In the People's Republic of China (PRC), freedom of religion is formally provided for in the 1982 state constitution,Constitution of China, Chapter 2, Article 36. yet with a caveat: the government controls what it calls "normal religious activity", defined in practice as activities that take place within government-sanctioned religious organizations and registered places of worship. Although the PRC's communist government claimed responsibility for the practice of religion, human rights bodies such as United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) have much criticized this differentiation as falling short of international standards for the protection of religious freedom.Congressional-Executive Commission on China, Annual Report 2011, Oct 2011.
The ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officially espouses state atheism, and has conducted antireligious campaigns to this end. China's five officially sanctioned religious organizations are the Buddhist Association of China, Chinese Taoist Association, Islamic Association of China, Three-Self Patriotic Movement and Catholic Patriotic Association. These groups have been overseen and controlled by the CCP's United Front Work Department since the State Administration for Religious Affairs' absorption into the United Front Work Department in 2018. Unregistered religious groups - including house churches, Falun Gong, and underground Catholics - face varying degrees of harassment, including imprisonment and torture. China has recently updated its Religious Affairs Regulations, leading to a notable curtailment of the freedom of religion and belief.
Legal framework
Republic of China
Under the early Republic of China view of freedom of religion, freedom attached to religious practice deemed proper (primarily based on the extent to which it resembled the Christian normative religious model). This definition view free religion focused on the "religion" versus "superstition" dichotomy, with state-sanctioned practices in the former category and the latter including Chinese folk 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."
The highest court in the ROC first ruled on the parameters of the ROC's freedom of religion principle in 1939. Religion issues had rarely been ruled on by ROC courts until that time, instead being determined by bureaucrats and Nationalist cadres.
The Nationalist government of the ROC intensified the suppression of local religion. Temples were widely appropriated, destroyed, or used for schools. From 1927 to 1937, the ROC condemned folk religious practices as superstition and sought to eliminate these practices through anti-superstition campaigns. 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.
According to Article 13 of the Constitution of the Republic of China of 1947:
People's Republic of China
Shortly after the October 1949 proclamation of the People's Republic of China, the CCP cabined its freedom of religion principles to the religions it viewed as potentially conforming to modern religion: Buddhism, Daoism, Islam, Protestantism, and Catholicism. These religions continued to be regulated, including through national associations.
In 1981, the Central Committee of the CPC issued Document No. 19, which describes the party-state's approach to religion. Formally titled The Basic Viewpoint and Policy on the Religious Question during Our Country's Socialist Period, Document No. 19 revised the CPC's stance on religion and identified some specific policies and regulations. According to Document No. 19, religious adherents and atheists can both find common ground in building socialism. Academic S.A. Smith writes that Document No. 19 resulted in the PRC returning to its 1950s concept of free exercise of religion within state regulatory bounds. According to Smith, Document No. 19 contributed to the religious revival in China during the reform era.
Article 36 of the Constitution of China of 1982 specifies that:
This protection is extended only to what are called "normal religious activities", generally understood to refer to religions that submit to state control via the State Administration for Religious Affairs. The Constitution further forbids the use of religion to "engage in activities that disrupt social order, impair the health of citizens or interfere with the educational system of the state." Furthermore, it states that "[r]eligious organizations and religious affairs are not subject to any foreign dominance."
The law affords protection to five officially sanctioned religions: the Buddhist Association of China, Chinese Taoist Association, Islamic Association of China, Three-Self Patriotic Movement and Catholic Patriotic Association. Religious groups are required to register with the State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA, formerly known as the central Religious Affairs Bureau) or its provincial and local offices (still known as Religious Affairs Bureaus (RABs)). SARA and the RABs are responsible for monitoring and judging the legitimacy of religious activity.
The law does not define "proselytization"; however, the constitution states that nobody can force a citizen to believe or not believe in a religion. Proselytizing is only permitted in private settings or within registered houses of worship. Proselytization in public, in unregistered churches or temples, or by foreigners is prohibited. Members of the officially atheist Communist Party are strongly discouraged from holding religious faith.Xinhua News Agency, "CPC members shall not believe in religion: senior official". , 19 December 2011. New laws in 2022 required anyone preaching online to apply for a permit for proselytizing. In 2025, the National Religious Affairs Administration issued a new online activity guidelines for clergy.
