Regulations of Shaanxi Province on Religious Affairs

· Area of Law： Religious Affairs

· Level of Authority： Provincial Local Regulations

· Date issued：07-30-2008

· Effective Date：10-01-2008

· Status： Effective

· Issuing Authority： Shaanxi Province

Regulations of Shaanxi Province on Religious Affairs
(Adopted at the 18th Session of the Standing Committee of the 9th People's Congress of Shaanxi Province on September 23rd, 2000; amended at the 3rd Session of the Standing Committee of the 11th People's Congress of Shaanxi Province on July 30th, 2008)
Contents
Chapter I General Provisions 
Chapter II Religious Groups 
Chapter III Religion Instructing Personnel 
Chapter IV Religious Activity Sites 
Chapter V Religious Activities 
Chapter VI Religious Academies 
Chapter VII Religious Properties 
Chapter VIII Religious Foreign-related Affairs 
Chapter IX Legal Liabilities 
Chapter X Supplementary Provisions 
Chapter I General Provisions
Article 1 These Regulations are formulated in accordance with the Regulations of the State Council on Religious Affairs and relevant laws and administrative rules and regulations, in combination of the actual situation of Shaanxi Province, for the purposes of guaranteeing the citizens' freedom of religious belief, maintaining harmonious religion and society and standardizing the administration of religious affairs.
Article 2 These Regulations shall apply to the religious affairs and their administration within the administrative region of Shaanxi Province.
The term “religion” in these Regulations shall refer to Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholicism and Christianity.
Article 3 Citizens enjoy the freedom of religious belief. Any organization or individual shall not enforce citizens to believe in or not to believe in any religion, nor discriminate against the citizens who believe in or those who do not believe in religions.
Citizens who believe in religions or those who do not believe in religions and citizens who believe in different religions or sects shall respect each other.
Article 4 Every religion shall adhere to the principles of maintaining the independence and keeping the initiative in their own hands, and of self handling. All the religious groups or religious activity sites or religious affairs shall not be dominated by foreign forces.
Article 5 All the religious groups, religious activity sites, religion instructing personnel and citizens believing in religions shall carry out religious activities within the scope permitted by the constitution, the laws and the rules and regulations; their lawful rights and interests and normal religious activities shall be protected by law.
Any organization or individual shall not make use of the religion to carry out the activities to split the State, to destroy the social order, to damage the citizen s' health，to obstruct the State educational system, and other activities to damage the State benefits, social public interests and citizens' lawful rights and interests.
Article 6 The people's governments at or above county levels shall uphold under law the lawful rights and interests of religious groups, religious activity sites, religion instructing personnel and citizens believing in religion, hear the opinions from religious groups, religious activity sites, religion instructing personnel and citizens believing in religion, coordinate the administrative work of religious affairs and lead the religion to adapt to socialist society.
Article 7 The administrative departments for religious affairs of the people's governments of Shaanxi Province, of cities with districts, and of counties (city and district) shall be in charge of the administrative work of religious affairs within their respective administrative regions.
The other relevant administrative superintending departments of the people's governments at or above county levels, such as the civil affairs, the education, the construction, the land resources, the public security, the culture, the cultural relics, the tourism, the foreign affairs, the press and publication and so on, shall do well their correlative jobs according to their own functions.
The village (township) people's governments, the street agency and the residents' committee or villagers' committee shall assist and coordinate with the administrative superintending departments for religious affairs to do well their jobs in the administration of religious affairs.
Chapter II Religious Groups
Article 8 Where to establish a religious group on the provincial scale, the applicant shall, upon the examination and consent of the administrative department for religious affairs of Shaanxi Province, apply to the civil affairs department for registration; where to establish other regional religious group, the applicant shall, upon the examination and consent of the administrative department for religious affairs at the level of local cities with districts or counties, apply to the civil affairs department at the same level for registration.
The civil affairs department shall notify the administrative superintending department for religious affairs that being responsible for the examination about the registration situation. The administrative superintending department for religious affairs shall report the approved registration to a higher administrative department responsible for religious affairs to keep the record.
Where a religious group intends to make a modification or a cancellation, it shall, according to law, go to the original department that has made the examination and registration to go through relevant procedures.
Article 9 Religious groups shall conform to the respective Articles of association to organize their religious activities, to deal with their religious affairs, to carry out their religious culture and academic research and exchange, to expand their foreign friendly religious communication, and to provide the education of patriotism, socialism and legal system for their religion instructing personnel and the citizens believing in religion.
Article 10 The internal data publications to be compiled and printed by religious groups and religious activity sites shall be subject to the approval by the administrative department of religious affairs of Shaanxi Province and shall obtain the printing permit to be issued by the administrative department of the press and publication of Shaanxi Province. Publication of publicly released the newspapers, periodicals, books, audio-visual products and electronic publications of religious kind shall go through the procedures according to the provisions specified by the state publication administration.
