Officials of China’s Shandong province are requiring students and their families to complete surveys detailing information about each individual’s religious beliefs and activities.
The human rights group ChinaAid says the survey is required of students in kindergarten through 12th grade. The survey asks the student’s name, address and class, as well as when and why the student became a believer. In addition, the student must provide details about when and where the person gathers for religious activities and how the individual feels about religious beliefs.
Family members must respond to similar questions.
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“All of these questions will be used to further persecute all religious minorities in Shandong,” ChinaAid stated. “This survey is the Chinese government’s continued campaign against citizens’ religious freedom. Not only does the Communist Party strangle religious belief in public schools, but it also seeks to eliminate Christian education.”
A case in point is the arrest of five Shengjia Church leaders for running a Christian school. For more than two years, school principal Xu Feng has been imprisoned, reported ChinaAid.
China is No. 16 on Open Doors’ 2023 World Watch List of places most difficult to be a Christian.