God ‘laughs At Restrictions,’ Says Missionary In China

American missionary Caleb Rowen has witnessed firsthand China’s tightening restrictions on religious faith and practice.

From 2006 to 2016, government policies prohibiting missionary work did not feel strictly enforced, Rowen said. Cross-organizational outreach, partnerships, and Bible translation projects took shape and flourished in this season.

The Chinese government “just turned a blind eye,” he said, “until they didn’t.”

In 2014, the Chinese government started cracking down on Korean missionaries and went on to expel entire Western mission agencies in 2018. In the same year, it shut down prominent house churches and arrested pastors like Wang Yi of Early Rain Covenant Church. It seemed as if overnight, half the missionaries whom Rowen knew had left China. CT is using a pseudonym for Rowen, as he is concerned about his safety for speaking with Christian media. 

The crackdown on foreign missionaries led Rowen and his wife—also an American—to leave the missions agency OMF International and establish a business as a form of marketplace missions. Then the COVID-19 pandemic dealt another blow to missions efforts in the country: He watched as many remaining missionaries left the country during this time. While many initially had plans to return, he said, they eventually settled back in their home countries or began working in other contexts.

Now, the Chinese government has implemented new restrictions on foreign missionary activity, which kicked in on May 1. Outlined in the National Religious Affairs Administration’s Rules for the Implementation of the Provisions on the Administration of Religious Activities of Aliens Within the Territory of the People’s Republic of China, the restrictions stipulate that foreigners may practice their religions only at legally approved religious venues. Foreigners must also submit written applications to worship collectively at government-approved venues.

The six missionaries CT spoke to said they do not believe the new restrictions will have major impacts on their daily work. They have always operated under the assumption that any interactions with Chinese people that involve religious teaching or sharing are considered illegal, especially as many of these missionaries work with unregistered house churches.

“As long as it remains true that ‘against such things (the fruits of the Spirit) there’s no law,’ my personal belief is that every government on earth desires the kingdom of God, even if they wouldn’t admit it in those terms,” Rowen said.

With the new rules in place, foreigners in China will only be allowed to preach with formal invitations from national or provincial religious groups. They are permitted to bring in a limited amount of religious material for personal use—no more than ten individual publications or no more than three sets of collected works—and are not allowed to distribute materials.

Foreigners can teach at religious institutions only if they are officially employed there, and can study at religious schools only when a recognized Chinese religious organization arranges it. If a foreigner wants to participate in religious exchanges with Chinese religious groups, the interaction must be arranged through national or provincial religious organizations.

The country’s tightening restrictions are a “strict limitation—almost a complete prohibition—on missionary activity,” said Bob Fu, founder of Christian nonprofit ChinaAid.

China first established formal regulations in January 1994 with the release of Decree No. 144 for foreigners engaging in religious activities. The government expanded these restrictions in 2000 by issuing a set of Implementation Rules, which were revised in 2016 and 2020.

The Implementation Rules’s latest updates, published on April 1, incorporated 16 new articles to take effect in May. They intensify the Chinese government’s oversight of foreign religious activity in China and continue President Xi Jinping’s campaign to make religions like Christianity “more Chinese.”

Although most of the measures effective on May 1 are not entirely new, “in both the number and substance of the provisions, [they] represent a significant overhaul,” said Ying Fuk Tsang, honorary senior research fellow at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. 

Notably, the updated restrictions broaden the scope of legal liability to ordinary civil or commercial interactions, such as when landlords rent properties to Christian groups. Doing so may now fall under providing “conditions for illegal religious activities of foreigners within China,” Ying said.

Another restriction outlines a ban on using the internet to conduct “illegal” religious activities. The Chinese government first imposed internet regulations prohibiting religious communication, teaching, and evangelism on March 1, 2022. Now, with the May 1 restrictions, if a pastor conducts online training for Christians in China, he or she could face criminal penalties if caught, Fu said.

The updated restrictions may also affect foreign Christian fellowships in China. If foreigners can only worship at government-sanctioned Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) churches, they will be unable to head international worship gatherings not affiliated with TSPM that currently gather in cities like Beijing and Shanghai, Fu said. To establish international fellowships or preach independently in China, they would have to go through various layers of bureaucracy.

“The so-called laws are just a way to legalize repression,” Fu said. “It would close off the loopholes or incomplete regulations in the past where lawyers were still able to defend people’s rights and formalize and solidify the process.”

Missionaries have always viewed the Chinese government’s policies restricting foreign religious activity as “shrouded in secrecy,” one American missionary said, making it difficult to know what the actual rules are at any given time. “We always just think that we need to be as careful as possible while still doing good work where we can,” she said.

Rowen had not heard about the latest restrictions before CT interviewed him. But he is unfazed by them and does not think they will trigger a major crackdown on foreign missionaries currently living and working in the country.

The new policies will not change his approach to sharing who Jesus is either. Traditional missionary models have not worked for years in China, Rowen says. He and his wife now work as full-time entrepreneurs and view their roles as “scaffolding,” or temporary support and encouragement, for the local Chinese church.

After 20 years of living in the country, Rowen and his family have witnessed the Chinese church’s explosive growth, with and without persecution. They’ve seen how much local believers have grown in boldness and courage.

“We are full to overflowing with hope because we’re swimming in the kingdom of God,” he added. “He laughs at restrictions, and so do we, because we know that no system on earth can keep the lid on this thing—this chain reaction that God initiated with the cross.”

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