Chengdu expands religious background checks to hospitals and schools

Internal documents reveal that a Chengdu public hospital has launched a comprehensive survey demanding that all staff, from permanent to temporary workers, record their religious affiliation or confirm they have none, and report any belief to their Party branch if they are Party members. The same directive prohibits religious practice and proselytising in the workplace. In parallel, university and education officials in Sichuan report that schools are conducting annual background checks on students’ families, collecting data on religious beliefs and sending it to higher authorities, though the ultimate use of the information remains unclear.

These actions align with the Chinese Communist Party’s strategy to treat religion as a matter of political and ideological control, under the “Sinicisation of religion” framework promoted by President Xi Jinping. A scholar cited in the report suggests similar restrictions exist elsewhere in China, though this claim lacks independent verification.