According to a Sept. 30 report from ChinaAid, a mobile app used by a Chinese vocational school requires students to declare they’re atheists.
The app, used by Tianjin Vocational College of Mechanics and Electricity in China, instructs students to check the box for “no religious belief” in their personal information sections, clearly violating their right to religious freedom.
The report stated that “point 4 under ‘personal information notes’ requires filling in ‘no religious belief’… forcing all enrolled students to declare themselves as ‘atheists’ or ‘non-believers.’”
China’s ruling party, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is officially atheist and has a long history of disrespecting and persecuting religious communities, including Christians.
The Gospel Coalition stated in 2022 that “[President] Xi despises Christianity … [and] fears that religion, especially Christianity, is an attempt by foreign influences to subvert his nation.”
Chinese authorities have reportedly removed crosses from buildings and replaced pictures depicting Jesus with photographs of President Xi Jinping.
According to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), “authorities target Catholic and Protestant Christians for sinicization. The government has ordered the removal of crosses from churches, replaced images of Jesus Christ or the Virgin Mary with pictures of President Xi, required the display of CCP slogans at the entrances of churches, censored religious texts, imposed CCP-approved religious materials, and instructed clergy to preach CCP ideology.”
Additionally, minors younger than 18 are prohibited from attending any sort of religious worship, including Bible camps and Sunday school. According to Pew Research, “schools focus on promoting non-religion and atheism, and many children join CCP-affiliated youth groups, where they must pledge commitment to atheism.”
The New York Times in 2016 commented on the Chinese authorities’ fear of religion.
“Mr. Xi [in 2016] urged the ruling Communist Party to ‘resolutely guard against overseas infiltrations via religious means,’ and he warned that religions in China must ‘sinicize,’ or become Chinese,” the outlet stated. “The instructions reflect the government’s longstanding fear that Christianity could undermine the party’s authority.”
Story by Lynn Arias
Source: ICC
