Christianity in China!

Christianity in China is a rising trend. China acknowledges and follows following 5 religions

1. Taoism and Chinese folk religion (30% - 80%)
2. Buddhists (10% - 16%)
3. Christians (2%-4%)
4. Muslims (1%-2%)

5. Protestanism

Some scholars prefer not to use the term "religion" in reference to belief systems in China, and suggest "cultural practices", "thought systems" or "philosophies" as more appropriate terms.

“By 2030, China will almost certainly have more Christians than any other country and the Communist party is very alarmed.

Chinese officials often cite the experience of Poland, where they believe the Catholic Church helped destroy communism and, although the two situations are not really comparable, the party still sees Christianity as a very serious threat that it needs to suppress.

Christianity is booming in China, propelling it toward becoming the world's largest Christian nation. But as religion grows, it spurs a government crackdown.

While Christianity is waning in many parts of the world, in China it is growing rapidly – despite state strictures. The rise in evangelical Protestantism in particular, driven both by people’s spiritual yearnings and individual human needs in a collective society, is taking place in nearly every part of the nation.

“I come because I found a love here that isn’t dependent on a person,” says Du Wang, a young businesswoman in Hangzhou. “It is like a river that doesn’t go away.”


Yet as Chinese achieve material wealth and success, many feel lost. The success of economic reforms under Chinese leader Deng, launched in the early 1990s, has not helped rebuild China’s spiritual infrastructure, decimated during war and the Cultural Revolution. China’s rise has come with a cost: a loss of traditional values and the rise of cheating, corruption, and fierce competition.







Known throughout China as the “Jerusalem of the east” because of its huge Christian population, Wenzhou is an obvious target for a government concerned about the spread of this “subversive” religion. Until recently, one of the most striking things about the city was the abundance of giant ornate cathedrals and huge neon-lit crosses dotted around town and the surrounding countryside. Local church groups estimate at least 10 per cent of Wenzhou’s population – more than 1.2 million people – attends a Protestant congregation regularly. Just as in the rest of China, the Catholic population is much smaller but still numbers in the hundreds of thousands. They have also been subject to forced cross removals, harassment, increased surveillance and detentions for “illegal” worship this year.

Kunshan road youth choir. The Kunshan Road Protestant church in Shanghai has a young congregation led by a woman priest. Protestants in China should only attend churches run by the official 'Three Self Patriotic Movement'

While Catholic numbers are rising much more slowly, Protestant congregations, particularly “illegal” house churches, have exploded across the country and Protestantism is growing even faster than Buddhism, the dominant religion in China.

Both Han and Wang say they feel Catholicism is stricter and more serious than Protestantism, which is more popular and tends to attract younger people who don’t necessarily have a family history of Christian faith. This flexibility of Protestantism also leaves a lot of room for individual interpretation. So it is no surprise most of China’s many heterodox movements and cults tend to grow out of the charismatic fringes of the underground Protestant churches.

 The chongyi church in Hangzhou is one of the largest churches in China.

The Vatican and Beijing have had no formal relations since the Communist Party came into power in 1949.

Officially an atheist country, China does not recognize the authority of the Vatican over its millions of Catholics. Instead, it has set up its own Catholic governing body, known as the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association that answers to the Party.

This association is similar to other state organizations that manage followers of major faiths, including the Three-Self Patriotic Movement for Protestants and the Chinese Patriotic Islamic Association.