Legal framework on freedom of religion and actual application
Article 36 of China’s 1982 constitution (revised in 2018) states that “Citizens of the People’s Republic of China enjoy freedom of religious belief. No state organ, public organisation or individual may compel citizens to believe in, or not to believe in, any religion; nor may they discriminate against citizens who believe in, or do not believe in, any religion.” The same article adds that the State protects “normal religious activities”. Without providing any definition of “normal”, it clearly prohibits the use of religion for activities that “disrupt public order, impair the health of citizens or interfere with the educational system of the State.” Moreover, religious organisations and activities must not be “subject to any foreign domination”.[1]
In practice, Article 36 of the constitution protects only the activities of the five officially recognised religious traditions — Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Protestantism and Catholicism — and only those governed by the state-sanctioned “patriotic” associations. Religious practice or expression outside the state-controlled apparatus is illegal and has been met, to varying degrees over the past 75 years, with punishment, repression and persecution, but also with partial toleration by local authorities in some places.
On 1 February 2018, revised Regulations on Religious Affairs came into effect, which amount to one of the most restrictive new laws on religious practice. They update the 2005 Regulations on Religious Affairs and confine collective religious activities to registered sites. According to Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), these revised regulations “further tighten control over religious activities”. They state that “religious groups, religious schools, and religious activity sites and religious affairs, are not to be controlled by foreign forces” and stipulate that religion must not endanger national security. The regulations also impose further restrictions on the communication of religious content, religious schools and charity work.[2]
Since March 2018, religious affairs have come under the direction of the United Front Work Department (an agency of the CCP), which absorbed the State Administration of Religious Affairs (SARA). The integration of SARA gave the Communist Party direct management of religious affairs.[3]
In April 2018, the Chinese government issued a new White Paper entitled “China’s Policies and Practices on Protecting Freedom of Religious Belief”. According to the White Paper, “active guidance” will be provided to religious organisations to help them “adapt to the socialist society” and foreigners may hold religious activities attended by foreigners at sites approved by government religious affairs departments at or above the county level.[4] According to the White Paper, Religious teachings and rules should be interpreted “to conform to the national conditions and demands of the times”. In effect, this means that religion must serve the Communist Party.
Members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the armed forces are required to be atheists and are forbidden from engaging in religious practice. Since the implementation of the revised Regulations on Religious Affairs in 2018, several provinces — most notably Henan and Xinjiang — have enforced policies that prohibit individuals under the age of 18 from attending religious services, participating in religious education, or entering places of worship.[5] On 8 April 2018, a circular issued in Henan province, issued by the Henan Patriotic Association and the Henan Commission for Church Affairs, explicitly bans individuals under 18 from entering churches or participating in religious activities, including camps and conferences.[6] In practice, this has led to visible enforcement, such as signs barring minors from church entry and officials stationed at doors to turn children away, raising concerns about the erosion of religious freedom and intergenerational faith transmission. Churches are monitored by state-sanctioned religious associations, and clergy are pressured to comply with these restrictions or face penalties. Church leaders are responding to this ban by shifting toward family-based discipleship.[7] Multiple local sources indicated that the enforcement and implementation of the prohibition varied considerably both across and within different regions. According to the State Administration of Religious Affairs (SARA), six religious colleges operate at the national level.[8]
Article 27 of China’s Law on National Security also relates to freedom of religion or belief. This law has been criticised by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights for its “extraordinarily broad scope” and vague terminology, which, he argues, leaves “the door wide open to further restrictions of the rights and freedoms of Chinese citizens, and to even tighter control of civil society”.[9]
Other regulations that may impact freedom of religion or belief include Document 9, a notice from the Central Committee of the Communist Party’s General Office, of April 2013, and a new law on foreign Non-Governmental Organisations, adopted in 2016. Document 9, “Communiqué on the Current State of the Ideological Sphere”, presents Western values, Western constitutional democracy and Western-style free media as in conflict with the CCP’s values and claims that petitions and letters calling for protection of human rights are the work of “Western anti-China forces”.[10] The new Foreign NGO Law, which came into force in January 2017, gives the police unprecedented power to restrict the work of foreign groups in the country, and to limit the ability of local groups to receive foreign funding and work with foreign organisations. Foreign NGOs are required to have a Chinese government organisation as a sponsor, and to be registered with the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) or its provincial-level equivalents before establishing an office within mainland China. Police have new powers to arbitrarily summon representatives of foreign organisations in China, seize documents, examine bank accounts, and revoke registration. Foreigners or foreign organisations deemed to be involved in activities aimed at “dividing the country, undermining national reunification or subverting state power” can be detained, barred from leaving the country, or deported.[11]
In April 2016, China’s President Xi Jinping addressed senior Communist Party officials at a meeting on religion, stating that “Religious groups … must adhere to the leadership of the Communist Party of China.” Party members must be “unyielding Marxist atheists” who “resolutely guard against overseas infiltrations via religious means”.[12] This followed a speech by the director of China’s State Administration for Religious Affairs, who in 2014 told a seminar on the sinicisation of Christianity that Chinese Christian theology should be compatible with the country’s path of socialism.[13] The government’s legislative framework is clearly designed to fulfil that objective.
