The Communist Party of China has been cracking down on religion in recent months and has intensified its measures by ordering local governments to closely supervise and monitor its residents who believe in God.

Officials are expected to report to the government on a regular basis. The consequences are severe if the numbers appear to have been doctored.

A local official from Henan province told Bitter Winter, a magazine on religious freedom and human rights in China, “the government is taking the matter of religion very seriously now. Every day, they ask us how many people in our village believe in God.

“If we say there aren’t any believers, they claim that we’re concealing what we know and failing to report it. If it is determined that we didn’t report the situation truthfully, we will be punished.”

Local officials are expected to report back to local government twice a day. Another local official said: “It’s like our lives are being threatened. After reporting someone, we have to restrict their movements and report their situation every day.”

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Chad Robichaux, founder of the Mighty Oaks Foundation – a charity providing support and discipleship to those suffering from wartime trauma, was told he could not use the label ‘Christian’ to boost his advert on the Google owned platform as it violated the site’s advertising policy.

Mr Robichaux posted about the incident on twitter, claiming not allowing the word Christian was discriminating:

“We ran a YouTube ad for our veterans ministry outreach for those in need & it was denied for the word “Christian”. Insane! #Censorship should terrify every American; conservative or liberal, Christian or Muslim. This bias is a dangerous course for America.” @MightyOaksFDN  

We ran a @YouTube ad for our veterans ministry outreach for those in need & it was denied for the word “Christian”. Insane! #Censorship should terrify every American; conservative or liberal, Christian or Muslim. This bias is a dangerous course for America. @MightyOaksFDN pic.twitter.com/at5CsAfEht

— Chad Robichaux (@ChadRobo) July 23, 2019

The YouTube team responded to Mr Robichaux’s tweets, maintaining that targeting users based on their religion was in breach of their advertising policy but that adverts can include the term ‘Christian’ in them and still hope to reach a Christian audience.

“We know that religious beliefs are personal, so we don’t allow advertisers to target users on the basis…

73 per cent of Christians polled said they think climate change will be more important than the leaving the European Union in the long-term and 65 per cent said they don’t think the Government is doing enough to prioritise climate change.

Amongst all those polled, 71 per cent considered climate change more pressing than Brexit long-term and just over half said they cared more about climate change than Brexit.

ComRes interviewed 2,072 UK adults online last weekend who were representative of all UK adults by age, gender, region and social grade.

Laura Taylor, director of advocacy for Christian Aid, said: “As Prime Minister Boris Johnson gets his feet under the table at Number 10, there are a large number of urgent priorities. However, it is clear that beyond the present political turmoil, UK adults know there is a bigger crisis which is potentially catastrophic for the whole of humanity – particularly some of the world’s poorest people, who are more vulnerable to the effects of this climate emergency.

“I hope the Prime Minister will hear the challenge from the majority of the UK public to do more to tackle this climate emergency. We need a rapid and radical shift to reduce emissions in the UK and we need global action for climate justice in which the most vulnerable communities are supported to not only survive but to thrive.”

Nearly three quarters of Christians…