China Bans Missionary Work Without State Approval in New Restrictions
The Chinese Communist Party enacted new restrictions on foreign missionaries there May 1, preventing them from preaching, evangelizing and establishing various religious organizations among other activities without official government approval.
Establishing schools, appointing clergy, using the internet to conduct illegal religious activities and producing, selling or distributing Bibles and religious audio-visual products are among activities punishable by law for foreigners and Chinese nationals that aid them, according to the rules posted online by China’s National Religious Affairs Administration.
The rules are among the latest in the Communist nation’s drive to Sinicize Christianity and other religions under the leadership of President Xi Jinping.
The CCP cited national unity in justifying the rules, International Christian Concern (ICC) said in a press release, a common reasoning for restrictions that are in essence a cover for religious persecution there.
“The CCP has long viewed independent religious activity with suspicion, arguing that religious loyalty is at odds with the ultimate loyalty demanded by the Communist Party,” ICC said. “The government labels independent religious activity as cultish and extremist, regardless of its theological roots, and demands that all Christian religious activity take place within the confines of state-run churches.”
State-run churches, such as the Protestant Three Self Church and the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, are tightly controlled.
They “promote CCP propaganda and the personality cult surrounding country President Xi Jinping through songs, sermons and community events,” ICC said. “Independent house churches, which operate outside the state-sponsored system, are often raided, and their members are arrested on charges of working against the interests of the state.”
China is one of the most severe state persecutors of Christians and other religious groups, requiring clergy to pledge allegiance to the CCP and socialism, resist certain religious activities and extremist ideology and resist infiltration by foreign forces using religion. The U.S. State Department annually names China as a Country of Particular Concern for egregious religious freedom violations, and the 2025 Open Doors’ World Watch List ranks China as 15th among the 50 worst places for Christians to live, citing Communist and post-Communist oppression.
Under Xi’s Sinicization, the CCP allows five organized religions and tightly controls all aspects of them, including their houses of worship, beliefs, activities, leadership, language and even how the adherents dress, according to a September 2024 factsheet from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
“Enforcement of such Sinicization policies has consistently resulted in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom and related human rights, including genocide, crimes against humanity, mass incarceration, enforced disappearances and the destruction of cultural and religious heritage,” USCIRF wrote in “Sinicization of Religion: China’s Coercive Religious Policy.”
In April, the CCP-sanctioned China Christian Council and the National Committee of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement announced the upcoming publication of the book “Sinicization of Christianity,” China Aid announced. The book is marketed as emphasizing harmony with Chinese culture and socialist society, China Aid reported, but is seen as a tool in the implementation of Xi’s “Five-Year Work Plan for Further Advancing the Sinicization of Christianity (2023–2027).”
This article has been republished courtesy of Baptist Press.
Diana Chandler is Baptist Press’ senior writer.