Open Doors CEO: China creating ‘system of persecution for the future’
by Jordan Hilger, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – Open Doors USA CEO David Curry issued a major warning about China following the release of the most recent World Watch List, saying that it was creating a technological apparatus that could become the “blueprint” for Christian persecution worldwide.
Though China had only risen four spots from 27 to 23 on the list of the worst persecutors of Christians, Curry explained that its sophisticated melding of artificial intelligence and surveillance technologies with a social scoring system was creating the template for Christian persecution in the twenty-first century.
“Its implications are not just for Christians within China but for every country and for religious freedom generally,” Curry warned. “Let me put it together. It is like a puzzle. The pieces are there but it is not until you put it together that you see it clearly. When you see it clearly, it is frightening.”
Curry learned on a recent trip to China that citizens are given 2,000 points of “social credit.” Facial recognition scans on street corners and in churches judge through artificial intelligence assumptions whether a person is engaged in “radical” activity.
Points are deducted on that basis, whittling away at social status and creating social pariahs without access to the basic amenities of society.
“Eventually, your travel is restricted, your children won’t get into the best schools. You lose points for taking your children to Sunday School. That is what the experience is like for many Christians in China,” he said.
5,596 churches were shut down by the Chinese government in 2019, in many cases, Curry said, because they refused to install the surveillance apparatus that he called “the system of persecution for the future.”