Unlike that in the west, Chinese Christianity is a dynamic and evolving phenomenon. Christianity in China is not monolithic and should be considered beyond formal religious boundaries. For instance, while many Chinese Christians adhere strictly to Christian doctrines, others blend their Christian faith with beliefs in non-Christian deities such as Buddha, Taoist immortals or even Allah, thereby blurring the lines of what constitutes “Christianity.”

Determining the number of Christians in China is also challenging due to the sensitive nature of religious affiliation in the country. According to the 2018 Chinese General Social Survey, about two percent of Chinese adults, or roughly 20 million people, identify themselves as Christians. Protestants make up approximately 90 percent of this group, with the remainder being mostly Catholics. However, it remains difficult to accurately capture the number of Christians in China. Officially, only state-sanctioned churches are permitted, but many Christians worship in unauthorized “house churches” or “underground churches.” These venues are not included in official statistics, leading to underreporting.

A HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY’S SUCCESS IN ANCIENT CHINA

Christianity was first introduced to China during the Tang Dynasty (618-907) with the arrival of missionaries from the Church of the East, traditionally called the “Nestorian.” In 635, these missionaries traveled along the Silk Road, the ancient trade route linking China with the West, before arriving in Xi’an, the capital city of China at the time. Artworks like paintings depicting a priest holding a mass for Christians and even a fragment of a silk painting of a Chinese-dressed Jesus, as well as manuscripts found in the Dunhuang caves, particularly in the UNESCO certified Mogao Caves, provide intriguing evidence of early Christian teachings in China. In 781, the Xi’an Stele, which consists of 1,780 Chinese characters articulating the theology of Nestorianism, was erected. The stele recounts the Chinese Emperor, Tang Taizong, personally inviting a Nestorian “man of great virtue” to the palace library to translate his religious scriptures and inquiring about this new religion after deciding that its teachings were righteous, true and suitable to pass on to the general populace. Emperor Taizong even issued a royal edict to build a Nestorian temple in the city three years later. Interestingly, the text also closely mirrors modern Christian teachings, describing a Messiah who “hid his glory and came to this world, humbling himself as a man,” and how “God sent an angel to announce the good news of a virgin giving birth to the Son in the Roman Empire” who would later form a new religion of this God, “guided by the Holy Spirit, so man can be justified by faith.” The group of Nestorians also started to translate the Bible into Chinese and introduced some basic doctrines, such as the Holy Trinity. However, during the Great Anti-Buddhist Persecution in 845, the Nestorians, having been considered a branch of Buddhism, were expelled from the country.

It was not until the late Ming Dynasty in the 16th century, with the efforts of Jesuit missionaries like Michele Ruggieri and Matteo Ricci, that Christianity began to establish a more substantial presence. At first, both Ruggieri and Ricci dressed as Buddhist monks when they entered mainland China, but later Ricci shifted to the strategy of “complementing Confucianism and replacing Buddhism” due to the compatibility of Confucianism (the orthodox ideology in China) and Catholicism, thereby giving Christianity an easier entry to the Chinese society. In particular, Ricci likened ancient Confucianism’s supreme deity, “Heaven,” who created the world, punishes the wicked and rewards the righteous with eternal life, to the Christian God. This approach successfully convinced a number of respected Confucian scholars that Christianity closely resembled Confucianism and earned Ricci the title of the “Western Confucius” in China. The Jesuits were instrumental in introducing western science and culture to China, which further helped them gain trust and favor from the Ming and Qing emperors. As a result, Ricci’s Christian views on Confucianism and Chinese rituals, often called the “Directives of Matteo Ricci,” were widely followed by Jesuit missionaries across China and Korea.

However, the success of Jesuit missionaries was met with opposition when Catholic missionaries arrived in China in the 17th to 18th centuries during the Chinese Rites controversy. In particular, the Dominican and Franciscan missionaries considered the Jesuits’ use of the Confucians’ “Heaven” as a reference to God as idolatrous and disagreed with the allegedly superstitious practice of giving offerings to Confucius and their ancestors, and subsequently reported the issue to Rome. In response, Pope Benedict XIV issued a decree, Ex quo singulari, that banned all forms of ceremony in honor of Confucius or their ancestors in 1742. As a result, the practice of Christianity was prohibited in China as Chinese citizens were obliged by law at the time to perform these rituals. In effect, Christianity was deemed an illegal religion, and missionary work had been largely put on a halt until the decree was lifted in 1939.

