Religions that are not permitted to exist in China like the Falun Gong or Jehovah's witnesses are not protected by the constitution. Religious groups that are not registered by the government, like Catholics who are part of an underground church or Protestant house churches, are not protected by the constitution.
The government recognizes five official religions – Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Protestantism, and Catholicism.
This means that if you want to purchase a print Bible in China, the only place you can legally do so is at a Three-Self church or seminary. There was a time when those buying Bibles had to register, but that hasn't been the case for many years.
The People's Republic of China, proclaimed in 1949 under the leadership of Mao Zedong, established a policy of state atheism.
According to sociologists Ariela Keysar and Juhem Navarro-Rivera's review of numerous global studies on atheism, there are 450 to 500 million positive atheists and agnostics worldwide (7% of the world's population) with China alone accounting for 200 million of that demographic.
Beginning in the early nineteenth century, Protestant missionaries attracted small but influential followings, and independent Chinese churches were also established. It is estimated that Christianity is the fastest growing religion in China.
Religious Taoism
Taoism is often taught in the West as an atheist or agnostic philosophy, but in China and Taiwan particularly, Taoism still functions like any conventional religion, and not like an abstract philosophy of life.
China. Jehovah's Witnesses' activities in China are considered illegal. Former Canadian-American Jehovah's Witness missionary Amber Scorah recounted the lengths that she and her husband went through to preach illegally in China in the early 2000s.
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 constitution of the People's Republic of China (PRC), which cites the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), states that citizens “enjoy freedom of religious belief” but limits protections for religious practice to “normal religious activities,” without defining “normal.” The government recognizes five ...
The Bible used by most Chinese Protestants today, known as the Chinese Union Version (CUV), is the vernacular translation. The Revised Chinese Union Version of the Bible, which made tweaks to the original CUV, was completed only a few years ago in 2010, and was consecrated at St John's Cathedral in Hong Kong that year.
Many Chinese Christians choose to attend house churches to practice their faith without government interference. Some house churches, however, submit their activities for government approval in an attempt to follow the law as closely as possible while remaining independent.
Versions. The most commonly used Bible in China is the Union Version, CUV, 和合本. However, this translation uses older language forms and many people who are new to Bible reading find it difficult to understand (a little like English speakers reading the King James Version for the first time).
The Catholic Church is allowed to operate freely in Macau and Hong Kong. In fact, Donald Tsang, the former Chief Executive of Hong Kong, is a Catholic.
However, during the Communist takeover in 1949, Taoism, Confucianism, and other religions were banned. This caused a decline in the practice of Taoism in China. Many modern Taoists live in Taiwan, although recent reforms in China have increased the number of Chinese Taoists.
Russian law technically recognizes Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism as the four “traditional” religions. But, only the Russian Orthodox Church is elevated to the role of representing the ideals and faith of Russia, passed down across untold generations .
Golden Lampstand Church was a Christian church located in Shanxi Province, China. It was one of the country's largest Protestant evangelical churches until Chinese police officers demolished it on January 9, 2018, using heavy machinery and dynamite.
Although the 1982 constitution guarantees freedom of speech, the Chinese government often uses the "subversion of state power" and "protection of state secrets" clauses in their law system to imprison those who criticize the government.
Commonly banned groups
Jehovah's Witnesses were banned in eight countries spanning the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and the Middle East-North Africa region.
Jehovah's Witnesses are one of the most persecuted religious groups in the world and the most persecuted Christian organization in the 20th century. How the Witnesses shape their response to persecution is invariably associated with the social reality they construct in their rhetorical practices.
In 1972 the Government deregistered and banned the Singapore Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses on the grounds that its existence was prejudicial to public welfare and order because its members refuse to perform military service (obligatory for all male citizens), salute the flag, or swear oaths of allegiance to the ...
Taoism does not have a God in the way that the Abrahamic religions do. There is no omnipotent being beyond the cosmos, who created and controls the universe. In Taoism the universe springs from the Tao, and the Tao impersonally guides things on their way.
Early Buddhism was sometimes seen as a kind of foreign relative of Taoism and its scriptures were often translated into Chinese with Taoist vocabulary. Chan Buddhism in particular holds many beliefs in common with philosophical Taoism.
The key book of Taoism was compiled around the 3rd century BCE. It's called the Tao Te Ching (Dao De Jing or Daode Jing) - The Way and Its Power, and is also known as the Lao-tzu.