Any publications involving religious contents shall conform to Clause 2, Article 7 of the Regulations on Religious Affairs of the State Council.
Chapter III Religion Instructing Personnel
Article 11 The qualification of religion instructing personnel shall be cognized by religious groups in accordance with the cognizance measures for religion instructing personnel drafted by the national religious group, and shall be reported to the administrative departments of religious affairs at or above county levels to keep the record within twenty days as of the cognizance day according to the relevant national stipulation.
The religion instructing personnel shall be granted a qualification certificate of religion instructing personnel by religious groups after the aforesaid cognizance and recording.
Where for a person whose religion instructing personnel qualification has been annulled, that person's qualification certificate of religion instructing personnel shall be withdrawn by the religious group who had issued the certificate before, and that person shall go to the original recording department to handle the deregistration procedure.
Those who do not possess the qualification certificates of religion instructing personnel or whose certificates have been annulled shall not preside over any religious activities.
Article 12 When a religion instructing person is invited to host or participate in hosting religious activities outside his or her religion activity region but in other areas within Shaanxi Province, the religion group or religious activity site to which he or she belongs, as well as the religion group or religious activity site located at host places, shall report the general planning of the activities to local administrative department responsible for religious affairs of the cities with districts for record keeping fifteen days prior to initiating the religion activity.
Where a religion instructing person of Shaanxi Province is invited to outside the province, or a religion instructing person of another province is invited into Shaanxi Province, to preside over a religious activity, he or she shall get the consent from the religious group at provincial level and make report to the administrative department for religious affairs of Shaanxi Province for the record keeping.
Article 13 Where a religion instructing person is to hold a leading preaching post in religious activity sites of provinces other than Shaanxi Province, relevant provisions of the State shall apply.
Article 14 Religion instructing personnel and full-time working personnel in religious groups shall have their rights of social security in accordance with law; those who can accord with the conditions for basic social security may join such basic social securities like the pension and medical insurances to according to the relevant provisions of the State and Shaanxi Province.
Chapter IV Religious Activity Sites
Article 15 The term “religious activity sites” as being entitled in these Regulations includes temple, palace and Taoist temple, mosque, church and other fixed sites for religious activities.
Where to establish a religious activity site, conditions as provided in Article 14 of the Regulations on Religious Affairs of the State Council shall be possessed.
Article 16 When preparing to establish religious activity sites including the new construction, modified construction, reconstruction and the restoring construction, the examination and approval and the registration shall be acquired according to the provisions in the Regulations on Religious Affairs of the State Council.
Article 17 Where a religious activity site is to be merged, separated, or terminated or to be modified any registration items, the administration organization of this said site shall go to the original registration department to transact the relevant procedures for that registration modification, and the property from that site shall be handled in accordance with the related provisions of the State.
Article 18 Religious activity sites shall establish the administration organization and exercise democratic administration. The members of the administration organization shall be selected via democratic consultation and be composed of religion instructing personnel, full-time working personnel and the representatives of local religious citizens, and shall be reported to the registration department of that site for record keeping.
Religious activity sites shall establish and perfect their administration systems regarding the personnel, the finance, the accounting, the security, the fire fighting, the cultural relics protection, the hygiene and epidemic prevention and so on, and shall accept the guidance, surveillance and inspection from the relevant departments of the local people's governments.
Article 19 Religious activity sites shall not provide convenience for such illegal activities as the collecting of money, defrauding of money and property by making use of feudalistic superstition and so on.
No organization or individual shall compel or enforce covertly the sightseeing tourists in the religious activity sites to carry through religious activities.
Citizens should respect religious habitude and not bring into religious activity sites any religion taboo objects.
Article 20 People's governments at or above county levels shall coordinate and handle the interest relationship between the relative parties and the religious activity sites that are located within sightseeing districts such as scenic spots, forest parks and so on. Where to set down or to adjust the gate ticket prices for sightseeing and visiting, they shall listen attentively to the opinions from the administrative departments for religious affairs and from the religious activity sites.
Article 21 Where to deconstruct, rebuild or newly build constructions, to set up commercial service networks, to hold displaying exhibition, to shoot movies or to make TV films and so on within the territory of religious activity sites, consents from the administration organization of the concerned religious activity site and opinion from the administrative department for religious affairs at or above county levels where the religious activity site located shall be obtained for beforehand. Where the protection of cultural relics being involved, these operations shall be carried out in accordance with the relative provisions of laws and regulations on the protection of cultural relics.
