Chinese governments since the late 19th century have discouraged and cracked down on both folk and organized religion. The Qing dynasty's 1898 edict confiscated folk religion temples that were not performing state sacrifices and turned them into schools; though these confiscations were reversed after a short time, they set a precedent for subsequent antireligious campaigns. In the Republic of China (ROC), both the Beiyang government and then the Nationalist government viewed the free exercise of "religion" as based on the Western model of institutionalized religions, and sought to eliminate folk religious practice through anti-superstition campaigns. During the Chinese Civil War, in the Yan'an Soviet, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) implemented a campaign in 1945 to eliminate shamanic practices, especially those that it deemed unhygienic. After the 1949 proclamation of the People's Republic of China, the government sought to suppress new religious movements that had developed during the ROC era, deeming them reactionary secret societies.

The Chinese Communist Party adheres to the doctrine of state atheism and has carried out antireligious campaigns in the People's Republic of China to this end. Members of the CCP are required to be atheists. Major campaigns sought to eliminate religion during the Cultural Revolution. Red Guards destroyed religious objects, texts, temples, and premises as part of the campaign against the "Four Olds." The first nationwide antireligious campaign of the Reform and Opening Up period was the 1983 suppression of The Shouters, a new religious movement. In the mid-1990s, government discourses changed from the Mao-era characterization of such movements as "reactionary secret societies" to using the terminology of "evil cults". Beginning in 1999 during Jiang Zemin's administration, the government began a campaign to suppress Falun Gong and persecuted practitioners.

State campaigns against religion have escalated since Xi Jinping became CCP general secretary in 2012. For Christians in China, government decrees have mandated the widespread removal of crosses from churches, and in some cases, they have also mandated the destruction of houses of worship. Congregations of Mormons have been banned throughout the country and the small Kaifeng Jewish community has been suppressed. In Tibet, decrees have mandated the destruction of Tibetan Buddhist monastic centers, denied Tibetans' access to their cultural heritage, and led to ongoing persecution of high Buddhist lamas as well as Buddhist nuns and monks. In Xinjiang, the government has detained more than a million Uyghur Muslims in internment camps, destroyed or sinicized mosques, and suppressed Islamic religious practices such as fasting during Ramadan.

Late Qing period Christianity was the religion most systemically discriminated against in China prior to the founding of the People's Republic of China. Chinese emperors were concerned about whether foreign authorities, particularly the Vatican, would gain control over Chinese Christians. Many Chinese people were concerned that Christianity would replace traditional Chinese cultural identity.

In 1898, Kang Youwei persuaded the Emperor to issue an edict confiscating folk religion temples which were not performing state sacrifices and turn them into schools. The temple confiscations were shortly reversed. The policy set a precedent for future campaigns in China.

Beginning in 1901, and more so after 1904, local officials and reform activists seized temple land and infrastructure to build schools, self-administration bureaus, barracks, police stations, post offices, and other newly mandated public buildings.

The Qing Code enacted a "Ban on Vernacular Masters and Heretical Techniques", including criminalizing spirit possession practices.

The current meaning of "religion" () developed in Chinese discourses around 1900. In its earliest uses, it referred specifically to Christianity. It became more broadly used by intellectuals in China to describe exclusive systems of thought and practice with a congregational organization distinct from society as a whole, a viewpoint consistent with the Western post-Enlightenment view of religion. This definition of religion helped advance anti-superstition policies.

Republic of China In the Republic of China, both the Beiyang government and the Nationalist government sought the eliminate the social power of traditional Chinese religion. The 1912 provisional constitution's freedom of religious belief provision was framed on the Protestant model of religion as an organized faith and it did not protect folk religious belief or temples from being destroyed or repurposed. As academic Mayfair Mei-hui Yang writes, ROC "elites saw no contradiction between protecting freedom of belief on the one hand and eradicating superstition and destroying temples on the other." They deemed practices contrary to Western-style civilization as superstitious.

The ROC continued the Qing-era drive to convert temples into other institutions. Yuan Shikai supported the conversion of temples into public property.

Nationalist discourses in China during the 1920s became more anti-religious, and protests which were part of the Anti-Christian Movement occurred from 1922 to 1927. The Nationalists promoted secularism and enacted a series of campaigns to eliminate activities deemed superstitious.

From 1927 to 1937, the Nationalist government condemned folk religious practices as superstition and sought to eliminate these practices through anti-superstition campaigns. These campaigns targeted temples, shrines, practitioners, professions, and larger communities.

