Chinese authorities conducting raids against an unregistered house church ordered young believers to replace Christian hymns with songs praising the Chinese Communist Party.

This was reported by the inVictory portal.

The operation took place in Jinzhai County in western Anhui Province. Police and local officials searched the church’s meeting place. According to sources, the authorities also deleted video recordings of the incident.

The raids were part of a broader government policy known as the “Sinicization of religion.” Under Chinese President Xi Jinping, state control over religious life has intensified. The authorities require religious organizations and teachings to conform to the ideology of the Chinese Communist Party.

ChinaAid founder Bob Fu said such actions demonstrate how state requirements can extend directly to the content of Christian worship.

“When government officials begin deciding whom Christians may worship and what they are allowed to sing, the so-called ‘Sinicization of religion’ has already become a political tool used to force churches to submit to Communist Party ideology,” he said.

As LF previously reported, the state-run Bishops’ Conference of the Catholic Church in China (BCCCC) backed the government’s ban on pastoral activities by unregistered clergy and on the use of unauthorized places of worship.

We previously reported that the Chinese authorities are increasing pressure on underground Catholic communities in an effort to bring them into the state-controlled official church. Human Rights Watch said this in a report.

We also previously reported that the Russian Orthodox Church proposed banning Russians from accessing the internet until the age of 18 and called for communist China to be taken as a model.