In September 2018, the Holy See reached a preliminary agreement with the Chinese government on the appointment of bishops, valid for two years. As a provisional agreement rather than a formal treaty, the text remains secret, but it is understood that it gives the Chinese government the right to recommend candidates to be appointed as bishops, who are then confirmed or refused by the Vatican. The Holy See and the Chinese government renewed the agreement in September 2020, in October 2022[14], and once again in October 2024, this time for a duration of four years.[15] On 24 November 2022, the Chinese government violated the agreement by appointing a bishop — who had been appointed and secretly ordained by Pope Francis in 2014 — to a diocese which the Holy See did not recognise, without previous consultation or approval from the Vatican.[16] In a press statement, the Holy See expressed “surprise and regret” regarding the episcopal installation, which it deemed inconsistent with both the spirit and the provisions of the Provisional Agreement on the Appointment of Bishops between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China. The Vatican further noted that Bishop Peng’s civil recognition had been preceded by “prolonged and intense pressure by the local Authorities”.[17] The Chinese government violated the agreement a second time by transferring a bishop to Shanghai diocese and installing him as the local bishop in April 2023 without the Pope’s approval, although Pope Francis subsequently approved the appointment.[18]
On 1 May 2021, the Measures on the Management of Religious Clergy came into effect, having been issued by SARA on 9 February. The Measures are part of a series of new regulations that supplement the revised 2018 Regulations on Religious Affairs. These increase state control and surveillance of clergy of the five state-sanctioned religious groups in China — the Buddhist Association of China, the Chinese Taoist Association, the Islamic Association of China, the Protestant Three-Self Patriotic Movement, and the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association — and impose penalties for clergy who violate state policies. The measures once more ban religious activity by independent religious clergy who are outside the five state-approved religious groups.[19] According to the Measures, religious groups have also to develop a religious clergy code of conduct which should include a mechanism of rewards and punishments, and a religious clergy assessment system.[20]
The Measures for the Administration of Internet Religious Information Services came into effect on 1 March 2022.[21] These measures forbid the sharing of religious content online without a “special licence” (i.e. an Internet Religious Information Service License), including through text messages, images, audio and video. They also prohibit religious content that “induce[s] minors to believe in religion”.[22] They have resulted in the disbanding of WeChat groups by religious adherents, and strict self-censorship. They also mean a ban on live streaming of religious events and the removal of videos of religious events from the internet.[23]
On 1 June 2022, new Financial Management Measures for Places of Religious Activities came into force. These regulations effectively give the United Front Work Department and the Ministry of Finance control of the finances of religious sites of state-controlled groups and regulate donations and offerings.[24]
In July 2023, Measures for the Administration of Religious Activity Venues were issued, confirming that buildings for religious activity would require official evaluation and approval and stating that they were not to be used for activities that “endanger national security, disrupt social order [or] damage national interests”.[25]
On 24 October 2023, the National People’s Congress passed the Patriotic Education Law, which in Article 22 stipulates that “the State encourages and supports religious groups, religious colleges and places of religious activity to carry out education in patriotism” so that “patriotic sentiments of religious clergy and believers” are enhanced and religions are guided “to adapt to Socialist society”. This law provides another tool for promoting patriotism, which has long been integrated into all areas of society, contributing to a kind of nationalism that is increasingly intolerant to freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief and strengthening the sinicisation campaign.[26]
In February 2024, amendments to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Religious Affairs Regulations came into force, instructing that all new or renovated places of worship must reflect “Chinese characteristics and style”. The regulations state specifically that any mosque renovations that would change the existing layout or functions must be approved by the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region authorities.[27] This requirement is uniformly applied across China. Article 50 of the Administrative Measures for Religious Activity Venues mandates that all places of religious activity must reflect a distinctly Chinese aesthetic, incorporating elements of Chinese culture in their architectural design, sculpture, painting, interior decoration and other visual aspects.[28]
In March 2024, Hong Kong introduced a further local security law, the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, which is an addition to the draconian security law imposed on Hong Kong by Beijing in 2020. While this new security law, based on Article 23 of the Hong Kong Basic Law, is not specifically aimed at religious activity, its implications will be felt by all in society, including religious adherents, and it poses a threat to freedom of religion or belief, as further detailed later in this country report.[29]
Incidents and developments