CHRISTIANITY’S SURVIVAL STORY IN MODERN CHINA

In the early years after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”) in 1949, religious activities were heavily regulated. Since the Chinese Communist Party (“CCP”) is officially atheist, party members are not permitted to join any religion. The CCP adopted a Marxist view of religion, considering it a temporary phenomenon that would fade as society progressed. Religion was seen as linked to “foreign cultural imperialism,” “feudalism” and “superstition.” Consequently, religious groups faced persecution, and many churches were confiscated for secular use. Meanwhile, foreign missionaries were expelled, and religious organizations were encouraged to sever ties with international bodies. During this period, the Chinese government established the Religious Affairs Bureau to oversee religious activities and promoted the Three-Self Patriotic Movement, which emphasized self-governance, self-support and self-propagation for religious groups. By the late 1950’s, patriotic religious associations were formed to manage the existing five religions including Catholicism, which imposed strict regulations like barring all churches from having any ties with the Vatican.

During the Cultural Revolution initiated by Mao Zedong, Founder of the PRC, between 1966 and 1976, which aimed to eradicate the “Four Olds” (old customs, culture, habits and ideas), religion became a primary target, with all religious activities banned and religious personnel persecuted. Paramilitary Red Guards attacked and destroyed many religious sites, forcing believers to practice their faith in secret. Even though the regime tried to eradicate Christianity, the number of Catholics in China remained at around three million and Protestants reportedly grew from one million to three million during this period.

Following the Cultural Revolution, the Chinese government focused on economic development and began to relax its stance on religion, hoping that religious tourism would boost its economy. In 1982, the CCP issued Document 19, which acknowledged the persistence of religion and allowed for limited religious freedom, including an undefined category of “normal” religious activities. This document marked a significant shift, permitting religious practices under state supervision and recognizing the need to accommodate religious beliefs within the socialist framework. Under the former Chinese President Hu Jin-tao’s leadership between 2003 and 2013, observers noted that regulations limiting religious freedoms were not always strictly enforced as Hu believed that religion could contribute to a harmonious society. Hence local authorities monitored religious activities with “one eye open and one eye closed” and tolerated “illegal” religious activities as long as “no lines have been crossed.”

CHRISTIAN COMMUNITIES’ CURRENT STRUGGLE TO SURVIVE IN CHINA

However, the Chinese government has continued to regulate religious activities in recent years, emphasizing the “sinicization” of religion. This policy aims to align religious practices with Chinese culture and socialist values. While Article 36 of the Chinese constitution guarantees “freedom of religious belief,” in practice, this freedom is limited to state-sanctioned religious organizations. For instance, unregistered “house churches” and other independent religious groups often face crackdowns and surveillance. Since President Xi Jin-ping came into power in 2013, the CCP urged all religious groups in China to conform to socialism by integrating their doctrines, customs and morality with the majority Han Chinese culture. In early 2020, new regulations required all faith organizations to seek approval from the government before conducting any activities. One year later, the CCP prohibited all unregistered domestic groups from sharing faith-related content online or operating online religious services without a license in China, particularly targeting Christianity-related content on the messaging app, WeChat. As explored in our post on the persecution of Christians in China in 2023, countless underground congregations face raids, fines and the detention of their leaders.

In September 2023, stricter laws were passed in China in support of sinicization policies. For instance, the new laws prohibit all religious activities that could “endanger national security, disrupt social order [or] damage national interests.” Further, as part of an ongoing campaign that requires all religious personnel to “love the motherland and support the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the socialist system,” which includes compelling churches to hang portraits of Xi in their buildings, banning Christmas celebrations, removing crosses at major churches and ensuring the content of sermons would embody socialist core values, religious venues have a duty to keep track of their staff and residents’ religious and social activities, as well as any contact with overseas organizations or individuals.

Meanwhile, in Hong Kong – a city generally considered to enjoy a higher degree of religious freedom in China, even though religious groups are not legally required to register with the government, the passing of the 2020 National Security Law (“NSL”) has prompted religious figures to increase self-censorship. This was particularly so after the 92-year-old former Catholic Bishop of Hong Kong, Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, was arrested and later charged with “collusion with foreign forces” in 2021 since he did not register a humanitarian fund set up to help people arrested in anti-government protests pay legal fees. Although Zen expressed that he was found guilty in his own capacity as a pro-democracy advocate, and not a religious leader, his unique role as a retired bishop led many to cast doubts regarding the rights to religious freedoms in the region. As a result, the Catholic church in Hong Kong has halted its annual commemorative masses for the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre since 2022 after raising worries that holding such events might contravene NSL.