7/17/2025 China (International Christian Concern) — Recent reports and firsthand testimony from Christians in China indicate that the Chinese government is persecuting the church with renewed vigor as it implements new regulations on foreign missionaries and the worship practices of local believers.
In April, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) released new regulations reinforcing its ban on independent foreign missionary activity. While the CCP does allow a small number of missionaries to operate under strict government control, these regulations prohibit foreigners from preaching, sharing their faith, or establishing religious organizations without official approval.
In May, the government announced the “2025 Church Music Ministry Blueprint,” establishing strict guidelines for worship in government-approved churches. Among other provisions, the blueprint calls for the creation of new hymns to spread CCP propaganda and the alteration of existing worship music to align with official party dogma.
According to Bob Fu, president of ChinaAid, Christians worshipping in government-approved Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) churches must now sing songs in praise of communist heroes and the CCP itself before singing songs of praise to Jesus.
The CCP has long leveraged the Three-Self church to advance communist ideology through tight control of foreign missionaries, oversight of sermons, and a requirement that churches advance party ideals over theology.
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.
Beginning in the spring of 2025, the government has escalated its crackdown on the underground Catholic church. Priests, nuns, and laypersons have been arrested, while unregistered houses of worship have been shuttered to coerce the independent Catholic church to join the state-sanctioned Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA).
According to the watchdog group Bitter Winter, roughly 90% of independent Catholic churches have been closed in Wenzhou, where the recent wave of persecution has been the most severe.
State-Run Alternative to the Independent Church
The CCP has long regarded independent religious practice as a threat to its authority, perceiving spiritual loyalty as inherently incompatible with the Party’s demand for ideological control. In this view, any religious expression outside the bounds of state supervision is suspect — labeled as “cultish” or “extremist” — regardless of its actual doctrine or conduct. As a result, all legally sanctioned Christian activity in China is funneled through state-managed institutions designed to subordinate theology to Party interests.
Two central instruments of this strategy are the Protestant TSPM and the CCPA. These official churches function not simply as places of worship, but as ideological platforms. Through sermons, music, and community engagement, they propagate Party narratives, promote the cult of personality surrounding President Xi Jinping, and suppress elements of faith deemed inconsistent with socialist values.
Independent house churches that operate outside this framework face persistent repression. Their leaders are frequently detained, and their congregations harassed under vague charges such as “endangering state security.” The government’s goal is not only to disband unsanctioned religious networks but also to coerce believers into joining the state-approved religious system, where worship is permitted only within tightly controlled ideological parameters.
A striking example of this conflict came in April, shortly after the death of Pope Francis. Before the Vatican could install a successor, Beijing unilaterally appointed two new bishops — one of them in a diocese already occupied by a Vatican-recognized leader. This move signaled not only Beijing’s ongoing assertion of sovereignty over ecclesiastical matters but also a diplomatic test for the newly elected Pope Leo, who inherits the controversial 2018 China-Vatican agreement.
Early indications suggest Pope Leo may maintain the accord despite its critics, who argue it enables the suppression it was meant to moderate.
Secret China-Vatican Agreement
Founded by the Chinese government in 1957, the CCPA is a divisive institution among Catholics. On the one hand, its founding by the government makes it one of just a handful of religious organizations allowed to operate in China. On the other hand, the CCPA primarily serves as a mouthpiece for Communist government propaganda and operates with little regard for the leadership of the Vatican.
In fact, the CCPA was created with the express purpose of preventing influence by the Holy See on Chinese affairs, and the Chinese government has gone as far as to ordain bishops without Vatican consent. In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI declared the CCPA “incompatible with Catholic doctrine” due to its separatist self-management.
In 2018, Pope Francis signed a secret agreement with the Chinese government ostensibly to reclaim some degree of control over the CCPA for the Vatican. In particular, the agreement reportedly reserved for the Vatican the right to veto bishop candidates proposed by the Chinese government.
However, just a month after the agreement was renewed in 2020, China released a revised version of its Administrative Measures for Religious Clergy in which it claimed unilateral authority to appoint bishops in the CCPA. These rules disregarded any collaboration agreed to the month before.
Long History of Persecution
China is known to have forced abortions on its citizens, sterilized women without their consent, and murdered religious minorities to sell their organs on the black market. In many cases, religious communities are targeted for this type of mistreatment. Christian home churches are an attempt to escape government scrutiny, but even they are often raided and their members arrested on charges of working against the interests of the state.
China is a world leader in the use of 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 aims to track every citizen’s movements to gain insight into their loyalty to the CCP. From mundane details like what a person wears to larger observations like who they associate with, the system works to track and understand the loyalty of each citizen.
Chinese government officials use the data captured by this system to track and control those they deem a danger to the state. Notably, this includes anybody associated with the unregistered house church movement and anyone else who might desire to practice religion outside the confines of state-run institutions such as the CCPA.
Source: ICC