As part of its campaigns against temples, the Nationalist government issued standards for whether temples should be preserved or eliminated. Temples tied to religions that were deemed legitimate were acceptable, as were those for the worship of "former worthies" (religious figures deemed socially or nationally useful). The 1928 "Standards for retaining or abolishing gods and shrines" formally abolished all cults of gods with the exception of human heroes such as Yu the Great, Guan Yu and Confucius. Regulations for the campaigns against temples were amorphous and whether a temple's deity was deemed legitimate could be a matter a debate; implementation of the campaigns was accordingly uneven.

After 1928, the ROC campaign to against folk religion temples became more intense, particularly in north China, and increasingly emphasized the physical destruction of temples. The ROC temple conversion campaign lasted until the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War.

The Nationalist government initiated campaigns against ritual professions deemed "superstitious". It banned the professional practices of the "three aunties and six grannies": Buddhist and Daoist nuns, female fortune-tellers, female healers, female shamans, procuresses, female matchmakers, brothel madams, and midwives. In its campaign against superstition, the Nationalist government condemned men who practiced arts deemed superstitious as disreputable, deeming them "unproductive" and "useless to society." Male ritual professions condemned in this way included shamans, fortune tellers, geomancers, spirit mediums, and physiognomists, among others.Such practitioners were frequently viewed by the Nationalist government as swindlers. For example, in Jiangnan, a Nationalist campaign required practitioners to change their profession within three months or be moved into a factory or workhouse.

The efficacy of the ROC's anti-superstition policies were limited as a result of its weak bureaucracy, the political divisions of the warlord era, and then the Second Sino-Japanese War. Campaigns against temples were generally more effective in the north of China (where the campaigns focused more on converting the temples to educational uses) than in the south (where they focused more on destroying the actual temple premises).

Yiguandao became the largest new religious movement of the Republic of China era, in part because of its effective use of opportunities during the war. Its founder Zhang Guangbi developed a close relationship with the Japanese and Yiguandao included officials of the Wang Jingwei government in its membership. As a result, both the Nationalists and the CCP condemned Yiguandao; at the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War, Zhang was arrested and the society was banned. As the CCP came into power, some networks of Yiguandao engaged in armed conflict with it.

CCP-controlled areas and the early PRC The CCP's first mass campaign against superstition occurred in Yan'an in 1944 and 1945. The campaign sought to eliminate shamanic ritual practices, reform shamans into productive workers, and to promote public health and hygiene.

In 1949, the CCP denounced religions as being associated with "foreign cultural imperialism," "feudalism," and "superstition." After its founding, the PRC began a campaign to suppress the new religious movements that had developed during the ROC era, deeming them reactionary secret societies (fandong huidaomen). These efforts eliminated new religious movements from public practice.

In the 1950s, "combat superstition teams" visited rural areas in an effort to promote science and to reform thinking deemed as superstitious.

During the Korean War, the United States froze all Chinese assets in the United States and banned the transfer of funds from the United States to within the PRC. Among the effects of these policies was cutting off funding for American-affiliated cultural institutions in China, including Christian colleges and religious institutions. The PRC responded by nationalizing American-affiliated cultural institutions, including religious ones.

Various campaigns from the 1950s to the 1970s sought to eliminate the influence of folk religion, including through exhibition of objects deemed superstitious and publishing confessions from spirit mediums. These campaigns aimed to expose what the state deemed to be evil and ignorant superstitious practices.

As a result of antireligious campaigns which were waged between 1950 and 1979, churches, mosques, and temples were closed and re-education was imposed upon clergy.

Cultural Revolution

During the Cultural Revolution, religious repression intensified at both the grassroots and state level in China. In August 1966, Chairman Mao Zedong launched the Four Olds campaign. Its aim was to eliminate old thought, culture, customs, and habits and to establish a new revolutionary culture. Red Guards, mobilized by Mao and facilitated by the government, undertook the mass destruction of cultural and religious relics, texts, and places of worship.

State atheism and public religious repression were longstanding practices of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since their victory in 1949. However, with the onset of the Cultural Revolution, a nationwide ban on both public and private religious practice was enacted, including household altars, prayer, and the study of religious texts. During this period, especially during the Four Olds campaign, the CCP and Red Guards enforced this ban. They “shut down” or “destroyed” places of worship, including temples, mosques, and churches, burned “sacred” books, and “smashed” artifacts. The CCP criminalized the possession of religious artifacts or texts.

All religions in China were attacked in this manner, including Confucianism, folk worship, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, and indigenous religions of ethnic minorities. Historian Merle Goldman assessed that while “organized religion was destroyed” by the Cultural Revolution's campaigns, “the religion could not be.” Many people maintained their religious beliefs and practices in secret.