(Beijing – March 6, 2024) Since 2024, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) authorities have significantly intensified their crackdown on Christian house churches. Through legal regulations and policy agendas, they have systematically promoted a campaign of “Sinicization of Christianity” under the banner of patriotism, emphasizing loyalty to the Party and its leaders. In practical terms, they have aggressively targeted churches, arresting and harshly sentencing pastors, with a clear goal of reshaping Christianity into a tool for upholding the CCP’s authoritarian rule, consolidating both secular and religious authority under the leadership of the Party.
Article 22 of the “Patriotic Education Law of the People’s Republic of China,” which officially took effect on New Year’s Day 2024, explicitly states: “The state encourages and supports religious groups, religious schools, and places of religious activities to carry out patriotic education, enhance the national consciousness, citizen consciousness, legal consciousness, and patriotic sentiments of religious faculties and believers, and guide religions to adapt to the socialist society.” This seemingly vague yet all-encompassing provision has become a sword wielded at will by various levels of religious regulatory authorities in China, targeting churches and pastors anytime and anywhere.
In mid-January, media reports revealed that on December 19, 2023, the 10th National Committee of Three-Self Patriotic Movement of the Protestant Churches in China held a meeting in Beijing. Members attending the meeting introduced the “Outline of the Five-Year Work Plan for Further Promoting the Sinicization of Christianity in China (2023-2027)” (referred to as the “Outline”). The new outline proposes studying Xi Jinping’s Thoughts and continuously improving the compatibility of Christianity with socialist society. It aims to promote the Sinicization of Christianity by starting with the Sinicization of theological thoughts, striving to interpret doctrines and regulations in accordance with the core socialist values. This meeting also issued initiatives for “outline of plan implementation” and “comprehensively governing religious affairs with strict discipline.”
Shortly thereafter, East China Theological Seminary in Shanghai, in response to the “Patriotic Education Law” and the ” Outline of the Five-Year Work Plan for Further Promoting the Sinicization of Christianity in China (2023-2027),” signed an agreement with the Shanghai Huangpu District “Two Sessions” (a collective term for the annual sessions of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC)) to continue advancing the practice of Sinicization of Christianity in 2024, blatantly revealing a compromise with authority.
In mid-January, the Committee of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement of the Protestant Churches and the Christian Council in Wuhan conducted a thorough inspection of Christian activity venues in the city. They meticulously registered and traced the procurement, use, and management of so-called “illegal religious publications,” audio-visual materials, and promotional materials. The focus was on investigating theological books and church periodicals within the churches. Inspection teams delved into various churches and major activity venues in the urban areas of the city, gaining detailed insights into the channels of procurement and sales of religious publications at each location. They specifically checked for unauthorized printing of books, newspapers, and internal informational materials, as well as the presence of illegal publications for display, storage, dissemination, and use. They mentioned that in the next step, they will conduct “unscheduled and regular” visits to church venues and carry out ongoing inspections of publications throughout the year. In other words, Wuhan has entered a phase of strict scrutiny and harsh oversight of religious activities. This so-called special inspection, conducted without strict definition of “illegal religious publications,” is essentially a means for the ruling group to arbitrarily suppress the churches according to their own intentions and political needs, using inspections of “illegal publications” as a pretext to target churches that do not comply with authority.
Besides, the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Committee of Zhejiang Province, which is in charge of religious affairs, officially launched the “Implementation Measures for the Management of Religious Activity Venues (Trial)”, the official explanation of which is aimed at standardizing the supervision of religious activity venues in the province. The document has been passed down from the ethnic and religious affairs bureaus of various cities and counties to the township governments and community offices. This measure will take effect from February 1, 2024. Article 3 of Chapter 1 of the document explicitly requires activity venues to “support the leadership of the Communist Party of China, support the socialist system,” and also contains strong political coloration of personality cult with phrases like “thoroughly implement Xi Jinping’s Thoughts on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era” and “practice the core socialist values, adhere to the Sinicization of religion in China.”