Over the period under review, all religious minorities experienced limitations. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) noted the deterioration in religious freedom conditions in China as a consequence of the government’s intensification of the implementation of its “sinicisation of religion” policy. As described by sociologist Richard Madsen, the current formulation of “Sinicisation from above” originates with President Xi Jinping. In several of his official speeches, Xi has outlined a vision in which all religions — and indeed all aspects of Chinese culture — must contribute to China’s national development, align with traditional cultural values, and integrate into a socialist society with Chinese characteristics. In practice, this process of “Chinafication” demands strict adherence to Chinese Communist Party directives, effectively subordinating religious and cultural expression to state-defined ideological objectives.[30]
According to the U.S. Department of State, “Authorities continued to arrest and otherwise detain leaders and members of religious groups, often those connected with groups not registered with the state-sanctioned religious associations. Authorities reportedly used vague or insubstantial charges, sometimes in connection with religious activity, to convict and sentence leaders and members of religious groups to years in prison.”[31] The authorities have deployed high-tech surveillance outside places of worship, as well as transnational repression and disinformation, violence against religious and ethnic minorities in the diaspora (including during President Xi’s 2023 visit to San Francisco ),[32] and threats against their families living in China.[33]
As the Council on Foreign Relations has put it, “China is home to one of the largest populations of religious prisoners”.[34] The human rights NGO Dui Hua Foundation, whose Political Prisoner Database is one of the largest collections of data on prisoners of conscience in China, reported that as of 1 July 2025, authorities held 2,538 individuals for “Organising/using a cult to undermine the implementation of the law”.[35]
The genocide of the predominantly Muslim Uyghur population, recognised by both the independent Uyghur Tribunal chaired by British barrister Sir Geoffrey Nice KC in 2021,[36] and by the United States Department of State,[37] continues.
The CCP’s campaign of sinicisation and forced assimilation in Xinjiang and Tibet also continues.[38] In February 2024, amendments were made to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Religious Affairs Regulations, reinforcing the sinicisation policy and continuing to impose severe restrictions. In March, Ma Xingrui, CCP secretary of Xinjiang, insisted on the sinicisation of Islam, calling it an “inevitable trend”.[39]
In June 2024, Human Rights Watch reported that the Chinese government changed the names of hundreds of Uyghur villages in Xinjiang as part of efforts to erase Uyghur cultural and religious heritage. Around 630 villages were affected, with names referencing religion, history, or local identity — such as “mazar” (shrine) or “Hoja” (Sufi master) — replaced by generic terms or party slogans like “Happiness”, “Unity”, and “Harmony”, aligned with Chinese Communist Party ideology.[40]
In August 2024, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights at the United Nations acknowledged the lack of progress on human rights for religious minorities in Xinjiang, as Uyghur Muslims continued to be imprisoned for their religious activities, including for charitable contributions and religious instruction.[41] In July, the Chinese government had labelled the assessment of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights as “illegal and void”.[42] Basic religious practices such as fasting during Ramadan, wearing a beard of a certain length or, in the case of women, a hijab, abstaining from pork and alcohol, reading the Qur‘an, or praying can result in arrest and imprisonment. Many mosques have been closed or destroyed, and those that remain open are subjected to severe surveillance and restrictions.[43]
The persecution of religion and culture in Tibet continues. In February 2023, United Nations experts drew attention to the forced assimilationof almost one million Tibetan children through the compulsory attendance of boarding schools, where they “are forced to complete a ‘compulsory education’ curriculum in Mandarin Chinese (Putonghua) without access to traditional or culturally relevant learning ... As a result, Tibetan children are losing their facility with their native language and the ability to communicate easily with their parents and grandparents in the Tibetan language, which contributes to their assimilation and erosion of their identity.” The experts expressed their concern about the situation: “We are alarmed by what appears to be a policy of forced assimilation of the Tibetan identity into the dominant Han-Chinese majority, through a series of oppressive actions against Tibetan educational, religious and linguistic institutions.”[44] Police arrested and imprisoned Tibetan Buddhists for public and private mentions of the Dalai Lama, and the authorities have indicated that they intend to be involved with the process of the Dalai Lama’s succession, and to punish Tibetans who oppose this.[45]
The persecution of Falun Gong practitioners has also continued during the reporting period. According to the Falun Gong-affiliated publication Minghui, at least 164 Falun Gong practitioners died as a result of persecution in 2024,[46] and 764 were imprisoned.[47] Falun Gong sources documented 6,514 cases of harassment or arrest, 1,190 prison sentences and 209 deaths because of persecution in 2023.[48] In March 2023, the New York City Bar Association published a report which concluded that there was “ample evidence China continues to engage in forced organ harvesting of prisoners of conscience.” It revealed that, of the 60,000 to 100,000 transplants carried out between 2000 and 2014, Falun Gong practitioners were the primary victims.[49] This confirmed the conclusion of the independent China Tribunal into the issue in 2019.[50]
The Church of Almighty God (CAG) also continued to face persecution, with the arrests of thousands of CAG members,[51] some of whom were reported to have died as a result of their torture and mistreatment.[52]
