Ethnic and Religious Affairs Commission of Jiangsu Province claimed that the first exam for Internet religious information examiners in the province is initially scheduled to be held in Nanjing in mid-March.
The authorities said on February 28, "The subject applying for the Internet Religious Information Service License must have at least one full-time religious information examiner.”
The unnamed pastor revealed in early March that the TSPM church had submitted four kinds of material through the city’s CC&TSPM which owns the church’s legal person certificate to the local authorities as the new regulations require that applicants should submit the identity card of its legal representative or the chief person in charge.
However, the church was later required to provide eight. The material was resubmitted but the result remains unknown.
Each registered church in his district is only allowed to have one Internet religious information examiner as one of the application requirements. He added that the content of the exams including laws and regulations related to religious affairs and other content and religious knowledge was so wide that there should be training sessions since a qualified score should be 80 or above for the full score of 100.
The pastor also said that sermons were prohibited to be circulated on WeChat group chats after March 1, thus the online religion restrictions were profound.
The new internet regulations was a new thing and everyone was exploring a way out, he concluded.
