China pressuring underground Catholics to join state church, report says
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The Chinese government is tightening surveillance and restrictions on an estimated 12 million Catholics while increasing pressure on underground Catholic communities to join the state-controlled church, according to a report by Human Rights Watch.
The group said in its report that the increased crackdown was part of a decade-long campaign to force religious groups to conform to Communist Party ideology.
The Associated Press reported that the Chinese government denied the claim, saying Human Rights Watch had “persistent bias against China.”
Catholics in China have long been divided between a state-run church and an underground church loyal to the Vatican. In 2018, Pope Francis reached an agreement allowing the Chinese government to be given a role in appointing bishops to ease tensions.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks at an international business meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, March 28, 2025. (Ken Ishii/Pool/Getty Images)
“A decade after Xi Jinping’s Sinicization campaign and almost eight years since the 2018 Vatican-China agreement, Catholics in China face increasing pressures that infringe on their religious freedoms,” Human Rights Watch researcher Yalkun Uluyol said in the report. “Pope Leo XIV should urgently review the agreement and pressure Beijing to end the persecution and intimidation of underground churches, clergy and worshipers.”
The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman’s office told The Associated Press that Human Rights Watch “generates all kinds of lies and rumors and lacks any credibility whatsoever.”
The office added that the government “oversees religious affairs in accordance with the law and protects citizens’ religious beliefs and normal religious activities.”
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A man looks at a Catholic church in Zhuozhou, northern China’s Hebei province, on April 22, 2025. In 1951, newly communist China severed ties with the Vatican, forcing Catholics to choose between membership in the state-run Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association or unsanctioned churches loyal to the pope. But under Pope Francis, China and the Vatican signed an agreement in 2018 that gave both Beijing and the Vatican a say in appointing bishops, in an effort to bridge the divide in China’s 12 million-strong Catholic community. (Photo: ADEK BERRY / AFP) / To continue AFP’s Vatican-religion-pope-China story, FOCUS by Mary Yang and Isabel Kua (Photo: ADEK BERRY/AFP via Getty Images) (Adek Berry/AFP)
Human Rights Watch said its researchers were not allowed to enter China and that the report was based on interviews with experts on Catholicism and religious freedom, as well as people outside the country with firsthand knowledge of Catholic life in China.
The 2018 agreement requires Beijing to propose bishop candidates, which the pope can veto, but the full text has never been made public.
In June 2025, the new pope, Pope Leo XIV, appointed a Chinese bishop under the 2018 agreement and said he would continue to abide by the agreement “in the short term”.
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“I am also in dialogue with many people from China regarding some issues on both sides,” Leo said. “This is a very difficult situation. I’m going to do this in the long run and I’m not saying I won’t do it, but two months later I’ve already started discussions on this issue at various levels.”
Since 2018, Chinese authorities have been pressuring underground Catholics to join the state church through detentions, disappearances and house arrests, Human Rights Watch says, citing accounts from unnamed people who have left China.
The report also noted that China has tightened ideological control, oversight and restrictions on religious activities and foreign ties, including requiring state approval for clergy travel, and has officially recognized and closely supervised five religions: Buddhism, Taoism, Catholicism, Protestantism and Islam.
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Xi Jinping said in 2016 that he would “Sinicize” the country’s religions, a policy aimed at aligning religious practices with Communist Party ideology.
Human Rights Watch said authorities took extensive steps to disrupt religious practices, including demolishing churches and crosses, preventing gatherings in unregistered churches and confiscating religious materials not approved by the state.
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The broader “Sinicization” campaign has also led to an intensified crackdown on Tibetan Buddhists and Muslims, the group said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