Throughout the reporting period, specific Christian communities in China have continued to face persecution. Protestant house-church Christians faced “intensified” persecution, according to USCIRF, as “the government continued its nationwide crackdown on house churches, detaining, arresting, and sentencing independent Protestants on security and criminal charges”.[53]
In March 2023, China Aid reported that authorities arrested staff of the Church of Abundance in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, including pastors Lian Changnian and Lian Xuliang, as well as preacher Fu Juan, and subjected them to torture. Two other Christians, known as Brother Wang and Brother Jia, were also tortured. Wang was subjected to attempts to coerce him to deny his faith and betray the pastors. A year later, on 25 March 2024, the Xi’an Church of Abundance issued a prayer request letter, revealing the latest development in the case involving Pastor Lian Changnian, Pastor Lian Xuliang, and Preacher Fu Juan, who had been charged with “fraud” and could face up to five years in jail.[54]
Authorities arrested Pastor Wang Chanchun of the Bengbu Living Stone Reformed Church in Anhui Province in April 2023, initially accusing him of “illegal business operations” but then changing the charges to “fraud”. Pastor Wang’s wife and four Church workers were also charged with fraud.[55]
In July 2023, authorities prosecuted three leaders — Li Jie, Han Xiaodong and Wang Qiang — of the Linfen Covenant House Church in China’s northern Shanxi Province, accusing them of forming a criminal “clique” and obtaining “illegal income”. According to CSW, Li and Han were held incommunicado and subjected to coercion and abuse, including sleep deprivation, and Church members were pressured to sign statements declaring that they were victims of fraud and pledging that they would not attend the Church in the future.[56]
In August 2023, mainland Chinese Catholic bishops and laity were barred from travelling to Mongolia to join Pope Francis on his visit to the country, although Hong Kong Catholic leaders were permitted to travel to Ulaanbaatar.[57]
In September 2023, a Catholic priest, Fr Joseph Yang Xiaoming, was convicted on charges of “impersonating religious personnel” and obtaining money by fraud, after he refused to register with the state-approved Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA).[58] The court imposed administrative penalties on him, including ordering him to cease practising as a priest.[59]
On 28 September 2023, police raided the largest house church in Beijing, known as Beijing Zion Church, and arrested 31 individuals, two of whom, Huang Duojia and Li Mingjie, were detained for more than 100 hours.[60]
In December 2023, Ding Zhongfu, an elder of the Ganquan house church in Anhui province, was arrested on suspicion of fraud, along with four other senior members of the Church.[61]
According to Aid to the Church in Need, 20 members of the Catholic clergy were arrested in China in 2023.[62]
In January 2024, the Underground Bishop of Wenzhou, Bishop Peter Shao Zhumin, was arrested.[63] Bishop Shao has been detained multiple times, including in January 2023,[64] and was later arrested again in March 2025 for celebrating a Mass for the Church’s Jubilee in December 2024.[65]
In January 2024, a Protestant pastor, Kan Xiaoyong, was sentenced to 14 years in prison for “using a cult organisation to undermine implementation of the law” and engaging in “illegal business activity”.[66]
Nevertheless, some sources report signs of improvement for Christians in China, particularly since the 2018 Provisional Agreement between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China. In November 2024, while returning from Singapore, Pope Francis stated that “the results are good” and noted tangible progress, especially concerning the appointment of bishops, attributing these developments to ongoing goodwill and pragmatic dialogue. According to Fides, a news agency linked to the Vatican Dicastery for Evangelisation, although the agreement has faced criticism from certain quarters, it has facilitated the normalisation of episcopal appointments, integrating previously illicit bishops into full communion with the Vatican. The process is seen as a potential step toward broader improvements in governance and religious freedom for China’s Catholic community.[67]
As the crackdown on civil and political rights in Hong Kong continues, concerns have grown during the reporting period about the implications for religious freedom in the territory. In November 2023, the NGO Hong Kong Watch published the first detailed report on existing and potential threats to religious freedom, entitled Sell Out My Soul: The Impending Threats to Freedom of Religion or Belief in Hong Kong,[68] and in January 2024 the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong published a similar report entitled Hostile Takeover: The CCP and Hong Kong’s Religious Communities.[69] Both reports set out the warning signs, primarily self-censorship by religious leaders in their sermons, surveillance of places of worship and implications for the education system given that 60 percent of Hong Kong’s government-funded schools are run by faith-based organisations.[70]
In 2024, as the new local security law known as Article 23 of the Hong Kong Basic Law — or the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance — was introduced in Hong Kong, in addition to the draconian National Security Law imposed by Beijing in 2020, concerns arose about the potential threats to the sanctity and confidentiality of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, or “Confession”, in the Catholic Church. After a government official appeared unable or unwilling to provide guarantees of protection, 16 international religious freedom experts issued a statement expressing their concerns. The signatories included the President of the International Religious Freedom Secretariat, Nadine Maenza, the Director of Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom, Nina Shea, the President of the Religious Freedom Institute, David Trimble, the Chair of the UK Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) Forum, Mervyn Thomas, and George Weigel, Distinguished Senior Fellow and William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, among others.
