Concerned by the growth of unregistered house church groups in an uncertain political and social climate, the Chinese government has ramped up efforts both to identify Christians and to portray Christianity as a subversive foreign force. Sources said that authorities in recent months have been quietly gathering data on church growth, with surveys at universities and workplaces pointedly asking whether respondents were Christians. The surveys seemed largely unconcerned about other religions.
Communist Party officials have called meetings at various institutions to discuss the dangers of foreign religious influence. A Christian teacher forced to attend one of the meetings said that the lecturers distorted historical facts by saying that Buddhism, Daoism and Islam were “indigenous” and therefore safe. The teacher noted that Islam, actually came from the Middle East, and Buddhism from India and neither could be considered indigenous to China. By contrast, the officials said Christianity was "foreign" and hence potentially “subversive.”
