Thousands of dollars a month in exchange for stopping online prayers, Yunnan preachers often retract their promises.

The missionaries of the family church in the Yu district of Zhao Tong commune in Yunnan province have recently revealed that officials of the local army and ethnic religious services have asked him to sign a promise to stop publishing information about faith online and to participate in all online religious activities and to propose a monthly subsistence allowance of 1,000 yuan. A regular signature is followed by a message to the official concerned stating that the commitment was previously given to be invalidated.

On 8 November, Humans Watch disclosed the detailed statement of Chang-chun to the conversation. A key dispute in the incident was whether local governments could link financial subsidies to citizens ' cessation of religious activities, restricting the expression of one ' s faith by means of economic conditions and administrative pressure.

One conversation, with the promotion of officials and financial subsidies

According to the statement, the talks were arranged in the sixth floor of the Yugyu county government, with the participation of his nephew, the Deputy Chief of the District Ethnic Religious Affairs Bureau, the Deputy Chief of the Nationalities Affairs Bureau, and the Deputy Chief of the Police, the Deputy Chief of the District Council, who was appointed to the Standing Committee and the General War Department.

• It is often stated that the promotion of the office of the Prime Minister is mentioned in the conversation and that the religious activities of the former are of concern to their superiors and have affected their personal situation, and it is hoped that they will not be able to publish any more information about their beliefs on the Internet, organize or participate in online religious activities.

• The person concerned then issues a commitment and submits for signature a monthly subsistence allowance of $1,000, which may be paid monthly or quarterly.

• The Chinese Constitution, article 36 of which is invoked in the instant instance, is invoked to demand that religious activities cease and violate freedom of belief. The persons concerned indicated that they were not prohibited from practising religion in their homes and only asked to withdraw from online religious activities.

Chang-hyun eventually signed the contract, but after leaving the county administration, he sent a message to Chang-hyun and Sung-jin, declaring his commitment null and void.

This conversation was conducted in two details that deserve to be traced. First, the individual pressure of the officials who are often mentioned is brought directly into the management of religious affairs. Second, the subsistence allowance to be paid is not simply a relief arrangement but is linked to the commitment to stop a particular activity.

From formal executive orders to personal commitments

The pressure was not on its own.

On 3 June this year, the National Religious Directorate of the Yugyu county of town served a Notice of Orders to Stop Unlawful Activities, accusing it of violating religious regulations by teaching Christian teachings through Zoom, organizing network prayers, demanding an immediate cessation of the activities and warning of possible further administrative penalties.

On 4 June, the regular Twitter account was restricted. On 11 June, members of the local SOPI and police station came again to the door and asked him to stop running the web prayer.

Local officials are now further demanding that they sign personal commitments and present financial subsidies to show that the relevant regulatory instruments have been extended from written executive orders to face-to-face personal pressure.

Chang-soon is also one of the leaders of the 5 p.m. Chinese prayer conference. This event, which involves several family churches, is mainly a prayer for Chinese Christians who are subjected to religious repression.

Prior to that, Chang-chun was sentenced to one year and one month in 2023 for the crime of stalking and released in May

1. In October of the same year, he was held in administrative detention for 12 days for his involvement in a baptism by a family church.

The boundaries of power behind religious governance

Article 17 of China ' s Law on the Administration of Religious Information Services on the Internet sets extensive restrictions on unauthorized Internet teaching, preaching and organization of religious activities. But the controversy is not more than the administrative authorities demanding the cessation of a network activity.

The scope of commitments disclosed frequently involves the discontinuation of faith-related information and the non-participation in all online religious activities. The extension of administrative control to a general restriction on the exercise of individual religious expression and participation is in direct conflict with the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of belief.

More important is the issue of financial resources. Local officials who condition their subsistence allowance on the cessation of their faith-based activities must state the basis for the subsidy, the approval procedure, the source of the funding and the administrative authority to make such an arrangement.

Financial resources should be used for public purposes in accordance with the open system and should not be a barter for forcing individuals to accept administrative requirements. The personal direction of officials cannot, likewise, justify restrictions on the legal rights of others.

Direct responsibility for this incident is directed at the system of combat in the Yug Hsu district, the service of the national religious services and the specific persons involved in the talks; Institutional responsibility involves the continuous control of independent family churches by the Communist Party through institutions such as the Constabulary, Religious Administration, Public Security and the State Security.

From the written injunction in June to the promise and the thousand dollar subsidy in November, the experience of the Xi Jinping regime revealed a specific way of functioning in the religious administration: When executive orders failed to get believers out of religious activities, local power sought to obtain obedience through personal relations, political pressure and economic gain.

In this case, what is really in need of monitoring is not why the preachers insist on online prayers, but why the government authorities are trying to give up their faith activities in exchange for public power and financial subsidies.