In a meeting with top Communist Party officials, Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged authorities in staunchly atheist China to be on guard against foreign infiltration via religion.
Xi's comments at the high-level conference on managing religion over the weekend come amid a crackdown by Chinese authorities in the predominately Muslim Xinjiang region and on Christians in the country's east.
"We must resolutely guard against overseas infiltrations via religious means and prevent ideological infringement by extremists," Xi was quoted by the official Xinhua News Agency as saying at the two-day meeting, which wrapped up Sunday.