The policies, plans, and actions implemented by regional religious institutions from Shanghai, Wuhan to Zhejiang actually foreshadow the strict control measures that China is about to implement on churches. This regional suppression and control of churches signify the common destiny that the overall Chinese church is about to face. From this, it can be inferred that a harsh winter is descending upon Chinese Christianity.
Corresponding to the various systematic policies and regulations mentioned above, the persecution of Christian house churches in China is becoming increasingly severe.
On January 4th, the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Civil Affairs announced the list of eight illegal social organizations that were lawfully shut down by civil affairs departments, along with seven suspected organizations. This marks the first batch in 2024. Among the eight illegal social organizations that were shut down, five were church branches: the Suzhou branch affiliated with the Beijing Zion Church (Beijing Zion Church Yangtze River Delta Suzhou Branch) and the Yilin Youth Fellowship (Taolin Youth Fellowship) in Lianyungang City are part of house churches. Additionally, there were two local branches of the religious group “Church of Almighty God”, which was designated as heretical by the Chinese Communist Party authorities, and one Jehovah’s Witness church.
On January 12th, it was disclosed that although the trial of Pastor Kan Xiaoyong, who has been detained in Dalian, Liaoning Province for three years, has not been formally announced, the verdict of the first trial has concluded. The Ganjingzi District Court in Dalian determined that the six defendants, Kan Xiaoyong, Wang Fengying, Chu Xinyu, Zhao Qianjiao, Zhang Song’ai, and Liang Dongzhi, were guilty of cult-related crimes and illegal business operations. The charges were upheld, while the charge of fraud was not established. Despite the removal of the most severe charge of fraud, Pastor Kan Xiaoyong was still sentenced to 14 years in prison. Kan Xiaoyong’s wife, Wang Fengying, was sentenced to 4 years, Chu Xinyu to 10 years, and it is expected that Zhao Qianjiao, Zhang Song’ai, and Liang Dongzhi will be sentenced to 3 years imprisonment with a 4-year probation period. All defense lawyers were appointed by the authorities.
According to media reports, Dai Zhichao, a pastor at the Chengdu Early Rain Covenant Church, was changed to one year of bail pending trial after his criminal detention period ended; Bishop Shao Zhumin of the Catholic Diocese of Wenzhou was taken away for opposing the interference of the Chinese Communist Party authorities in the affairs of the diocese and has since lost contact with the outside world; Four Christians, including Pastor Wan Changchun of the Huoshi Reformed Church in Bengbu, Anhui Province, have been charged with “fraud” and have been prosecuted in court; During a Sunday gathering at the Dashi branch of the Guangzhou Bible Reformed Church, armed police led a raid while the congregation was dining and praying, and so on.
The banning of house churches, harsh sentencing of pastors, detention of Christians, and even the raids by armed police on churches demonstrate that the Chinese Communist authorities, in their systematic policies and regulations to suppress and restrict church activities, resort to severe measures to coerce pastors and believers into submission to their authority. They aim to manipulate religious beliefs according to the will of the regime, turning Christianity into a tool of power to serve authoritarian rule.
Various indications suggest that the Chinese Communist authorities, in order to implement their “Sinicization of Christianity” policy, are intensifying their suppression of Christianity. That is, to turn Christianity into a supporter of the CCP’s rule, a propagandist for CCP ideology, a grassroots organization loyal to worshiping the party leadership, and ultimately a tool to assist CCP rule. The authorities continue to strengthen their crackdown on Christianity. In fact, this is reminiscent of historical anti-Christian movements that have occurred repeatedly throughout history.
Human history has repeatedly proven that this “Sinicization of Christianity” movement, which completely deviates from the principles of religious belief, contravenes the will of the faithful, and indirectly deprives citizens of their freedom of religious belief, is essentially anti-Christian. It will inevitably face resistance from true believers in Christ. Therefore, it is bound to fail and can only repeat the fate of failure seen in previous anti-Christian dramas throughout history.