Chapter V Religious Activities
Article 22 The collective religious activities of citizens believing in religions shall be carried out in religious activity sites that have been legally registered.
Religious activities held at home by religious citizens according to religious custom shall not affect others' normal life.
Article 23 No organizations or individuals shall be allowed to spread or argue about different beliefs, religions or sects; nor do they sermonize or preach in religious activity sites.
Non-religious groups or non-religious activity sites shall under no circumstances organize or carry out religious activities.
Article 24 Religious groups and religious activity sites who intend to launch large religious activities in another city with districts or county (city or district) shall apply severally to the administrative department responsible for religious affairs of the province and city with districts thirty days prior to planned date. The administrative department responsible for religious affairs shall decide whether to approve or disapprove it fifteen days upon receipt of the application.
The people's government of city with districts or county (city, district) where large religious activity is to be held, along with relevant departments of public security, fire-fighting and epidemic prevention as well as people's government of township and sub-district office, shall perform necessary management to ensure safety of large religious activity in accordance with their respective duties.
Article 25 Online distribution or dissemination of information concerning religious affairs by any organization and individual shall comply with stipulations specified in related national laws and regulations.
Chapter VI Religious Academies
Article 26 Where a religious academy is to be established, it should meet the conditions provided in the State Council's Regulations on Religious Affairs for setting up a religious academy, and a written application shall be submitted by a religious group at the provincial level to the administrative department for religious affairs at the provincial level. The administrative department responsible for religious affairs at the provincial level shall, within thirty days upon receipt of the application, propose its opinions from the examination and investigation; if the department is to agree to that establishment of the academy, it shall report for the examination and approval to the administrative department for religious affairs of the State Council; if the department is not to agree, it still should give a reply.
Article 27 Upon approval of the application for setting up a religious college or school, preliminary construction shall commence.
Following the completion of the construction of a religious academy, that religious academy may be officially founded and recruit students only after the auditing and receiving with qualification according to the relevant provisions of the State.
Article 28 The religious academy shall be administrated by the religious group at the provincial level to which it is affiliated and shall be under the supervision and guidance of the administrative department for religious affairs and other relevant departments of Shaanxi Province.
Article 29 Religious academies shall enroll students within the approved object, scope, schooling system and scale of the admission; the examinees shall be recommended by local religious groups and the best among them shall be admitted with a view to their exam results after agreed upon by administrative department for religious affairs at or above county levels.
Graduates from religious academies shall be reported to a local administrative department at the county level for religious affairs for record keeping.
Article 30 Training classes can be held for religion instructing personnel by religious groups, religious academies as well as religious activity sites upon the consent from the administrative department for religious affairs at or above county levels.
A training program including specific contents, objects, total numbers，time and place as well as a group of religion instructing personnel equipped with solid religious knowledge shall be essential for training classes.
Chapter VII Religious Properties
Article 31 The land legally used, the houses, forests and other buildings, structures, facilities and necessities legally possessed, used and managed, and other legal estates and gains owned by a religious group or college or activity site shall be protected by law and shall on no account be embezzled, looted, privately shared, damaged or illegally sealed up, detained, frozen, confiscated and disposed of by any organization or individual.
Article 32 With regard to the houses legally owned and the land and woodland legally used, the religious groups, colleges and schools and activity sites shall go through formalities for registration according to relevant national regulations and claim the property credentials such as the certificate of title for houses, certificate of land use right or certificate of forest right; in case of any change, they should attend to procedures for change of registration.
Article 33 Where dismantlement of the houses, buildings and structures of a religious group or a religious academy or a religious activity site is necessary for urban and rural planning or key construction projects and project of urban removal and reconstruction, the dismantler shall negotiate with the religious group, college or school and religious activity site concerned and ask local administrative department responsible for religious affairs for opinions. As to the houses and buildings that have to be demolished, relevant laws and regulations shall apply.
Article 34 Any donation received by a religious group, a religious academy or a religious activity site from any domestic or foreign organization or individual shall be used in activities compliant with the tenet of the religious group, college or school or the religious activity site rather than privately shared or peculated.
Article 35 The religious group, religious academy and the religious activity site should implement the financial, accounting and taxation managerial systems of the country, and shall enjoy tax preference when fulfilling their tax liabilities in accordance with national provisions on taxation.
