National Religious Affairs Administration

Well, again, even that, there's a gray area there.

So it's not illegal to have a Bible per se, but that Bible is supposed to be officially imported through official channels or officially registered with the government or, or has to have some stamp on it of approval from the Religious Affairs Bureau of China.

The Religious Affairs Bureau governs all those things.

And of course, the literature we had was, uh, brought in by teams, you know, illegally in suitcases and whatnot.

And, and if you tried to get approval for little booklets and tracts and Bible portions, no one's gonna approve those, so they're gonna be illegal automatically because no one's gonna ever approve those things.

The arrests came amid restrictions on religious activity introduced the previous year.

China's National Religious Affairs Administration issued a circular on September 7, 2025, promulgating the 18-article Code of Conduct for Religious Professionals' Online Behavior, which was published on September 16 that year.

Article 5 restricts religious professionals to preaching or conducting religious education online through platforms operated by organizations holding an internet religious information service license.

Article 4 requires anyone registering an account under a religious title to submit religious credentials to the platform for verification.

So it's not illegal to have a Bible per se.

But that Bible is supposed to be officially imported through official channels or officially registered with the government or or has to have some stamp on it of approval from the Religious Affairs Bureau of China.

The Religious Affairs Bureau governs all those things.

And, of course, the literature we had was brought in by teams, you know, illegally in suitcases and whatnot.

And if you tried to get approval for little booklets and tracts and Bible portions, no one's going to approve those.