(China – January 26, 2026) On December 16, 2025, the 9th Joint Meeting of the 10th National Committees of the Catholic “One Association and One Conference” (the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association and the Chinese Catholic Bishops’ Conference) was held in Guangyuan City, Sichuan Province. The meeting reviewed the 2026 work plan and formally adopted an internal regulation with significant political control implications — “Provisional Regulations on the Standardized Management of Exit-and-Entry Travel Documents for Catholic Clergy,” which symbolizes that Catholic clergy in China have been officially incorporated into a party–state–style “quasi-cadre management system.”
According to the Regulations, all Catholic clergy, including bishops, priests, deacons, and nuns, must surrender their personal ordinary passports, Mainland Travel Permits for Hong Kong and Macao, and Mainland Residents’ Travel Permits for Taiwan. These documents are to be centrally kept by Catholic “Two Associations” at various levels or by dioceses, and individuals are not permitted to retain them personally.
This process, described by rights observers as a form of “border control,” mirrors the Chinese Communist Party’s management of civil servants and senior executives of state-owned enterprises:
- The organization uniformly manages travel documents.
- Regardless of whether travel abroad is for official or personal reasons, a written application must be submitted at least 30 days in advance, detailing the itinerary and purpose, and accompanied by a signed letter of commitment.
- Within seven days of returning to China, the documents must be returned, and a post-trip report must be submitted for accountability purposes.
- Those who fail to surrender documents or alter itineraries without authorization will face suspension of document processing and may be subject to serious consequences in accordance with internal church regulations and the rules of national religious affairs authorities.
The meeting was presided over by Bishop Joseph Shen Bin (沈斌), with Bishop Joseph Li Shan (李山) delivering the concluding remarks. The meeting emphasized the need to thoroughly study and implement the spirit of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, to hold high the banner of “love the country and love the religion,” to advance the Sinicization of Catholicism systematically, and to implement “comprehensive and strict governance.”
However, at the operational level, this “Sinicization” manifests in absolute control over administrative resources and over personal freedom. For a long time, Catholicism has possessed a universal character marked by cross-border exchange, with clergy training and theological research relying on international mobility. With passports now surrendered, regular international religious exchanges will be entirely dependent on political approval from the authorities.
The “trial” nature of this document suggests the institutionalization of the system. It has also been reported internally that the Protestant Three-Self Patriotic Movement is studying a similar centralized management scheme for outbound travel documents.
Analysts believe that from the recent “language control” seen in the removal of English from primary school English exams in Shanghai, to the “signage control” involving the removal of English-language signs in public spaces, and now the “border control” targeting clergy, the CCP is using digitally enabled administrative measures to construct a localized “new closed-door policy.” The incorporation of Catholic clergy into an administrative surveillance system marks a shift whereby religious personnel are no longer regarded as purely believers, but as objects of control under the logic of national security.
Gao Zhensai, Special Correspondent for ChinaAid
