Chinese Repression Extends to Online World

The NY Times magazine published a very insightful article over the weekend, one that delves into the amount of control the Communist government exerts over Chinese users' internet experience.

While Christian persecution isn't mentioned in the article, it does mention that Chinese internet companies are expected to block pages about "evil cults or superstition," two code words often used to label unregistered house church groups.

The overwhelming desire of the Communist government is control: they want control over what web surfers can and cannot have access to. Even further, though, they want the web companies to exert this control. Internet laws are written vaguely, and each company is expected to enact their own control over what is accessible to their users. Unfortunately, even U.S. companies are involved. Yahoo handed over in 2004 the personal information about a business journalist, Shi Tao. Today, Shi is serving a 10-year prison sentence for leaking informationto a pro-democracy web site.

It is that same drive for control that affects China's unregistered churches, those who refuse to have their worship controlled by a government that denies the existence of God.

Pray for Christians in China.