The statement said: “As individuals and organisations dedicated to the values of human rights, the rule of law and especially freedom of religion or belief, as set out in Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we express our profound and grave concerns about the implications for the practice of freedom of religion or belief in Hong Kong of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government’s proposed new domestic security law, known as “Article 23” legislation, which was published last week. We are especially profoundly alarmed by the suggestion … that, under the new security law, the crime of ‘failing to disclose the commission of treason by others’ means that if a person knows that another person has committed ‘treason’ but fails to disclose the knowledge to the authorities within a reasonable time, that person is guilty of a crime punishable by up to 14 years in prison. For many religious traditions, and especially for the Catholic Church, the practice of what is known as the Sacrament of Penance (otherwise known as the Sacrament of Reconciliation or ‘Confession’) is a religious act of absolutely pivotal, sacrosanct importance. At the heart of the Sacrament of Penance is the absolutely vital principle of confidentiality. …. For the Catholic Church, what is known as the ‘Seal of Confession’ is exactly that. While a priest might encourage a penitent who has committed a serious crime to confess that crime to the authorities, the priest cannot report it himself and must never be held criminally liable for having heard that confession. To force a priest to reveal what has been said in Confession, against his will and conscience and in total violation of the privacy of the individual confessing, is a total violation of Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and as such is completely unacceptable and must be condemned by people of conscience of all faiths and none throughout the world.”[71]
It is significant that Hong Kong’s most prominent lay Catholic, entrepreneur and pro-democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai, has remained in jail since his arrest in December 2024 and continues to face trial under the National Security Law. It has also been reported that he has been denied the right to receive the Sacrament of Holy Communion since the end of 2023.[72]
It is also significant that since his arrest and trial in 2022, Hong Kong’s Bishop Emeritus, 93-year-old Cardinal Joseph Zen, has maintained a much lower profile, and has avoided speaking out in the way he did previously on issues of democracy, human rights and religious freedom. Although he is not imprisoned, it is reported that he has had to surrender his passport to the authorities and was only permitted by the Hong Kong courts to travel overseas to Rome for five days to attend the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI in January 2023, and to participate in both Pope Francis’s funeral and the pre-conclave General Congregation in Rome in 2025.[73]
The government’s campaign of sinicisation of religion has been applied to all religions, including Christians, Muslims, Buddhists and Taoists, and has intensified in Tibet and Xinjiang.[74] This coercive sinicisation policy has, according to USCIRF, “fundamentally transformed China’s religious environment”. It is designed to achieve “the complete subordination of religious groups to the CCP’s political agenda and Marxist vision”, and is implemented through regulations and state-controlled religious organisations, forcibly eradicating religious elements considered contradictory to the CCP’s agenda.[75] It involves requiring places of worship and religious leaders to display CCP slogans, to incorporate core socialist values and CCP ideology in sermons, to integrate CCP propaganda into religious teachings, and to alter the architecture of places of worship in accordance withthe CCP’s instructions.[76]
Prospects for freedom of religion
Under the current leadership of Xi Jinping and the CCP, the prospects for freedom of religion in China are very bleak. The current leadership appears determined to restrict and control religious freedom, and to persecute those who seek to practisce their religious beliefs outside of the state-controlled religious organisations or independently of the CCP. The crackdown on religious freedom which intensified in recent years is extremely likely to continue.
Sources
China