Foreign religious groups and worshipers could be the latest targets of a growing crackdown on organized religion in China under President Xi Jinping. Draft rules published this week by the Ministry of Justice call for new restrictions on how foreign worshipers operate in order to prevent the spreading of "religious extremism," or use of religion "to undermine China's national or ethnic unity."
The rules, currently open to public feedback but unlikely to change significantly from their current form, are just the latest move to control religious practice under Xi, who has repeatedly called for the "sinicization" of religion. Xi has overseen a major clampdown on Uyghurs and other Muslim minority groups in the western region of Xinjiang, where some 2 million Uyghurs and other minorities have passed through "reeducation camps" according to rights groups, as well as campaigns targeting Christian groups and Tibetan Buddhists.
