Bible Apps have also been removed from the App Store in China, as government officials in the nation continue their crackdown on Christianity.
According to sources, authorities also went ahead and pulled down Christian WeChat public accounts as “new highly restrictive administrative measures” on religious staff went into effect Saturday.
Those who want to download Bible Apps have to use VPN to circumvent the Firewall, U.S. based persecution watchdog International Christian Concern reported.
This development comes more than a year since the same government banned Christian Ministries and related organisations from selling Bibles through online bookstores across China.
One Christian leader, Father Francis Liu from the Chinese Christian Fellowship of Righteousness said in a tweet that some Christian WeChat accounts, including “Gospel League” and “Life Quarterly,” were no longer available online.
When someone tries to access those accounts, a message reads, “(We) received report that (this account) violates the ‘Internet User Public Account Information Services Management Provisions’ and its account has been blocked and suspended.”
For bookstores owned by the state-sanctioned Three-self churches, the Christian post says they are increasingly selling books that promote President Xi Jinping’s thoughts or the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) ideology.
According to recently-released reports, religious persecution in China intensified in 2020, with thousands of Christians affected by church closures and other human rights abuses. The country ordered Christians to destroy the crosses on their Churches and take down images of Jesus, and replace them with images of communist leaders.
Christians in both official, state-run churches and house churches were ordered to fly the Chinese flag and sing patriotic songs in services. A watchdog, Bitter Winter reported April 5, 2020 that very few organizations, and “only those that hold state-issued licenses,” were allowed to stream Church services online in China during the pandemic.
A 2018 Chinese law bans streaming services.
“No organizations or individuals will be allowed to live-stream or broadcast religious activities, including praying, burning incense, ordinations, scripture chanting, holding Mass, worshipping or receiving baptism online in the form of text, photo, audio or video,” the law says.
China is ranked as one of the worst countries in the world when it comes to the persecution of Christians, according to Open Doors USA’s World Watch List.
