4/4/2025 China — New regulations released this week by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) impose severe restrictions on missionary activity in the country, according to Chinese state media and representatives of the Chinese Communist Party.
The regulations, which take effect May 1, prohibit foreigners from preaching, sharing their faith, or establishing religious organizations without official government approval.
Justifying these regulations, Chinese state media claimed that the newly revised rules promote national security—a common justification for CCP persecution of religion—and help to protect “normal religious activities,” referring to activities run under strict government oversight as part of state-run religious institutions.
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. 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.
The protestant Three Self Church and the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association are prominent examples of these state-run institutions. They work to promote CCP propaganda and the personality cult surrounding country President Xi Jinping through songs, sermons, and community events.
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.
Earlier this year, the Chinese government issued a report boasting about the increased persecution of independent religious groups in 2024. “China’s public security authorities intensified efforts to dismantle cult organizations in 2024,” reported the Global Times, a state-run media outlet. “They have worked to curb the growth and spread of cult organizations, mitigating potential threats to national political security and maintaining social stability.”
In a statement on the Chinese messaging app and social media platform WeChat, China’s Ministry of Public Security boasted of increased spending on technology and manpower to combat independent religious organizations.
China is a world leader in using technology to surveil and repress its citizens. While the full extent of its surveillance apparatus is unknown, research has shown that it operates a system that tracks every citizen’s movement to gain insight into their CCP loyalty. From mundane details like what a person wears to larger observations like whom they associate with, the system works to track and understand the loyalty citizens..
Chinese government officials use the data captured by this system to track and control those it deems a danger to the state. Notably, this includes anybody associated with the unregistered house church movement and anyone who might desire to practice religion outside the confines of the state-run institutions.