Article 36 Democratic management shall be executed for religious properties. The religious group, religious academy and religious activity site should authorize periodically a qualified intermediary agency for financial audit in accordance with the relevant provisions of the State and report the audit results to the administrative department for religious affairs at or above county levels for record keeping.
The religious group, religious academy and religious activity site shall report on a half-year basis the statement of financial revenues and expenditures to the administrative department for religious affairs at or above county levels and announce the status of the receipts and use of donations to the citizens believing in religion.
Chapter VIII Religious Foreign-related Affairs
Article 37 Any foreigner involved in religious activities within the territory of Shaanxi Province should abide by the laws and regulations of China and other related provisions of the State and the Province, shall not set up any religious organization or working office or religious activity site or religious academy, nor expand religious followers among Chinese citizens or appoint religion instructing personnel or conduct any other preaching activity.
Upon the consent from a provincial religious group, a foreigner in Shaanxi Province can invite a Chinese clergyman to hold such religious rituals for him or her as baptism, wedding, funeral, Taoist rite, Dharma assembly and so on.
When a foreigner intends to hold a collective religious activity in Shaanxi Province, that activity shall be held in a religious activity site appointed by the administrative supervising department for religious affairs.
Article 38 Religious group(s) at the provincial level can invite foreign religion instruction personnel to sermon and to preach in the religious activity sites within the territory of Shaanxi Province in accordance with the relevant provisions of the State.
Foreigners can have friendly intercourse and make cultural and academic exchange with the religious circles of Shaanxi Province through the provincial religious groups.
Where religious personages of Shaanxi Province are invited to visit a foreign country, relevant national provisions shall apply.
Article 39 Any organizations or individuals shall not accept, in the process of foreign exchange activities, additional religious conditions, nor accept subsidies for managing the religion or funds for missionizing the religion from overseas organizations or individuals, nor provide advantageous conditions for overseas organizations or individuals to undertake illegal religious activities, nor accept procuratory from overseas religious group.
Article 40 Outbound tour on pilgrimage by citizens of Shaanxi Province who believe in Islam shall be organized and implemented by the Islam Association of Shaanxi Province in accordance with the relevant provisions of the State and Shaanxi Province.
Chapter IX Legal Liabilities
Article 41 Where a religious group has failed to attend the formalities for the record keeping and the cancellation, in the violation of Articles 11 and 12 of these Regulations, the administrative department for religious affairs at or above county levels shall charge the group to make correction within the time limit; where the group has failed to make the correction after the time limit, the registration department shall charge the said group to remove the chief executive directly responsible.
Article 42 Where in the violation of these Regulations with one of the following acts, the illegal act shall be charged to cease by the administrative departments for religious affairs at or above county levels; if there is illegal earnings, that earnings shall be confiscated, and a fine of not less than double but not more than triple for the sum of the illegal earnings shall be imposed:
(1) Where the personnel who have presided over religious activity without acquiring the qualification certificate for religion instructing personnel or being cancelled the qualification for religion instructing personnel;
(2) Where the religion instructing personnel without having the record preside over or participate in the religious activity with no authorization beyond the defined religious activity region;
(3) Where a religious activity site provides convenience for illegal activities such as collecting money and wealth illegally and defrauding money and wealth by making use of feudalistic superstition;
(4) Where to conduct sermon and preach outside religious activity site;
(5) Where to launch great trans-regional religious activity without authorization;
(6) Failure to recruit students in conformity with the approved enrollment objects, scope, schooling system and enrollment scale; or
(7) Fail to hold training class for religion instructing personnel in accordance with the provisions.
Where for the violation of Items (2) and (5) of above-said Clause of this Article, the registration organ may also charge the religious group or religious activity site concerned to remove the chief executive directly responsible.
Article 43 Those who have violated the provisions of Articles 31 and 34 of these Regulations by encroaching, looting chaotically, sharing selfishly, embezzling or damaging religious properties shall be charged to return the property by the administrative department for religious affairs at or above county levels; if losses have incurred, civil liabilities shall be assumed according to law; if those acts belong to the violation of the administration of public peace and order, public security departments shall impose administrative punishment for the administration of public peace and order; if a crime has been constituted, criminal liability shall be investigated for according to law.
Article 44 Those working personnel of the State who have committed such illegal acts like the abuse of their authorities, dereliction of their duties, mal-practice and embezzlement, or other unlawful acts during their administration of religious affairs, shall be imposed administrative sanctions by the superintending department or the administrative supervision department in accordance with law; if a crime is constituted, criminal liabilities shall be investigated for according to law.
Article 45 With regard to other actions in violation of these Regulations, where there are provisions on the punishment in accordance with laws and regulations, these provisions shall apply.
Chapter X Supplementary Provisions
Article 46 These Regulations shall be effective as of October 1st, 2008.