A significant number of non-sanctioned churches and temples exist, attended by locals and foreigners alike. Unregistered or underground churches are not officially banned, they are dependent on local authorities for permission to practice, and in many areas are not permitted to conduct religious activities.The December 2019 law《宗教团体管理办法》 came into force in February 2020 and explicitly bans activities held in the name of unregistered religions. These bodies may face varying degrees of interference, harassment, and persecution by state and party organs. The most common charge in 2022 was "organizing or using a cult to undermine implementation of law," - other charges included endangering state security and inciting secession.
Religious believers have also been charged under article 300 of the criminal code, which forbids using heretical organizations to "undermine the implementation of the law". An extrajudicial, Communist Party-led security organ called the 6-10 Office oversees the suppression of Falun Gong and, increasingly, other unregistered religious organizations.Sarah Cook and Leeshai Lemish, "The 610 Office: Policing the Chinese Spirit". , Jamestown Foundation, China Brief, Volume 11 Issue 17 (9 November 2011).Congressional-Executive Commission on China, "Annual Report 2009" , 10 October 2009
Folk religions, though not officially protected, are sometimes tolerated by authorities. The State Administration for Religious Affairs has created a department to oversee the management of folk religion.United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, Annual Report 2011 , May 2011.
Although the Chinese Communist Party has a long history of restricting religious freedom, in recent years it has become increasingly hostile toward religion and has initiated campaigns to "sinicize" Islam, Tibetan Buddhism, and Christianity to rid them of what it deems "foreign" influences. The 2018 Revised Regulations on Religious Affairs effectively ban "unauthorized" religious teaching and expand the role of local authorities in controlling religious activities. In 2019, religious freedom conditions in China continued to deteriorate. The Chinese government has created a high-tech surveillance state, utilizing facial recognition and artificial intelligence to monitor religious minorities. On 1 April 2019, a new regulation requiring religious venues to have legal representatives and professional accountants went into effect. Some smaller religious venues, especially in rural areas, found these requirements impossible to fulfill.
Since January 2024, 415 Taiwanese people who had travelled to China had gone missing, been detained or sent to prison. The Mainland Affairs Council said 23 of the cases were involved in religious activities, including 20 followers of I-Kuan Tao, which China calls as an illegal religious group.
Christianity
Christianity has had a presence in China dating as far back as the Tang dynasty, and accumulated a following in China with the arrival of large numbers of missionaries during the Qing dynasty. Missionaries were expelled from China in 1949 when the Communist Party came to power, and the religion was associated with Western imperialism. However, Christianity experienced a resurgence of popularity since the reforms under Deng Xiaoping in the late 1970s and 1980s. By 2011, approximately 60 million Chinese citizens were estimated to be practicing Protestantism or Catholicism. The majority of these do not belong to the state-sanctioned churches.Tim Gardam, Christians in China: Is the country in spiritual crisis? BBC, 11 September 2011. The government declared in 2018 that there are over 44 million Christians in China.
Religious practices are still often tightly controlled by government authorities. Chinese children in mainland China are permitted to be involved with officially sanctioned Christian meetings through the Three-Self Patriotic Movement or the Catholic Patriotic Association. In early January 2018, Chinese authorities in Shanxi province demolished a church, which created a wave of fear among the Christians.
From 2020 to 2021, estimates of the number of Christians in China ranged from 5.1 to 7.4% of the population.
In reports of countries with the strongest anti-Christian persecution, China was ranked by the Open Doors organization in 2019 as the 27th most severe country and in 2023 as 16th most severe.Open Doors website, retrieved 2023-08-08
In 2025, the Chinese government banned Mormon congregations throughout the country. In October 2025, the Chinese government arrested dozens of Zion Church members in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and other cities.
Roman Catholicism
China is home to an estimated 12 million Catholics, the majority of whom worship outside the official Catholic Patriotic Association (CPA). However, in 2020, there was no accurate number of Catholics in the country as the Vatican was unable to collect information.Catholics and Culture website, retrieved 2023-08-08 Estimates in 2020 suggested that Catholics made up 0.69% of the population.The ARDA website, retrieved 2023-08-28
Estimates in 2010 suggested that there were roughly 40 bishops unordained by the CPA who operated unofficially, and recognized the authority of the Vatican.U.S Department of State, International Religious Freedom Report 2010: China , 17 November 2010.