FYI, our company received a notice in Friday to submit information about social and religious activities that our foreign staff (= me) may be participating in.

Google translation:

"According to the notice on the strict implementation of the 22 ministries and commissions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and state agencies, the "Notice on Eliminating the Breeding Soil of Illegal Social Organizations and Purifying the Ecological Space of Social Organizations" and the "Detailed Rules for the Implementation of Regulations on the Management of Foreign Religious Activities in the People's Republic of China"!
All units are requested to conduct a registration investigation on whether the foreigners they hired participate in social organizations and religious activities in China, fill in the Annex 3: Situation Investigation Form, and affix the official seal and submit it to the disk before 17:00 on May 25, 2021"

Beside the obvious targets, I'm wondering if "social organizations" also include every random sports and/or drinking clubs that no doubt lot of foreigners are involved in.

Thanks for the update.

So bad news for foreigners who drink religiously, play rugby religiously, or eat squirrels & rodents religiously under lockdown. /s

If it makes you feel any better. Unorthodox, cult-like company practices inside organizations operated by Chinese nationals are also discouraged if not rooted out by the state. At least on paper.

One only needs to read Underground by Haruki Murakami, or Waking Up by Sam Harris, to discover the insidious nature of cults and how their "guru" leaders can influence their followers, even educated and seemingly rational individuals, to commit antisocial acts in ways that undermine the welfare of the masses.

Double edged sword.

It's a fairly large jump from "social organization" to "cult".

About same as from a prayer to a revolution?

My Uni has been asking for religious affiliation annually for many years now. Always in a rather embarrassed manner, to be fair!

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At least two mosque domes that I know of have been visibly concealed in inner Kunming centre. So there is that whole anti-extremism initiative.

Not sure if oversight is tightened on all the Abrahamic religions, or just on foreigners who may adhere to them. Or on foreigners who may win over young hearts and minds with their western ideologies, or on potential cultish organizations deviating too far from cultural norms and communist values.

In terms of new curbs imposed on foreign entities in academia proposed recently by China's State Council to tackle the latter:

"The new law, which comes into effect on Sept. 1, halts the teaching of foreign curricula in schools from kindergarten to grade nine (K-9) and prohibits the ownership or control of any private K-9 schools by foreign entities."

www.reuters.com/[...]

Is this K1-K9 plus kindergarten?

Speaking of, does anyone know what happened to the church on Beijing Lu? I remember a couple of years ago it was fully opened and used and now it seems like they are doing some renovation works except the renovation equaled to getting rid of the large staris leading to the church.