Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported on May 9, 2018 that China intends to further tighten the regulation of public religious worship in a bid to prevent "hostile foreign forces" from infiltrating the country. It said the State Administration of Religious Affairs (SARA) began consultations this week on rules relating to foreigners who practice their religions on Chinese soil. Existing regulations from 1991 already bar Chinese citizens from attending temporary religious gatherings organized by foreign religious groups, while foreign religious organizations are banned from any venue not previously authorized for religious purposes.

 

The new rules target "collective religious activities" of more than 50 people that are organized and attended by foreigners, in particular, at locations that have only been temporarily approved for religious activity for a year at a time. Foreign nationals attending such gatherings too will need to provide the government with personal details including passport number and place of residence in China before attending, the draft rules say. Beijing-based Protestant house church elder Xu Yonghai told RFA missionaries from South Korea have already been affected, after coming to China and working very hard to set up churches.The call for consultations came as authorities in the southwestern province of Guizhou found a Protestant pastor, Su Tianfu ,guilty of "intentionally disclosing state secrets" at his closed-door trial on April 26, at a district court in Nanming district in Guiyang, Guizhou. Separately, in Chuxiong, Yunnan, seven Protestant Christians stood trial on April 27 amid an ongoing crackdown on what the authorities term an "evil cult."