LEGAL REGULATION OF THE RELIGIOUS SPHERE AFTER THE 19TH CPC NATIONAL CONGRESS

To achieve the goals of the policy of sinicization of religions, the authorities of China are reviewing existing and adopting new legal acts regulating the activities of religious organizations. The most significant recent event in this regard has been the adoption of a new version of the Regulation on Religious Affairs, which came into effect in February 2018. At present, it is the main document regulating the religious sphere in China. The development of the new Regulation was aimed at strengthening preventive control in relation to religious communities. A number of other important documents were adopted reflecting the main trends of the PRC's modern religious policy - strengthening the party's leadership, increasing the role of patriotic religious associations, strengthening control over communities at the grassroots level, ideological education of clergy, combating unregistered communities, restraint the spread of religious ideas in society, and regulation of publications on religions in the Chinese segment of the Internet. Chinese authorities regard religions as a potential ideological threat. They associate the religious factor with a threat to national security, propaganda of religious extremism, provocations of internal political conflicts, and terrorist activities. We can talk about the attempt of the authorities of the PRC to drive religions into a certain ghetto, to designate a framework for their activities and establish unified rules for their functioning, so as to ensure the ideological security of religions and reduce their impact on society.