From reporting neighbors to detaining believers: the CCP pushes religious control to advance grassroots society’s “mass surveillance” network

China’s control of religious activities is undergoing a vigilant new shift: power is no longer dependent on public security, religious affairs departments and official religious organizations, but is beginning to incorporate ordinary residents, hotels, travel agencies and even community networks into its reporting system.Human Rights Watch on September 9In the first half of 2026, more than a dozen Chinese cities have introduced measures to encourage or reward the public to report the "illegal religious activities" identified by the government. in Sichuan Chengdu, verified reports can be awarded a maximum of 800 yuan; Yunnan Red River State listed reports range up to 35 categories, collective religious activities in private homes, unauthorized religious training, WeChat groups or live broadcasting sermons can be the target.

This is not simply an upgrade of administration, but a transformation of religious control into a grassroots social mobilization. When neighbors, hotels,, and communities are encouraged to become surveillance nodes, the state does not need to deploy police in every place of prayer.

From “managing religion” to “pushing the masses to look at religion”

Human Rights Watch cited local regulations that Qinghai Haidong even required hotels and travel agencies to review activities and report so-called “suspicious situations”.The real impact of this design is that it expands the uncertainty of religious activities. Believers should not only consider the public security and religious departments, but also consider whether landlords, neighbors, hotel employees and business institutions will report because of rewards or responsibility pressure.

When a person’s prayer, gathering, preaching, and religious study are “unlawful” or not, depending on the approval of the administrative authorities and the willingness of those around them to report, religious freedom is no longer a right, but a permit that can be withdrawn at any time.

The new amendment of the Public Security Administration Penalty Act, which came into effect on 1 January 2026, for the first time included “illegal religious activity” in the scope of administrative detention available from 5 to 15 January. The problem is that “illegal religious activity” is not a naturally clear social concept. In reality, family gatherings, unofficial church activities, online missionaries, religious education and unauthorized places of use may be included in the scope of administrative enforcement. Once the ambiguous legal concepts are combined with cash reward reports, enforcement power may slide from specific acts to continuous monitoring of faith life itself.

“Religious Chineseization” is becoming a project of political loyalty

Since pushing for “Religious Chineseization” in 2016, Beijing has continuously demanded that religious groups accept stronger Party State control in their organizations, doctrinal expression, personnel management and public activities. The official term “Chineseization” has been used in practice not only for cultural adaptation, but also for political obedience: Religious organizations must operate within the institutional framework recognized by the state, accepting and managing the dissemination of people, publications, finances and networks.

This is why the current reporting system needs to be understood in the context of the system. The Communist Party is not contented with requiring the registration of religious organizations, but is trying to change the way religious beliefs exist in society – which places can be gathered, who can preach, what content can be disseminated, what kind of organizational relationships are allowed to exist, are all decided by the executive.

Meanwhile, the Church of Zion, the Church of the Holy Covenant, and underground Catholic groups have continued to face incidents such as detention, prosecution, pressure on lawyers and closure of churches in recent years.Human Rights Watch China Annual Report 2026The Chinese government permits only five official religions and continues to harass and detain family churches and underground religious groups that do not join the official system.

Transforming society into a reporting network is a low-cost but high-pressure way of governance.

This system has at least three consequences:

• Belief activity is forced to ground. Participants are struggling to judge who may report, and normal gatherings are forced to move into a more hidden state;
• social trust is eroded. The state translates neighborhood, business service relations and community relationships through incentive mechanisms into potential surveillance relationships;
• executive power moves further. Police do not have to wait until so-called “harmful outcomes” appear, and punishments can be imposed as long as the activity is identified as unauthorized.

Focus on China believes that the core of this way of governance is not “preserving the religious order”, but ensuring that any group that is independent of the Chinese Communist Party’s organizational system and is able to form sustained social ties and value identity is within the scope of the country that can be identified, controlled, and dissolved.

Beijing has long claimed that Chinese citizens enjoy freedom of religious belief, but if places of prayer are approved, online preaching can be punished, hotels need to report religious activities, and neighbors can be rewarded for reporting, then this “freedom” has actually been compressed to limited activities within the scope of state permission.

The real question is not whether there are churches, temples or mosques in China, but whether believers can organize, spread their beliefs and choose religious life independently without proof of political security to the Party State.The expansion of the reporting system is giving an increasingly clear answer: In Xi Jinping's era, religious freedom was allowed to exist on the condition that it could not be out of Party control.